Munich, Germany - After a long drought, the Hannover Scorpions finally had reason to celebrate Friday night. They ended an 11-game winless streak with a shutout win over the Kassel Huskies. Elsewhere in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the DEG Metro Stars got thrashed on home ice by the Iserlohn Roosters. The battle between the first-place Berlin Eisbären and the Hamburg Freezers was decided by a late short-handed goal.

Swedish duo Edvyn Frylen and Fredrik Öberg provided the scoring and Ilpo Kauhanen turned aside 31 shots for his first shutout of the season as the Hannover Scorpions blanked the Kassel Huskies on the road, 2-0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0).

Hackert tallies four points as Frankfurt crushes Nuremberg

Jesse Belanger scored a pair of goals and Michael Hackert turned in a four-point night as the Frankfurt Lions routed the Nürnberg Ice Tigers on home ice, 6-3 (3-0, 2-1, 1-2).
The Lions became the first team to reach the 100-goal-mark when Martin Reichel made it 1-0 on the first power-play of the game, just 150 seconds into the contest. They doubled the lead two minutes later when Michael Hackert backhanded home the rebound of a Peter Ratchuk blueline blast. With under four minutes to go in the opening frame, Pat Lebeau skated the puck into the Tigers zone, fooled four opponents with a nifty spin-o-rama and found Jesse Belanger on the doorstep to make it 3-0 just seconds after killing off a penalty. Jason Young knocked home the rebound of a Hackert shot to extend the Lions lead to 4-0 early in the second. Defenseman Stephane Julien put the Ice Tigers on the scoreboard with a shot from the deep slot, but Frankfurt regained a four-goal lead when Ratchuk rifled a shot from the left point past Tigers goalie Frederic Chabot on the man advantage halfway through the second period. Nuremberg pulled to within two on tallies from Robert Tomik and Konstantin Firsanov (on the breakaway) before Belanger capped the scoring at 6-3 with an empty-netter, his second goal of the night.

Augsburg edges Cologne after shootout

Shawn Carter converted the game-winning shot as the Augsburger Panther downed the Kölner Haie 4-3 (2-1, 0-1, 1-1, 1-0) after penalty shootout. The visiting Haie got on the scoreboard first when Ron Pasco scored 3:21 into the tilt. Augsburg responded with back-to-back power-play tallies to take a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. First, Bob Wren’s feed from behind the net found Xavier Delisle on the doorstep. Then Rick Girard ripped a screened shot past Haie goalie Chris Rogles. Cologne evened the score at two apiece on a power-play goal from Jean-Yves Roy with only 12 seconds left in the middle frame. The Panther reclaimed the lead 5:42 into the final stanza when Björn Barta tucked home the rebound of a backhanded shot by Ronny Arendt. However the Haie needed only 29 seconds to respond. Jeremy Adduono went top-shelf on Panther goalie Magnus Eriksson to send the contest into the shootout decision.

Iserlohn shocks Düsseldorf

Franz Fritzmeier tallied three assists as the Iserlohn Roosters shocked the DEG Metro Stars at Düsseldorf’s Brehmstrasse Arena, 6-0 (0-0, 4-0, 2-0). Michael Fountain stopped 30 shots for his second shutout of the season. After a scoreless first, Iserlohn took control of the game with four second-period scores. Chris Bartolone ripped a slapshot through Andrej Trefilov’s five-hole on the power –play 3:07 into the middle frame. Robby Sandrock went top-shelf to double the lead just 53 seconds later. Düsseldorf fought back hard, but Iserlohn struck again. Collin Danielsmeier, who was signed from the Kölner Haie last week, and Jason Cipolla extended the Rooster lead to 4-0 at the second intermission. Roland Verwey and Matt Higgins added goals in the third.

Berlin wins on Robert’s late short-hander

David Roberts scored a short-hander with 3:43 to go and Keith Aldridge added an empty-net goal to lift the Berlin Eisbären to a 4-2 (1-0, 1-1, 2-1) home win over the Hamburg Freezers. Roberts had two goals on the night, Aldridge (1G, 1A), Rob Shearer (2A) and Kelly Fairchild (2A) also had multiple-point games. With Berlin up 2-1 late in the game, youngster Jens Baxmann received a five-minute major plus game misconduct after injuring Hamburg’s Kent Fearns with a high stick. The Freezers cashed in on the ensuing power-play. Brad Purdie tied the game at two apiece with 6:19 left in regulation. But Hamburg failed to take further advantage. Even worse for the Freezers: Roberts scored the game-winner on a short-handed odd-man rush.

Mannheim’s run continues

Derek Plante scored the go-ahead goal 3:19 into the second period and Mike Kennedy added an empty-netter as the Mannheim Adler skated to a 3-1 (1-0, 1-1, 1-0) road win over the last-place Freiburg Wölfe, who suffered their 15th loss in a row. Mannheim has won six of its last seven games. Mannheim’s Christoph Ullmann had opened the scoring late in the first. Dany Bousquet scored Freiburg’s only goal.