Munich, Germany - Gameday 28 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) saw the top two teams, Berlin and Frankfurt, lose on the road Sunday. While the third-place Mannheim Adler continued their roll, the slumping Hamburg Freezers could not stop their free fall.

Hungry Ice Tigers down Eisbären

Robert Tomik scored a pair of goals and an assist as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers bounced back from Friday’s loss in Frankfurt with a 5-3 (0-1, 2-0, 3-1) home victory over the first-place Berlin Eisbären. The visiting Eisbären dominated the opening period, outshooting Nuremberg 12-4. They took a 1-0 lead 9:03 into the contest when Denis Pederson redirected a feed from Sven Felki past Tigers netminder Alfie Michaud. The momentum shifted after an elbowing major to Berlin’s Alexander Barta. The Ice Tigers cashed in on the ensuing five-minute power-play. Eisbären goalie Oliver Jonas mishandled the puck behind his net and Guy Lehoux fed it to Martin Jiranek who knocked it into the wide-open net to tie the score at 1-1 2:20 into the middle frame. Another Eisbären mistake led to Nuremberg’s go-ahead goal at 13:22 of the second. After a bad line change, Konstantin Firsanov beat Jonas on the breakaway to make it 2-1.

Berlin’s Florian Keller put the puck through Michaud’s five-hole to knot the score at 2-2 early in the second. But Nuremberg reclaimed the lead just 49 seconds later when Robert Tomik blasted home a mighty shot from the high left slot at 3:01 of the third. The Tigers doubled the lead to 4-2 on a goal from Vitalij Aab at 7:16. Tomik’s second goal of the night put the game out of reach midway through the period. Pederson added a consolation goal for the Eisbären in the waning minutes, his second tally of the night.

Rogles gets 3rd shutout as Haie drown Lions

Brad Schlegel, Mirko Lüdemann and Dave McLlwain all had multiple point games as the Kölner Haie skated to their highest win of the season, blanking the second-place Frankfurt Lions 5-0 (1-0, 1-0, 3-0). Chris Rogles stopped 31 shots for his third shutout of the season. Schlegel opened the scoring on an early two-man advantage, ripping a low slapshot past Lions goalie Ian Gordon. The Haie doubled the lead on another power-play tally from Jeremy Adduono. Third-period tallies from Steve Palmer, Lüdemann and Eduard Lewandowski sealed the win.

Free fallin’ Freezers lose game and starting goalie

The DEG Metro Stars bounced back well from Friday’s 6-0 home loss against Iserlohn. Pat Mikesch scored the eventual game-winner on the power-play as Düsseldorf edged the slumping Hamburg Freezers on the road, 2-1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1). Hamburg has lost 8 of its last 9 games. Johan Molin took an outlet pass from Gerhard Unterluggauer and beat Boris Rousson on the breakaway to put the DEG Metro Stars up 1-0 only 2:14 into the opening period. A groin strain forced Rousson out of the game early in the second. He was replaced by backup netminder Christian Künast.

With the game on the line early in the third, Hamburg hurt itself with a bench minor for too many men on the ice. A deflected shot by Mikesch from the left faceoff circle found its way past Künast to give the Metro Stars a two-goal lead at 2:57 of the third. The Freezers finally found a way to beat DEG netminder Andrej Trefilov when Mark Greig buried the puck from the slot after a terrible turnover by defender Bernd Kühnhauser. The goal at 6:39 couldn’t spark a comeback, though.

Mannheim beats Augsburg, Corbet strikes three times

Rene Corbet led the way with a hat trick as the third-place Mannheim Adler cruised to their sixth straight win, a 6-3 (4-1, 2-1, 0-1) home victory over the Augsburger Panther. Corbet opened the scoring on the game’s first-power-play 1:46 into the tilt. Ronny Arendt, who had two goals on the night, tied the score at the 7:01-mark. But Mannheim added three more goals (Andy Roach, Corbet/pp, Mike Kennedy) to take a commanding 4-1 lead at the first intermission. Tomas Martinec also tallied for the Adler, defenseman John Miner had a power-play goal for Augsburg.

Hanover gets 2nd straight win, spoils debut of new Krefeld coach

The arrival of new head coach Harald Vasiljevs, who replaced championship coach Butch Goring, couldn’t spark the struggling Krefeld Pinguine, who lost 3-2 (1-0, 0-2, 2-0) to the Hannover Scorpions. Patrick Augusta and Zdenek Nedved both tallied a goal and a pair of assists as Hanover rallied from a 2-1 deficit to record its second straight win after dropping 11 games in a row. Youngster Christian Rohde, who made his second appearance of the season in the Scorpions net, turned aside 27 shots.

Freiburg drops 16th straight - only two losses shy of DEL record

Defenseman Jakub Ficenec scored a goal and an assist as ERC Ingolstadt handed expansion team Freiburg Wölfe their 16th straight loss. Sean Tallaire (short-handed) and Craig Ferguson also tallied for Ingolstadt. Bastian Steingross scored Freiburg’s only goal on a two-man advantage.