Munich, Germany - Czech Tomas Dolak stepped down as head coach of the Freiburg Wölfe after the expansion team tied a DEL record for consecutive losses Sunday night. The first-place Berlin Eisbären made sure that Freiburg didn’t even come close to missing the mark, putting on an 8-1 rout. ERC Ingolstadt also conceded eight goals and had its six-game win streak ended by the Hannover Scorpions.

Berlin lights up scoreboard, hands Freiburg 18th straight loss

Freiburg’s 18th straight loss ties a mark set by the Schwenninger Wild Wings last year. Tomas Dolak decided to step down from his head coaching position, but will remain with the organisation as director of player personnel. Assistant Horst Valasek was named interim head coach.

After falling behind 1-0, the first-place Berlin Eisbären scored eight unanswered goals, including six power-play tallies to rout the Freiburg Wölfe 8-1 (2-1, 4-0, 2-0). Steve Walker (1G, 4A), Mark Beaufait (2G, 2A), Kelly Fairchild (2G, 1A), Rob Shearer (3A), Florian Keller (1G, 2A) and defenseman Micki DuPont (2A) had multiple point games. Freiburg’s sole goal was scored by Jiri Zelenka on a power-play opportunity midway through the opening frame.

Hamburg edges Augsburg

Brad Purdie scored at 7:27 of the third and Andy Schneider added an empty-netter as the Hamburg Freezers held on for a 4-2 (1-2, 1-0, 2-0) home win over the Augsburg Panther after squandering an early two-goal lead. Stefan Schröder scored his first career DEL goal when his soft backhand shot trickled through the legs of Panther netminder Magnus Eriksson less than two minutes into the tilt. Initially on a 3-on-2 rush, Dave Tomlinsson hit the brakes and passed the puck to trailing defenseman Dan Lambert who beat Eriksson from the left slot with a low wrist shot to the glove side to double Hamburg’s lead to 2-0 midway through the middle frame. Then an apparent goal from Augsburg’s Bob Wren was taken off the scoreboards when the one-angle video review did not give referee Roland Aumüller enough evidence to overturn his initial call while TV replays revealed that the puck had clearly crossed the goal line.

Helped by Hamburg’s lack of discipline, the Panther managed to get back into the game anyway on back-to-back power-play goals. Obviously trying to hit the skate of defenseman Paul Manning, Wren centered the puck from the near left slot. Off Boris Rousson's pad, it bounced right to Shawn Carter who tucked it home from the opposite post to cut Hamburg’s lead to 2-1. Just 11 seconds into a 5-on-3 advantage, a pass from Wren found Xavier Delisle wide open at the left post for the 2-2 equalizer. Augsburg slowed it down a little in the final frame and allowed the Freezers to regain momentum. Brad Purdie buried Schneider's feed from behind the net to give Hamburg a 3-2 lead. The Panther came close to tying the contest again when a shot from Delisle rang off the right post, but Hamburg protected the lead and sealed the win with Schneider’s empty-net score just over a minute from the final horn.

Hanover’s scoring fest ends Ingolstadt’s streak, Nuremberg downs Cologne

The Hannover Scorpions jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back, thrashing ERC Ingolstadt at home 8-4 (1-0, 4-2, 3-2). Edvyn Frylen and Patrik Augusta both tallied a pair of goals and an assist. Swedish duo Matthias Lööf and Fredrik Öberg had three assists each. Hanover was 4 out of 7 on the power-play and also had a short-handed tally from Frylen.

The Nürnberg Ice Tigers squandered a 2-0 lead but came back to beat the Kölner Haie after penalty shootout, 3-2 (2-1, 0-0, 0-1, 1-0). Nuremberg was up by two after power-play goals from defender Stephane Julien and Thomas Greilinger. Jean-Yves Roy also tallied on the man advantage to put Cologne on the scoreboard with less than 30 seconds to go in the opening period. It was Roy again who forced the shootout with his game-tying goal at 15:04 of the third. Martin Jiranek converted the game-winning attempt for the Tigers.

Victories for Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Mannheim

Marcus Thuresson led the scoring with a goal and two assists as the DEG Metro Stars crushed the visiting Krefeld Pinguine 6-3 (3-0, 2-1, 1-2).

Dwayne Norris had a goal and an assist as the Frankfurt Lions held on for a 2-1 (2-0, 0-1, 0-0) road win over the Iserlohn Roosters. Francois Bouchard’s goal at 7:30 of the opening frame turned out to be the game-winner. Bouchard later had to be taken to a nearby hospital after getting smashed into the boards by Iserlohn’s James Black.

Robert Hock and defender Sascha Goc each scored two points as the Mannheim Adler bounced back from a first-period deficit and skated past the Kassel Huskies on home ice, 4-1 (1-1, 2-0, 1-0).