Munich, Germany - Behind a hat trick from league-leading scorer Pat Lebeau, the Frankfurt Lions lit up the scoreboard at Freiburg’s Franz-Siegel Arena and claimed sole possession of first place in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) Friday. The Lions were helped by a sloppy performance from the Berlin Eisbären, who couldn’t down the Iserlohn Roosters in 60 minutes and dropped to second place.

Lebeau leads Lions to rout over Freiburg

After holding the lead twice early on, the last-place Freiburg Wölfe allowed seven unanswered goals as they were routed 9-2 (3-2, 4-0, 2-0) by the buzzing Frankfurt Lions on Thursday. Pat Lebeau, who leads the league in scoring with 51 points in 37 games, led the way with three tallies.

Petr Mares scored twice early on to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead just 5:45 into the contest. But the momentum started to turn when Lebeau converted a penalty shot to tie the score midway through the first. Defender Peter Ratchuk’s short-handed tally gave the Lions a 3-2 lead heading into the first intermission. He skated into the Freiburg zone and ripped a low shot from left faceoff circle past netminder Hugo Haas.

Just 46 seconds into the middle stanza, Paul Stanton found Lebeau wide-open near the right goal post to double Frankfurt’s lead 4-2. That opened the floodgates for the Lions who added three more goals in the second and two tallies in the final frame.

Berlin rallies, beats Iserlohn after shootout

Yvon Corriveau converted the game-winning penalty shot as the Berlin Eisbären rallied from a 2-0 second-period deficit to down the Iserlohn Roosters at home, 3-2 (0-1, 0-1, 2-0, 1-0) after shootout, the third OT decision in three meetings between these two teams this season.

Matt Higgins knocked home his own rebound on the power-play to put Iserlohn up 1-0 late in the first. The Roosters made it 2-0 when Bryan Adams converted the rebound of Scott King’s shot at 11:57 of the second. Berlin fought back in the final stanza. Alexander Barta forced a turnover in the Roosters’ zone and got the puck to defenseman Micki DuPont who completed a give-and-go with Sven Felski to cut the lead in half seven minutes into period three. With momentum on their side after killing off a 90-second 5-on-3 power-play, the Eisbären tied the game when Ricard Persson found Steve Walker wide open after Denis Pederson’s face-off win with 5:30 left in regulation.

Freezers ice Tigers

Defenseman Darren Van Impe recorded three assists as the third-place Hamburg Freezers skated to their eight win in nine games, beating the Nürnberg Ice Tigers 6-3 (2-0, 3-0, 1-2) on home ice. A power-play goal by Mark Greig gave Hamburg a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. The Freezers added three more goals in the middle frame, including Bobby House’s game-winner at the 9:57-mark, to put the game out of reach at 5-1 after two periods.

Elsewhere...

Trond Magnussen had two goals and an assist as the DEG Metro Stars knocked ERC Ingolstadt out of the final playoff spot with a 4-1 (0-0, 1-0, 3-1) home win. Coming back from a groin injury, Marcus Thuresson also notched a goal for Düsseldorf.

Recently-signed defenseman Marc Savard scored a goal and an assist as the sixth-place Augsburger Panther ended a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 (1-1, 2-0, 1-0) home victory over the Krefeld Pinguine. Duanne Moeser scored the eventual game-winner at 8:40 of the second period, the only power-play game of the night.

Coming off a 3-0 win over Hamburg, the Hannover Scorpions looked hungry again. They squandered a 3-1 lead but managed to edge out the Mannheim Adler after penalty shootout. Rob Busch converted the game-winning attempt as Hanover won 4-3 (3-1, 1-2, 0-1, 1-0) on the road.

Chris Rogles made 29 stops for his fourth shutout of the season as the Kölner Haie blanked the Kassel Huskies on the road, 1-0 (0-0, 1-0, 0-0). Adduono scored the only goal of the night, re-directing a point shot from Jeff Dessner past Joaquin Gage at 3:10 of the second period.