Munich, Germany - Although they didn’t have time to practice together, the arrival of new head coach Bill Stewart had a positive effect on the slumping Krefeld Pinguine who picked up just their second win in 2004 Sunday. Elsewhere on gameday 42 in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Stewart’s former team, the Mannheim Adler, came out on the losing end of a heated battle with the Frankfurt Lions. Red-hot ERC Ingolstadt recorded its tenth straight home win and made a big jump in the standings.

Norris strikes twice as Eagles fall prey to the Lions

Dwayne Norris scored a pair of goals as the Frankfurt Lions jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on for a 4-2 (2-0, 2-1, 0-1) win over the Mannheim Adler, handing the Eagles their third loss in the fourth game under new head coach Helmut de Raaf. The heated game was marred by fights and penalties, a total of 122 penalty minutes was issued.

Norris opened the scoring on the man advantage 8:31 into the contest. A point shot by Francois Bouchard bounced off Richard Shulmistra’s chest and Norris picked up the loose puck and hammered it under the crossbar. The Lions doubled their lead to 2-0 on another power-play tally with less than five minutes to go in the opening frame when Pat Lebeau re-directed a feed by defenseman Paul Stanton through Shulmistra’s five-hole. Frankfurt took a 3-0 lead when Michael Hackert scored on the breakaway after a great off-the-board-feed from Christian Kohmann at 13:31 of the second period. Mannheim then got on the boards with a breakaway goal of their own. Devin Edgerton went top-shelf on Ian Gordon to cut the lead to 3-1 on the man advantage with 3:37 to go in the middle stanza. Frankfurt regained a three-goal lead when Norris netted his second power-play tally just 89 seconds later. Mannheim managed to find the back of the net one more time. Rene Corbet’s power-play goal capped the scoring 3:42 before the final buzzer.

Stewart comes in, Penguins rediscover winning ways

Bill Stewart, who parted ways with the Adler two weeks ago, made a quick comeback to the DEL coaching ranks when he was hired by the slumping Krefeld Pinguine Saturday. The new head coach’s arrival seemed to cause immediate impact as the Penguins ended a six-game losing skid with an inspired 3-2 (1-1, 1-0, 1-1) home win over the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. A breakaway goal from Pascal Appel gave Krefeld a 2-1 lead midway through the second period. Marc Beaucage rifled home a feed from Shayne Wright to put the game away at 3-1 with 5:37 to go in the third.

Ficenec nets pair of goals, Ingolstadt makes huge jump

ERC Ingolstadt extended its winning streak to five games and made a huge jump in the standings, improving to 5th place with a 5-1 (2-0, 1-1, 2-0) home win over the Iserlohn Roosters. Jakub Ficenec notched a pair of power-play goals, fellow-defenseman Ken Sutton had a goal and two assists.

Fairchild’s goal the difference in Augsburg

The Berlin Eisbären head into the All-Star break on a high note. Defenseman Ricard Persson scored two power-play goals from the slot as the Polar Bears edged out the Augsburger Panther 3-2 (2-1, 0-1, 1-0) on the road, picking up their fourth straight win. Kelly Fairchild’s power-play goal at 4:39 of the final stanza broke a 2-2 tie. Off Alex Barta’s face-off win, Fairchild launched a wrister from the point that beat screened netminder Magnus Eriksson. Augsburg’s goals from Manuel Kofler and Duanne Moeser were also scored on the man advantage.

Freiburg downs Hamburg after late rally

Olivier Coqueux tallied two goals and an assist as the last-place Freiburg Wölfe came from behind to down the Hamburg Freezers, 5-4 (2-1, 1-3, 1-0, 1-0) after penalty shootout. Sergej Stas converted the game-winning penalty shot. Coqueux’s game-tying goal came with only 52 ticks left on the game clock. A shot from newly signed defenseman Daniel Willaschek bounced off Freezers netminder Boris Rousson, hit Coqueux skate and ricocheted into the net for the 4-4 equalizer.

Jung, Düsseldorf blank Kassel

Kassel suffered its fifth loss in the last six games. Alexander Jung stopped 22 shots for his second shutout and Daniel Kreutzer scored a pair of goals as the DEG Metro Stars blanked the Kassel Huskies 4-0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0) on the road.