Munich, Germany - All four top seeds opened the 2004 DEL Playoffs with victories Wednesday. Three of the four games were decided by two goals or less.

Steve Walker led the way with two goals and an assist as the top-seeded Berlin Eisbären rallied back from a two-goal deficit to beat the eighth-seeded DEG Metro Stars 5-3 and take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven quarterfinal series. After a scoreless 20-minute overtime period, the second-seeded Nürnberg Ice Tigers edged out seventh-seeded ERC Ingolstadt 2-1 after shootout. The most lopsided game of the night took place in Hamburg where the third-seeded Freezers skated past the sixth-seeded Mannheim Adler 5-2 (2-0, 1-1, 2-1). Bobby House, Andy Schneider and Dave Tomlinson each had three points on the night. The Kölner Haie, who entered the playoffs as the fourth seed, took a 2-0 lead on second-period goals by Jeremy Adduono and Mirko Lüdemann and held on for a close 2-1 win over the fifth-seeded Frankfurt Lions.

After six rounds of shootout, Steve Larouche marked the game-winning goal to lift the second-seeded Nürnberg Ice Tigers to a 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0) home win over seventh-seeded ERC Ingolstadt. The 5,238 spectators at Arena Nürnberg saw a battle of two defensive-minded teams. Nuremberg took an early lead when Larouche scored on the power-play only 84 seconds into the tilt. Brad Burym knotted the score at one apiece, tucking home Mike Stevens’ feed from behind the net at 3:36 of the middle frame. Although the Tigers picked up the pace in the third period and the 20-minute overtime stanza, there was no further scoring.