Munich, Germany - Boris Rousson put on a goaltending clinic to backstop the Hamburg Freezers to a Game 2 win and 2-0 series lead over the Mannheim Adler Friday. Frankfurt’s Ian Gordon also kept the door shut as the Lions evened their first-round series with the Kölner Haie. Elsewhere in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) Playoffs, Berlin and Nuremberg recorded road wins to go up 2-0 in their respective first-round series.

Hamburg blanks Mannheim

Rousson made 34 saves for his first shutout of the postseason and his eight of the year as the 3rd-seeded Hamburg Freezers blanked the 6th-seeded Mannheim Adler 1-0 (0-0, 1-0, 0-0). With 5,900 on hand at Mannheim’s Friedrichspark Arena, Mark Greig scored the only goal of the night. He tucked home the rebound of Brad Purdie’s shot on an odd-man rush at 13:17 of the middle frame. The “Eagles” had their opportunities, but couldn’t find a way to get the puck past Rousson. They went 0 for 10 on the man advantage, including a 59-second 5-on-3 in the second period. Hamburg has a 2-0 lead in the series.

Frankfurt shuts out Cologne

Gordon also registered his first playoff shutout. He turned aside 27 shots for his fourth shuotout of the year as the 5th-seeded Frankfurt Lions edged the 4th-seeded Kölner Haie 1-0 (1-0, 0-0, 0-0). Backed by a capacity crowd of 6,600 at Frankfurt’s Eissporthalle, Michael Hackert notched the only goal of the game early in the opening frame. On the power-play, Jason Young centered the puck from behind the net and Hackert rifled a one-timer from the left slot past Chris Rogles. The series is tied at 1-1.

Berlin wins in OT

The 8th-seeded DEG Metro Stars managed to take the top-seeded Berlin Eisbären to overtime, but hurt themselves with a stupid penalty. Düsseldorf was called for too many men on the ice and Ricard Persson scored on the ensuing power-play at 14:02 of the first overtime period to lift Berlin to a 4-3 (2-1, 0-1, 1-1, 1-0) road win.

Persson deflected a shot from Kelly Fairchild past DEG netminder Andrje Trefilov to end a see-saw game in front of 7,557 spectators at Düsseldorf’s Brehmstrasse Arena, giving Berlin a 2-0 series lead.

The “Polar Bears” went up 3-2 on a power-play goal by defenseman Keith Aldridge 32 seconds into the final frame. But the Stars responded with a power-play goal of their own. Tore Vikingstad tallied with 8:37 left to send the contest into OT. Mark Beaufait and Kelly Fairchild also scored for Berlin, Johan Molin and Jeff Tory (5-on-3 pp) for Düsseldorf.

Leeb leads Nuremberg over Ingolstadt

Greg Leeb tallied two goals, including the game-winner at 11:52 of the second period, to lead the 2nd-seeded Nürnberg Ice Tigers to a 5-2 (1-0, 2-1, 2-1) road victory over 7th-seeded ERC Ingolstadt. Nuremberg leads the series 2-0.

With 4,681 in attendance at Ingolstadt’s Saturn Arena, Nuremberg drew first blood on a power-play goal from defenseman Lasse Kopitz late in the first. Ingolstadt responded, tying the score at one apiece on a mighty point blast from defender Jakub Ficenec 1:25 into the middle stanza. The Ice Tigers then broke the game open with a pair of second-period goals. Thomas Greilinger went top-shelf from the left slot on the power-play to make it 2-1 at 4:43 of the second. Seven minutes later, a blueline blast from Greilinger rang off the crossbar and Leeb knocked the puck into the wide-open net for a 3-1 lead. A power-play goal from Glen Goodall gave Ingolstadt hope early in the second, but Leeb put the game out of reach at 4-2 with a breakaway goal with 9:21 to go. Robert Tomik sealed the 5-2 win with an empty-netter.

Freiburg evens “Playdown” series

Vadim Slivchenko and Dany Bousquet led the way with two goals and two assists each as the Freiburg Wölfe evened the best-of-seven relegation series against the Hannover Scorpions at 1-1 with a 6-2 (2-1, 1-0, 3-1) home win in front of 4,148 at Freiburg’s Franz-Siegel Arena.