The sell-out crowd of 7,000 at Frankfurt's Eissporthalle saw a game that went back and forth for three periods. David Gosselin scored on the power-play with 2:08 left and Dwayne Norris added an empty-netter in the waning seconds to clinch the game for the Lions, 7-5 (3-2, 1-2, 3-1), who tied the best-of-five series at 2-2.
Young led the Lions in scoring with two goals and two assists. David Gosselin (1G, 2A) and defenders Francois Bouchard (3A), Paul Stanton (1G, 1A), Mikael Magnusson (2A) also had multiple-point nights. Greg was the leading scorer for the Freezers with a hat tick and one assist. Brad Purdie and defenseman Dan Lambert each had three assists, Darren Van Impe tallied a goal and a helper. Frankfurt's goalie Ian Gordon stopped 21 of the 26 shots he saw, Hamburg's Boris Rousson registered 25 saves on 31 shots. Frankfurt was 3 for 8 on the power-play while Hamburg went 3-for-7.
A terrible mistake by Freezers netminder Boris Rousson led to Frankfurt’s go-ahead goal 2:32 into the tilt. Playing a man short, the Lions cleared the puck down the ice. Rousson came out of his net and tried to pass it straight down the middle. His pass was intercepted by Jason Young who knocked the puck into the wide-open net to put the Lions up 1-0. Hamburg responded right away. Still up a man, Darren Van Impe ripped a blast from the right point past Lions goaltender Ian Gordon to tie the game at 1-1 at 3:00.
The Lions also cashed in on their first power-play opportunity. Another awkward goal put them back into the lead at 6:50. A shot by Paul Stanton from the right point hit the crossbar, the puck bounced up in the air and landed behind Rousson who accidentally pushed it across the goal line with the back of his left leg. The Freezers evened the score at 2-2 with under two minutes to go in the opening stanza when Mark Greig scored on a low shot from the slot after a feed from Brad Purdie. The Lions responded less than half a minute later. Michael Hackert re-directed a right point shot from Mikael Magnusson over Rousson’s stick-side shoulder to put Frankfurt up 3-2 at the first intermission.
The Hamburg Freezers evened the score at 3-3 just 91 seconds into the middle frame with their second power-play goal of the night. Greig took a behind-the-net feed from Purdie and wristed a shot past Gordon’s glove hand. The Lions answered with a power-play tally of their own. Just two minutes later, Pat Lebeau lifted the rebound of Francois Bouchard’s point shot under the crossbar to reclaim a 4-3 lead. Frankfurt kept pressing, but gave up a shorthanded goal. With the Lions on the power-play, Peter Ratchuk fanned on the puck at the Hamburg blueline. It rolled down the ice and goalie Gordon hesitated and stayed in his net. Dave Tomlinsson outskated Ratchuk and Paul Stanton, took the puck between the hashmarks and pushed a shot through Gordon’s five-hole to tie the contest at 4-4 at 11:46 of the second period.
Frankfurt went up 5-4 when Jason Young scored from the doorstep after a pass by David Gosselin from behind-the-net 6:51 into the final stanza. The Freezers knotted the score at 5-5 when blueliner Dan Lambert found Greig near the goal post on the power-play with just over six minutes left. Hamburg seemed to have the momentum going its way, but failed to take advantage of another power-play opportunity on an obstruction call to Frankfurt's Dwayne Norris. With just over three minutes remaining, the Lions got a late power play opportunity of their own when Hamburg was assessed a bench minor for having too many men on the ice. Gosselin deflected a shot from Young with his skate for the eventual game-winner at 17:52 of the third. Dwayne Norris sealed the 7-5 win with an empty-netter 30 seconds before the final buzzer.
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