Munich, Germany - The Munich Barons bounced back well from their embarrassing 0-5 road loss at Nuremberg last Sunday. Behind two goals from captain Simon Wheeldon and two-point performances by Peter Douris, Johan Rosen and Andy Schneider, the Barons shocked league leaders Augsburg 5-3 on the road.

With 26 points out of 13 games, Augsburg held on to the league’s top spot, though. Munich is two points behind. The Barons are in a second-place tie with Adler Mannheim, who got routed at home, 0-5, by the thriving Nuremberg Ice Tigers. Trailing Augsburg by three are the Krefeld Pinguine at four. Nuremberg and Cologne are tied fifth with 22 points each.

Home team off to good start

In a heated derby, Augsburg drew first blood with just over six minutes to go in the first. The so-called “Atomic line”, Russian duo Sergej Vostrikov and Igor Maslennikov, teamed up to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead on the powerplay. Barons goalie Boris Rousson was able to turn aside a point shot by Vostrikov, but Maslennikov scored on the rebound.

David Oliver wasted Munich’s biggest opportunity when he had Panthers goalie Magnus Eriksson already beaten with a nice deke. But instead of knocking the puck into the wide-open net, he hit the post.

Four unanswered goals: Munich jumps out to 4-1 lead

Munich got a big motivational boost, however, when captain Simon Wheeldon tied the game at one apiece out of traffic with only 31 seconds left in the first twenty minutes.

Augsburg started out the second period pretty well but failed to capitalize. It was the Barons who came up with the 2-1 lead. Clearing the puck out of his own zone, Derek King sent Derek Plante and Peter Douris on an odd-man rush. Plante sped along the left boards, centered the puck and Douris outwaited Magnussen.

A diving Simon Wheeldon doubled the lead to 3-1 only two minutes later.

Emotions running wild

Midway through the second, play had to be interrupted for a couple of minutes when Munich’s Christoph Schubert and Augsburg’s Robert Guillet decided to settle a dispute with heavy fisticuffs. Both were ejected afterwards.

The Barons kept the pace high, though and extended their lead to three at 34:24. Nobody attacked Peter Douris behind the Augsburg net. So he took his time and waited for the approaching Patrick Köppchen who knocked the puck past Eriksson while falling to the ground.

Abstreiter: Treat of the day

The Panthers denied to go down, though, and youngsters Erik Dylla and Andreas Morczinietz brought their team back to within two less than a minute later, 2-4.

The goal of the day came from thriving Barons youngster Peter Abstreiter. 3:15 into the fial period, he cut right through two defenders with a terrific move, pulled to the net and, already sliding, managed to tuck the puck in to put Munich up 5-2.

Augsburg’s Quinn Hancock closed the gap to two on a nice solo effort, but 5-3 was as close as the Panthers could get.

With half a minute to go, the Barons were awarded a penalty shot when the referees found out that Panthers goalie Eriksson had placed his goalie stick in front of his abandoned net before being pulled for a sixth attacker. David Oliver’s attempt was denied, though.