Munich, Germany - The Nürnberg Ice Tigers knocked off regional rival and league-leader ERC Ingolstadt Sunday and moved into first place in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Gameday 6 also saw Hamburg's league-leading four-game win streak come to an end at the hands of the soaring Mannheim Adler (="Eagles"). Defending champion Frankfurt Lions snapped its losing streak with an impressive offensive outburst while the Berlin Eisbären needed a lucky bounce to cap a crazy comeback win.

Ice Tigers get third straight win

Power-play efficiency once again was a key factor as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers handed ERC Ingolstadt its first regulation loss, winning 4-1 (1-0, 1-0, 2-1) at Ingolstadt's Saturn Arena. Ingolstadt went 0 for 6 while Nuremberg scored on 3 of its 10 man advantages, upping its league-leading total to 15 power-play goals in 6 games. Yan Stastny, coming off a four-point night on Friday, and Brad Tapper led Nuremberg in scoring, each recording a goal and an assist. Winning goaltender Adam Svoboda finished the game with 23 saves.

With ex-Tiger Martin Jiranek (hooking) and Ken Sutton (double minor for cross-checking/roughing) in the sin bin, Tomas Martinec put Nuremberg on the board, poking the puck past Jimmy Waite from the doorstep at 3:18 of the opening frame on a 5-on-3 advantage. Penalties continued to hurt Ingolstadt. Jiranek was in the box again for slashing when Sean Tallaire, who was released by Ingolstadt in the off-season, doubled the lead to 2-0 on a power-play goal at 6:46 of the middle frame. He sped down the left wing and hammered the puck past Waite's glove hand. The Tigers extended their lead to 3-0 when Brad Tapper scored just 48 seconds into the final period. Defenseman Chris Armstrong put Ingolstadt on the board four minutes later. But all hopes of a comeback were dashed when Svoboda denied Jiranek on a penalty shot. Stastny's power-play goal with 12.30 to go finally put the game away.

"We knew it would take a big effort to beat Ingolstadt", said Tigers coach Greg Poss. "We fought hard from the opening face-off, created lots of opportunities and prevailed."

Mannheim moves into 2nd place tie with Ingolstadt

A shorthander by Steve Kelly at the beginning of the third went down as the game-winner as the Mannheim Adler ended the Hamburg Freezers' four-game win streak. Kelly recorded three points on the night and Cristobal Huet finished with 36 saves as the "Eagles" won 5-3 (0-0, 3-2, 2-1) at home, extending their own win streak to three games. Adler defenseman Andy Delmore had two assists. Leonhard Wild recorded 25 saves in his first start for the Freezers.

Said Adler head coach Helmut de Raaf: "Both teams played at a high level most of the way. Hamburg gave us trouble for two periods. Fortunately, we managed to put the game away with a pair of third-period goals."

"We had a chance to win, but we made a couple of crucial mistakes," said Freezers forward Dave Tomlinson. "We gotta learn from that. But we proved that we are a tough road team. There's great chemistry on this team."

Defending champ Frankfurt stops slump

Marc Beaucage (2G, 1A) and Pat Lebeau (1G, 2A) scored three points each to lead an offensive outburst as defending champion Frankfurt Lions snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-3 (4-1, 1-1, 2-1) rout of the sputtering Augsburg Panthers. Beaucage had a pair of power-play goals as Frankfurt jumped out to a 4-1 lead after twenty minutes. Peter Ratchuk (PP) and Michael Bresagk also scored for the Lions. The game was virtually over after Lebeau's power-play goal made it 5-1 at 8:14 of the second. Back-to-back goals at the beginning of the third added to the rout. Francois Bouchard scored on the man advantage at 2:15 and Dwayne Norris added a short-handed goal 28 seconds later to increase the Lions' lead to 7-2. Francois Methot, Rick Girard and Francois Fortier (PP) scored for Augsburg.

Hanover, Wolfsburg win

Fredrik Öberg notched a pair of power-play goals, including the game-winner at 19:58 of the second, as the Hannover Scorpions handed the DEG Metro Stars their third straight loss. Patrik Augusta (3A) and Andreas Morczinietz (1G, 2A) each contributed three points as Hanover won 4-2 (2-1, 1-0, 1-1) at Düsseldorf.

Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg recorded its first road win of the season, skating past the Kassel Huskies, 3-1 (2-0, 0-0, 1-1). Richard Pavlikovsky (1G, 1A), Todd Simon (1G, 1A) and Xavier Delisle (2A) all had multiple-point nights for Wolfsburg. Petr Smrek's goal on a 5-on-3 advantage at 19:14 of the opening period went down as the game-winner. Alexander Serikow scored Kassel's lone goal.

Lucky comeback for Berlin

The Berlin Eisbären avoided a winless weekend with a big rally. Led by a two-point effort from Stefan Ustorf, Berlin turned a 3-0 deficit into a 4-3 (0-2, 1-1, 3-0) road win over the Krefeld Pinguine. Krefeld was up 3-0 at 5:13 of the second after first-period power-play tallies from Shayne Wright and Ivo Jan and a goal by Alexander Selivanov. Rob Shearer put the "Polar Bears" on the scoreboard midway through the second. A three-goal third-period effort turned the game around. Goals by Denis Pederson and Alexander Barta knotted the contest at 3-3. With 5:56 remaining, defenseman Micki DuPont scored the lucky game-winner on the power-play. With Rob Guillet in the sin bin, he dumped the puck in. It ricocheted off the backboards and Krefeld's goalie Christian Rhode mishandled it, deflecting it over his own goal line.