Munich, Germany - New head coach Butch Goring was not even around yet. But the news of his arrival led to an offensive explosion of the DEG Metro Stars who ended a five-game losing streak with a 7-1 rout over the Krefeld Pinguine Tuesday night. Krefeld's woeful loss, the sixth in the last seven games, put an end to Mario Simoni's hapless head coaching stint. The first-year DEL coach was fired Wednesday.

Seven different players scored as the Metro Stars triumphed 7-1 (3-0, 2-0, 2-1) at Krefeld's Rheinlandhalle. Düsseldorf got off to a great start, scoring twice on the first three shots on Robert Müller's net. Jeff Tory (power-play) and Patrick Reimer scored only 15 seconds apart to put the Stars up 2-0 at the 5:29-mark of the first. Another power-play tally from Norwegian Trond Magnussen made it 3-0 before the first intermission. Shayne Wright scored on the man advantage to put the Penguins on the board early in the middle frame. But Düsseldorf added four more goals to complete the 7-1 rout (Klaus Kathan, Daniel Kreutzer, Bernd Kühnhauser and Alexander Sulzer/PP).

"It was an embarrassing night", Krefeld's coach Mario Simioni stated after the game.

The Pinguine front office pulled the plug a day later, axing the 41-year-old Italo-Canadian after just ten games. Simioni's record was 3-7. After starting the season 2-1, the Pinguine dropped six of their last seven games. Even worse: Four of their losses were by margins of 4+ goals and they were outscored 41-21 in ten games.

Franz Fritzmeier, Krefeld's director of player personnel, will serve as interim head coach.

Berlin beats Hanover

In the only other game in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) on Tuesday, the Berlin Eisbären skated to a 4-1 (2-0, 1-0, 1-1) road win over the Hannover Scorpions.

Two power-play goals gave Berlin a 2-0 after twenty minutes. Denis Pederson tucked home the rebound of Micki DuPont's shot at 8:43. DuPont also picked up an assist on the second goal when his shot was deflected into the net by Steve Walker late in the first. Kay Hurbanek's first career DEL-goal put the game out of reach, 3-0, midway through the middle frame. A breakaway goal from Robert Hock spoiled Oliver Jonas' shutout bid with under six minutes to go in the game. The Polar Bears' third power-play goal of the night capped the scoring at 18:11 of the third: DuPont set up Pederson for his second goal of the night to make it 4-1.