Munich, Germany - 18-year-old goaltender Lukas Lang looked impressive in his first career DEL start as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers extended their win streak to five games with a comeback win over the Kölner Haie Friday night. Elsewhere in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), the Frankfurt Lions spanked the sputtering Mannheim Adler while Ingolstadt managed to end its three-game losing skid. In Berlin, NHL winger Erik Cole had a rather quiet debut in Germany's Elite League as his Eisbären were shut out by Butch Goring's DEG Metro Stars.

Déjà vu: Frankfurt spanks Mannheim on the road

Ian Gordon made 29 saves for his first shutout and Joe Murphy had a goal and two assists as the Frankfurt Lions upset the Mannheim Adler for their first road win of the season, 5-0 (2-0, 2-0, 1-0). After their season-long win streak of eight games, the Adler have lost three straight, suffering back-to-back shutout losses to the Kölner Haie, 4-0, and now to Frankfurt. It was kind of déjà vu for Mannheim: Early last season, the Lions won in Mannheim by the same score – a win that kickstarted Frankfurt's championship campaign.

The Frankfurt Lions played an effective neutral zone trap and dominated the early going with quick counter attacks. Their first goal came on the first power-play opportunity of the night. Mannheim's Steve Kelly was in the sin bin with a boarding minor plus ten-minute misconduct when defender Peter Ratchuk connected a screened point shot to put the Lions on the scoreboard, 1-0, midway through the opening frame. Frankfurt kept pressing. After wasting several good opportunities, it was a short-handed score that doubled the Lions lead to 2-0 when Adler goalie Cristobal Huet mishandled a shot from Jason Young with under five minutes to go in the first. Joe Murphy, who had just come out of the penalty box, made it 3-0 on an odd-man rush at 7:41 of the second period. Michael Hackert scored on the breakaway after a turnover by Adler defender Marco Schütz to put the game out of reach at 4-0 with just over two minutes left in the middle frame. The game slowed down significantly in the final stanza. Christian Kohmann's goal capped the scoring at 5-0 5:12 into the third.

Lang, Tapper lift Nuremberg over Cologne

The Nürnberg Ice Tigers came out on top of the game between the two hottest teams in the DEL. Brad Tapper scored the game-tying goal at 8:15 of the third and then tallied the game-winning penalty shot in the shootout as the Tigers rallied to beat the Kölner Haie 2-1 (0-1, 0-0, 1-0, 1-0) at home, recording their fifth straight win. In a tight, hard-fought game, the Haie drew first blood at 6:55 of the opening period. Dave McLlwain took advantage of an ill-fated pass from Lasse Kopitz to put the Haie up 1-0. The early goal did not have a bad effect on Nuremberg's 18-year-old netminder Lukas Lang, who started in place of Adam Svoboda who had to serve a one-game suspension due to a game misconduct penalty in Tuesday's game at Hanover. Lang managed to settle into the game and backstopped the Tigers with 29 saves. After an even second period with chances at both ends but no scoring, the Tigers took command in the third. They were rewarded with the 1-1 equalizer when Tapper re-directed a shot from Kopitz past Chris Rogles.

Elsewhere in the DEL on Friday

Marco Sturm and defenseman Ken Sutton each had a goal and an assist as ERC Ingolstadt snapped its three-game losing streak with a 4-2 (2-0, 2-1, 0-1) road win over the Hannover Scorpions. Craig Ferguson's goal which gave Ingolstadt a 3-1 lead at 9:08 of the second went down as the game-winner.

The Düsseldorfer EG Metro Stars remain on fire: Butch Goring's team skated to its fourth-straight win, blanking the Berlin Eisbären 2-0 (1-0, 1-0, 0-0) on the road. Berlin outshot the DEG 41-18, but failed to get the puck past Düsseldorf's Russian goalie Andrej Trefilov who recorded a stunning 41 saves for his second shutout. Berlin wasted several chances early on, but it was the DEG that got on the scoreboard, 1-0, when Matt Herr went top-shelf on Oliver Jonas from slot with a buck thirty to go in the first. Daniel Kreutzer also scored from the slot to double the Stars' lead to 2-0 at 8:45 of the second.

Erik Cole, who made his DEL debut with the Eisbären, had his best scene of the night when he knocked out Stars forward Daniel Kreuzer for several minutes with a monster hit.

Adrian Grygiel had three assists as the Krefeld Pinguine routed Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 6-1 (2-1, 2-0, 2-0) at home. Six different players tallied for Krefeld: Stefan Schröder, Shayne Wright, Alexander Selivanov, Martin Schymainski, Steffen Ziesche and Steve Brulé. Alexander Genze scored Wolfsburg's lone goal.

Mike York tallied the game-winning goal at 12:31 of the third and also recorded three assists as the Iserlohn Roosters skated to a 4-2 (1-1, 1-1, 2-0) home win over the Augsburger Panther.