Munich, Germany - Latvian forward Herbert Vasiljevs scored a hat trick as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers ended a three-game losing streak with a nine-goal rout of the slumping Augsburger Panther Sunday. Veteran Dave McLlwain tallied a pair of goals as the Kölner Haie won on the road to keep pace with first-place Nuremberg. In a battle for third place in the DEL standings, the Berlin Eisbären edged the Frankfurt Lions despite a late letdown. Elsewhere in the German Elite League on Sunday, the Hamburg Freezers capped a third-period comeback against ERC Ingolstadt with their first shootout win of the season.

The Berlin Eisbären wasted a late two-goal lead but held on for their first win after shootout, beating the Frankfurt Lions 4-3 (2-0, 1-1, 0-2) at home. Sven Felski was credited with the game winning goal. Berlin dominated the early going and jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead. Eric Cole dug out puck in left corner and found Kelly Fairchild in the left face-off circle. Fairchild's shot was stopped by Gordon, but Fairchild tucked home the rebound to put the Bears on the scoreboard 6:41 into the tilt. Berlin doubled the lead on a man advantage less than two minutes later when a screened and slightly deflected high wrist shot by Micki DuPont from the left point sailed past Lions netminder Ian Gordon. Frankfurt got back into the game early in the middle stanza when Joe Murphy re-directed Michael Hackert shot from the left point past Oliver Jonas on the power-play, cutting Berlin's lead to 2-1. The Eisbären regained a two-goal lead on another power-play tally of their own when defender Derrick Walser rifled a screened wrister from the left point over Gordon's stickhand to make it 3-1 with under seven minutes to go in the second. Berlin appeared content to sit on its lead. A power-play goal by defenseman Francois Bouchard started Frankfurt's late comeback. He ripped a screened slapshot from the right point through Jonas' legs to bring the Lions within a goal, 3-2, at 13:43 of the third. With an extra attacker on the ice, a behind-the-net pass from Pat Lebeau found defenseman Peter Ratchuk wide-open between the hashmarks and Ratchuk rifled home a low shot to send the contest into the extra session. Michael Hackert recorded three assists for the Lions while Denis Pederson and Stefan Ustorf each had two asssits for the Bears.

The Nürnberg Ice Tigers ended a three-game winless skid with an offensive explosion. Herbert Vasiljevs (3G, 1A), Yan Stastny (2G, 2A) and Petr Fical (1G, 3A) each had four points on the night and Greg Leeb recorded his second straight two-goal game as Nuremberg romped the Augsburger Panther 9-2 (3-1, 4-1, 2-0) at home, handing Augsburg its seventh straight loss. The Tigers went 6-for-10 on the power-play. Leading 3-2, they put the game out of reach with four unanswered power-play tallies in the second half of the middle frame. With Augsburg trailing 4-2, Brian Felsner had the chance to cut the lead to one goal on a penalty shot, but he was denied by Tigers goalie Adam Svoboda. Benjamin Barz (1G, 1A), Lasse Kopitz (2A), Brad Tapper (2A) and Lubomir Sekeras (2A) also had multiple-point nights for the Ice Tigers. Brian Felsner and Ronnie Arendt scored Augsburg's lone two goals, both on the man advantage.

Dave McLlwain and Colin Beardsmore both tallied a pair of goals as the Kölner Haie skated to a 4-2 (1-0, 2-1, 1-1) road win over the Krefeld Pinguine. With the game knotted at 1-1, McLlwain scored twice within a span 189 seconds late in the second period to put Cologne up 3-1 going into the second intermission. Krefeld was already down a man when hot-headed defenseman Guy Lehoux was assessed a double minor for roughing. On the ensuing two-man advantage, McLlwain blasted a one-timer from the right slot past Pens goalie Robert Müller to make it 2-1 with 3:50 left in the period. Less than a minute before the intermission, Krefeld's Carsten Gosdeck slid into his own net with the puck while trying to block a McLlwain pass on a 2-on-1 rush, giving the Haie a 3-1 lead. Krefeld's Alexander Selivanov was awarded a penalty shot after being wrestled to the ground by Haie defender Jon Coleman on a breakaway. He broke in on goaltender Chris Rogles and lifted in a backhander to cut Cologne's lead to 3-2 four minutes into the final stanza. The game went back and forth until another Penguins penalty gave Cologne the chance to put the game in the bags. Beardsmore scored from the slot to cap the scoring at 4-2 with 5:23 left.

Brad Purdie tied the game at 2-2 with 9:11 to go in regulation and Craig Johnson scored the game-winning penalty shot as the Hamburg Freezers recorded their first shootout win of the season, downing ERC Ingolstadt 3-2 (0-0, 1-2, 1-0, 1-0). Freezers Brandon Reid and Darren Van Impe both had two assists on the night.

The Mannheim Adler jumped out to a 2-0 second-period lead on power-play goals by John Tripp and Vitalij Aab and held on for a 2-1 (0-0, 2-0, 0-1) win over the Kassel Huskies, who had won three straight coming into the game in Mannheim. Kassel's Kirk Furey scored on the man advantage midway through the third to end Steve Passmore's hopes of his second shutout of the season.

Norwegian Martin Knold scored on the power-play with 7:36 to go to lift the Iserlohn Roostersto a 3-2 (2-0, 0-1, 1-1) home win over the DEG Metro Stars after squandering an early 2-0 lead. Á nifty pass from Mike York found the trailing Knold who ripped a hard shot past Düsseldorf's goalie Alexander Jung for the game-winner. The Metro Stars pressed hard for the equalizer but came up short. With less than two minutes to go, Daniel Kreutzer came close to tying the game again but his shot rang off the framework. Knold had two power-play goals on the night. Rhett Gordon also notched a power-play goal for Iserlohn. Düsseldorf's two goals from Klaus Kathan were also scored on the man advantage.

Andrej Teljukin had a goal and an assist as the Hannover Scorpions downed Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg 4-2 (2-1, 1-1, 1-0) at home. Patrik Augusta's goal, the only power-play tally of the night which made it 3-1 with 4:48 left in the second, went down as the game-winning goal.