Munich, Germany - Mike York's Iserlohn Roosters kept their playoff hopes alive Thursday. Kevin Mitchell scored two points as the Roosters downed ERC Ingolstadt for their third straight win. The Augsburger Panther also underlined their playoff ambitions with a lucky win over the last-place Hannover Scorpions while the Krefeld Pinguine continued their recent slump with a home loss at the hands of the Frankfurt Lions and ex-Penguin Marc Beaucage, who recorded a hat trick.

Three straight wins have put the Iserlohn Roosters back in the playoff race. Kevin Mitchell recorded a power-play goal and an assist as Iserlohn downed ERC Ingolstadt at home, 3-1 (1-0, 1-1, 1-0). Iserlohn is only two wins or six points away from a playoff spot. The Roosters opened the scoring with a power-play goal. Kevin Mitchell scored from the slot after a slapshot by Martin Knold ricocheted off the backboards to make it 1-0 with 2:37 to go in the first. The game went back and forth, with good scoring opportunities at both ends of the ice. Rhett Gordon doubled Iserlohn's lead at 11:03 of the second after being set up nicely by Mike York and Bryan Adams. Defenseman Jakub Ficenec hammered a rocket shot from the point past Kotschnew to put Ingolstadt on the board with a power-play tally four minutes later. Ralph Intranuovo scored on a 2-on-1 rush with Igor Alexandrov to put the game out of reach, 3-1, 5:14 into the final stanza. Winning goaltender Dimitrij Kotschnew made 32 saves on the night.

Latvian Arvids Rekis scored on a rush with Shawn Carter with 1:12 remaining in the game to lift the Augsburger Panther to a 2-1 (1-1, 0-0, 1-0) road win over the Hannover Scorpions. Björn Barta gave Augsburg a 1-0 lead midway through the first. Scorpions defenseman Patrick Köppchen evened the score at one apiece on a power-play tally four minutes later.

Ex-Penguin Marc Beaucage scored a hat trick as the Frankfurt Lions edged the Krefeld Pinguine 4-3 (3-2, 1-0, 0-1) on the road. Frankfurt jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead 1:59 into the contest after tallies from Beaucage and Lebeau. But Krefeld rallied and had the score tied at 2-2 halfway through the opening frame after a power-play tally from Tom Preissing and a goal by Rob Guillet. But Beaucage's second goal of the night put Frankfurt back in the lead in the final minute of the first. He scored on the power-play, tucking home the rebound after a mighty point shot from defenseman Stephane Robidas. Midway through the second, Martin Reichel's outlet pass found Beaucage, who came right out of the penalty box and beat Robert Müller on the breakaway to make it 4-2 at 9:24 of the second. Krefeld only managed one more late goal when Scott King connected from the left face-off circle with 1:44 remaining in the game.

Brad Tapper and Tomas Martinec each had two assists on the night as the first-place Nürnberg Ice Tigers skated to their third victory in row, beating the Kassel Huskies on home ice, 4-2 (1-0, 1-0, 2-2). Petr Fical wristed a shot from the right slot over Husky netminder Joaquin Gage's glove hand to put the Ice Tigers on the scoreboard 1:30 before the first intermission. Sean Tallaire also went top-shelf after a nice pass by Martinec to double Nuremberg's lead to 2-0 midway through the middle frame. They appeared to have the game in the bag when Mike Green extended the lead to 3-0 2:07 into the final stanza. But Christian Hommel responded just 29 ticks later, cutting the lead to 3-1. The Tigers reclaimed a three-goal lead when defender Pascal Trepanier rifled a screened shot past Gage to make it 4-1 at the 4:46-mark. Kassel failed to stage a rally. Sven Valenti's goal with 2:31 remaining came way too late.

Denis Pederson and defenseman Micki DuPont each scored a goal and an assist as the Berlin Eisbären erased a 1-0 deficit to beat the Kölner Haie 3-1 (0-0, 2-1, 1-0) at home. A power-play goal by Alex Hicks put the Haie in front early in the second stanza. The Polar Bears evened the score on a power-play tally of their own when DuPont ripped a point shot past Chris Rogles. Erik Cole went top-shelf with 5:11 left in the second to put Berlin ahead, 2-1 – his second career DEL goal and his first game-winner. Pederson's goal with just under seven minutes to go in the game sealed the 3-1 win. Adding injury to insult: The Haie also lost veteran Dave McLlwain, who had to leave the game late in the second period with a suspected fracture after a hard slapper by Derrick Walser hit him on the foot.

Daniel Kreutzer had two assists as the DEG Metro Stars rallied for a 3-2 (1-2, 1-0, 1-0) road win over the Mannheim Adler. While Mannheim went 1-for-4 on the power-play, Düsseldorf was a perfect 3-for-3 on the night. The Adler were up 2-1 after an early score by John Tripp and a power-play tally by Thomas Greilinger. Mike Pellegrims goal had temporarily tied the score at 1-1. With only 17 seconds left in the middle frame, Klaus Kathan re-directed a shot from Kreutzer past Adler goalie Cristobal Huet to knot the score at 2-2 going into the final stanza. A roughing penalty to Mannheim's Greilinger set the table for the Metro Stars midway through the period. Andrew Schneider sneaked a bad-angle wrister past Huet to make it 3-2 on 11:29 of the third. Mannheim had the opportunity to respond when Düsseldorf's Thomas Jörg went to the sin bin a minute later, but failed to cash in.

The Hamburg Freezers jumped out to a 2-0 win on first-period power-play goals by Brad Purdie and defenseman Darren Van Impe and held on for a 2-1 (2-0, 0-0, 0-1) home win over Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg. Winning goaltender Boris Rousson made 28 saves on the night. Jan Zurek's goal midway through the final stanza spoiled his shutout bid. Hamburg has won three straight while Wolfsburg has dropped three in a row.