Munich, Germany - The top two teams in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) both started the new calendar year with victories. The first-place Nürnberg Ice Tigers managed to hold on to a close lead to sweep the of the four-game season series with the Augsburg Panthers. The second-place Kölner Haie kept pace with the Tigers as they also completed a sweep against the slumping Krefeld Pinguine. Elsewhere in the DEL on Sunday, expansion Wolfsburg lit up the scoreboard in a rout of regional rival Hanover. As in their previous meeting a week ago, Berlin and Frankfurt did not reach a decision in regulation.

A goal by former Panther Greg Leeb at 10:30 of the second period went down as the game-winner as the Nürnberg Ice Tigers edged the Augsburger Panther on the road, 3-2 (2-0, 1-2, 0-0). Defenseman Pascal Trepanier, second on the Tigers in scoring, recorded a goal and an assist on the night. Nuremberg jumped out to a 2-0 first-period lead on goals by Trepanier and Brad Tapper (PP). Augsburg battled back, cutting the lead to 2-1 on a power-play tally from Ronny Arendt 44 ticks into the middle frame. Leeb then beat Panthers goalie Jean-Francois Labbe on the breakaway to re-establish a two-goal lead, 3-1. Shawn Carter brought Augsburg within a goal, 3-2, before the second period ended. But the Panthers had too little offense to turn the game around.

Back-to-back third-period power-play goals from defenders Stephane Julien and Mirko Lüdemann lifted the Kölner Haie to a 3-1 (1-0, 0-1, 2-0) home win over the slumping Krefeld Pinguine, who suffered their fifth straight loss. Haie veteran forward Dave McLlwain, who played with a broken left big toe suffered in Thursday's game at Berlin, had a big night, recording a three-assist game. "The only thing that McLlwain was afraid of coming into tonight's game was that the shoe wouldn't fit", said Haie head coach after the game. Jean-Yves Roy, who like Julien had two points on the night, put Cologne ahead 1-0 just 42 seconds into the tilt, after being nicely set up by McLlwain. Krefeld temporarily evened the score on a power-play tally from Rob Guillet early in the second stanza.

Marco Sturm and defenseman Chris Armstrong both scored two points on the night as ERC Ingolstadt ended the Hamburg Freezers' three-game win streak with a 3-1 (0-0, 2-0, 0-1) home win. Andy McDonald burst down the right wing and played a nifty backhanded pass to Marco Sturm who had sneaked past Freezers defender Shane Peacock and knocked the puck home from the doorstep to put Ingolstadt up 1-0 at 7:10 of the second. On the power-play, Cameron Mann's pass from the left boards found Justin Harney near the right face-off circle and the defender ripped a shot past Hamburg's goalie Boris Rousson to double the lead to 2-0 four minutes later. Hamburg got on the scoreboard 4:42 into the third when Peacock's outlet pass sent Booby House on the breakaway and House rifled a high wrister over Jimmy Waite's glove hand from between the hashes to make it 2-1. A terrific solo effort by ERC defender Jakub Ficenec put the game out of reach, 3-1, with 10:24 left. Ficenec pulled around three Hamburg players and squeezed the puck under Rousson's right pad.

Defender Jeff Tory and Matt Herr each had a goal and an assist as the DEG Metro Stars recorded a key win in the battle for a playoff spot, downing rival Iserlohn Roosters 3-1 (0-0, 2-0, 1-1) at home and ending Iserlohn's three-game win streak. Klaus Kathan broke a scoreless tie midway through the second period, re-directing a shot from Andy Schneider past Roosters netminder Dimitrij Kotschnew. While Iserlohn failed to cash in on good opportunities of their own, Düsseldorf doubled its lead on a score by Tory late in the second. Brad Lysak brought the Roosters within a goal early in the third, but Herr ripped a hard shot past Kotschnew to put the game away at 3-1 midway through the period.

As in their meeting on Boxing Day, the Frankfurt Lions and Berlin Eisbären were tied after regulation. This time, the Lions came out winners, prevailing 2-1 (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0) after penalty shootout. Michael Hackert converted the game-winning penalty shot. 18-year-old rookie Daniar Dshunussow started in place of Berlin's number one goalie Oliver Jonas, who was out with a stomach flu, and recorded 28 saves on the night. Erik Cole scored on the power-play to put Berlin in front midway through the opening period, his third goal of the season. Coming off a three-goal game against Krefeld, Frankfurt's Marc Beaucage also tallied on the power-play to even the score at 1-1 at the first intermission, tucking home the puck after a blueline blast took an odd ricochet off the backboards. The game slowed down significantly in the final two periods and neither team managed to score again.

Team-leading scorer Ivan Ciernik tallied a pair of goals and an assist as expansion team Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg recorded its highest-ever win in a 7-0 (2-0, 3-0, 2-0) spanking of regional rival Hannover Scorpions. Todd Simon (1G, 3A), Andrej Kaufmann (1G, 1A), Petr Smrek (1G, 1A), Ladislav Karabin (2A) and Christoph Paepke (2A) also had multiple point nights for the hosts, who outshot Hanover 35-22 over three periods and snapped a three-game losing streak- Goaltender Marek Mastic posted 22 saves to record his second shutout of the season. Wolfsburg dominated the game from the opening face-off. It took them until the 10:30-mark to get on the scoreboard. Markus Guggemos scored off a rebound to make it 1-0. Kaufmann doubled the lead four minutes later. The floodgates opened in the middle frame. The Grizzlies extended their lead to 4-0 on back-to-back power-play goals by Ciernik and Simon, who scored on a mighty blueline blast. Scorpions goalie Rich Parent, who allowed four goals on 20 shots, was replaced by Ilpo Kauhanen midway through the second. The Finnish netminder did not fare much better though. Just two minutes after coming in, he got beaten for the first time when Ciernik scored his second of the game. Goals from Smrek and Rainer Suchan rounded out the scoring in the final period.

Gert Acker scored the game-tying goal with 3:18 to go and Tobias Abstreiter scored in the ensuing penalty shootout to lift the Kassel Huskies to a 5-4 (2-2, 1-1, 1-1, 1-0) come-from-behind win over the Mannheim Adler.