Petr Fical led the way with a pair of goals and an assist as the
Nürnberg Ice Tigers rolled to their fifth consecutive win, beating the
Hamburg Freezers 6-3 (3-1, 1-2, 2-0) on the road. A short-hander by Jacek Plachta gave Hamburg an early lead. But Nuremberg got four straight goals from Brad Tapper, Mike Green, Herbert Vasiljevs (PP) and Fical (PP) to jump out to a 4-1 lead early in the second. Lack of discipline then gave the Freezers a chance to get back into the game. With Yan Stastny and Fical in the box after consecutive holding calls, Brad Purdie scored on a 5-on-3 to make it 4-2. Tigers defender Lubomir Sekeras gave Hamburg another two-man advantage seconds later when he was assessed a delay-of-game minor after clearing the puck over the boards. Defenseman Darren Van Impe ripped a hard shot past Adam Svoboda to bring the Freezers within a goal, 4-3, at 10:50 of the middle frame. Nuremberg bent, but did not break. On his second tally, Fical took advantage of a miscue between Freezers defenseman Martin Walter and netminder Boris Rousson to make it 5-3 2:42 into the final stanza. Fical then assisted Sean Tallaire, who put the game out of reach, 6-3, at the 7:35-mark.
Eduard Lewandowski notched a pair of goals as the
Kölner Haie jumped out to a 4-1 lead and then held off a late rally by the
Kassel Huskies to prevail 5-3. Defenseman Stephane Julien (1G, 1A) and center Dave McLlwain (2A) also recorded two points each. Lewandowski scored on the power-play with 5:20 to go in the second to put Cologne up 4-1. Tallies by Ted Drury, who also had two goals on the night, and defenseman Kevin Lavallee brought the Huskies within a goal. Haie goalie Chris Rogles looked a bit shaky on the goals that beat him. But he was strong down the stretch as the Haie protected their close lead. Lewandowski's second goal of the night, an empty-netter two seconds before the final horn, sealed the deal at 5-3.
Mark Beaufait (2G, 1A) and defenseman Shawn Heins (1G, 2A) each had three points on the night as the
Berlin Eisbären thrashed the
Augsburger Panther 5-1 (2-0, 1-1, 1-1) at home. The game was knotted, 1-1, at the second intermission after power-play tallies from Berlin's Kelly Fairchild and Augsburg's Mike Pudlick. The momentum was with Berlin after two quick goals at the start of the third. Beaufait deflected a shot from Ricard Persson past Jean-Francois Labbé to make it 2-1 33 seconds into the third. A miscue by Labbé two minutes later just about sealed Augsburg's fate. A clearing attempt from Shawn Heins, who launched a missile from his own left face-off circle caught Labbé by surprise and put the Eisbären up 3-1. Rob Shearer and Beaufait then scored back-to-back within 1:26 to eventually put the game out of reach at 5-1 halfway through the final period.
Marc Beaucage recorded three assists on the night as defending DEL champion
Frankfurt Lions jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held off a comeback by the
DEG Metro Stars in a 4-2 (2-0, 1-1, 1-1) home win. Dwayne Norris scored into the empty net to seal Frankfurt's win with 6 ticks left on the clock. Frankfurt overpowered Düsseldorf in the early going, outshooting the Metro Stars 25-4 in the opening frame. They had only two goals to show for their dominance. Former NHLer Sean Pronger scored his first career DEL goal, ripping a low shot from the slot through Alex Jung's legs after a behind-the-net pass from Marc Beaucage to give Frankfurt a 1-0 lead six minutes into the tilt. With only 32 ticks left in the first, Martin Reichel picked up the rebound after Joe Murphy's shot hit the goal post and went top-shelf on Alex Jung to double the Lions lead on the man advantage. Frankfurt appeared to have the game in the bags when Christian Kohmann beat Jung with a high shot from the slot after a pass by Beaucage from behind the net. But Düsseldorf was not done yet. Daniel Kreutzer scored on the power-play to put the Metro Stars on the board, 3-1, with 3:17 remaining in the second. Düsseldorf kept pressing but was denied again and again by Lions goalie Boris Ackers, who recorded 23 saves on the night starting for Ian Gordon. Bobo Kühnhauser managed to get the puck past Ackers again with less than two minutes left in the game. Metro Stars head coach Butch Goring sent on an extra attacker for Jung, who earned a stunning 48 saves. Norris' empty netter sealed Frankfurt's win.
Cameron Mann scored the game-winning goal as
ERC Ingolstadt squandered a 4-1 second-period lead but held on for a 6-5 (3-1, 1-3, 1-1, 1-0) win after penalty shootout over
Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg. Ingolstadt, which recorded its third win in a row, was leading 4-1 five minutes into the second stanza after goals from Mann, Niki Mondt, Chris Armstrong and Marco Sturm. Todd Simon had temporarily tied the score at 1-1 midway through the first. The hosts seemed to have the game wrapped up when Sturm took the puck at the opposing blueline, skated past two defenders and beat goalie Marek Mastic to make it 4-1 at the 4:46-mark of the second. But Ivan Ciernik's breakaway score two minutes later started a quick rally by the Grizzlies. Wolfsburg added two more in just over three minutes to knot the game at 4-4. Rainer Suchan scored on an odd-man rush with Christoph Paepke to make it 4-3 and then Wolfsburg caught the Ingolstadt defense square again when Boris Lingemann scored from the doorstep after a behind-the-net pass by Jan Zurek, 4-4 at 9:41 of the second period. Ingolstadt was able to regroup and retaliate. With Grizzlies defenseman Peter Smrek in the sin bin for hooking, ERC defenseman Ken Sutton cut in on the net and slid the puck past Mastic to put Ingolstadt back in the lead with their third power-play tally of the night, 5-4, at 4:53 of the third. Todd Simon tied the game again on his second tally of the night, tucking home the puck out of heavy traffic in front of ERC netminder Jimmy Waite. The game was wide-open in the final ten minutes, but there was no further scoring despite a late power-play opportunity for Ingolstadt. Mann and Ficenec scored in the penalty shootout to give Ingolstadt the win.
Power-play goals from Andy Delmore and René Corbet late in the second and early in the third lifted the
Mannheim Adler to a 3-1 (1-0, 1-1, 1-0) home victory over the
Iserlohn Roosters. Mannheim ended a four-game losing streak. An unassisted goal by Marcus Kink had given the Adler a 1-0 lead 2:25 into the contest. Mike York brought Iserlohn back, beating Cristobal Huet on a short-handed breakaway 25 seconds into the second stanza. Power-play efficiency was the difference. While Iserlohn went 0-for-10 on the night, Mannheim cashed in twice on five opportunities. The Adler put the game out of reach, scoring twice after a five-minute major to Iserlohn's Mark Etz, who was ejected after injuring an Adler with a high-stick. With 1:14 left in the second, Devin Edgerton's pass found Delmore wide-open near the opposing goal post to put the Adler up 2-1. Still on the power-play, Corbet tallied early in the third, knocking a rebound past Roosters goalie Dimitrij Kotschnew.
Defenseman Daniel Kunce had a pair of goals for the
Krefeld Pinguine, who squandered a 3-1 third-period lead against the
Hannover Scorpions, but held on for a 4-3 (1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 1-0) home win after penalty shootout to hand Hanover its third straight loss. Alex Selivanov was credited with the game-winning score. Hanover's late rally at least salvaged a point for the last-place team. Jason Cipolla tallied with 4:33 remaining and Andreas Morczinietz scored exactly two minutes later as the Scorps forced the game into a shootout decision.
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