Munich, Germany - The Nürnberg Ice Tigers' cushion on top of the DEL standings continued to melt Friday when they recorded their second straight loss against a potential playoff team. After losing 4-1 to Mannheim on home ice, the Tigers squandered a second-period lead in a road loss against the third-place Berlin Eisbären, who are just four points shy of first place. The second-place Kölner Haie dominated ERC Ingolstadt for the third time this season to move within two points of Nuremberg. Augsburg and expansion Wolfsburg gained valuable points in the battle for the eighth and final playoff berth.

Derrick Walser ripped a slapshot past Adam Svoboda on the man advantage with 10:47 to go to lift the Berlin Eisbären to a 4-3 (0-0, 2-2, 2-1) come-from-behind victory over the Nürnberg Ice Tigers. After a scoreless first, Mark Beaufait scored on a rebound to put Berlin ahead 2:04 into the middle frame. Back-to-back tallies by Brad Tapper (on the power-play) and Yan Stastny turned the game around, giving Nuremberg a 2-1 lead halfway through the second. A power-play goal by Micki DuPont knotted the score at 2-2 less than three minutes before the second intermission. A shot from forward-turned-defenseman Florian Keller found its way past Svoboda to give the Eisbären a 4-3 lead seven minutes into the final frame, but Mike Green tied the contest again, 4-4, two minutes later.

As part of an international referee exchange program, Vyacheslav Bulanov became the first Russian official to referee a game in the German Elite League DEL.

Dan Bjornlie's power-play goal three minutes into the second period went down as the game-winner as the Kölner Haie erased an early 1-0 deficit to win the third of four regular season meetings with ERC Ingolstadt, 4-1 (1-1, 2-0, 1-0) at home. Christoph Melischko scored off a rebound to give Ingolstadt a 1-0 lead at the 7:23-mark. The Haie needed just half a minute to respond. Jean-Yves Roy tucked home the rebound after a shot by Colin Beardsmore to knot the contest at 1-1. With Martin Jiranek in the sin bin for delay of game, a wrister from Bjornlie sailed past ERC goalie Jimmy Waite to make it 2-1 in favor of the Haie. Cologne added on to the lead with another power-play tally by Eduard Lewandowski at 10:55 of the second. Sebastian Furchner's goal with 5:18 remaining capped the scoring at 4-1.

Ivan Ciernik's goal which made it 2-0 at 5:07 of the third went down as the game-winner as Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg held off a third-period rally by the Mannheim Adler to prevail 2-1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1) on the road. Wolfsburg took a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal from Peter Smrek late in the first. Mannheim's Jochen Hecht scored just 33 seconds after Ciernik's goal to cut the lead in half, 2-1. But Mannheim didn't manage to get the puck past Marek Mastic again, who had 31 saves on the night.

Shawn Carter scored the game-tying goal on a wrap-around with 7:17 to go and Ronnie Arendt tallied the game-winning score in the penalty shootout as the Augsburger Panther downed the DEG Metro Stars after a see-saw game, 5-4 (1-1, 2-1, 1-2, 1-0) on the road. With a goal and two helpers, center Francois Fortier led the scoring for Augsburg, which ended a four-game losing streak.

Bobby House scored with 10:48 left as the Hamburg Freezers edged the Krefeld Pinguine on the road, 2-1 (1-0, 0-1, 1-0). The tilt was knotted at 1-1 going into the final period after power-play goals by Hamburg's Brandon Reid and Krefeld's Shayne Wright.

Fredrik Öberg scored in the penalty shootout to lift the Hannover Scorpions to a 3-2 (0-0, 2-2, 0-0, 1-0) come-from-behind win over the Iserlohn Roosters. A short-handed goal by Swedish teammate Edvyn Frylén had sent the game into the extra session.