Munich, Germany - updated Back from international action in the European Champions Cup, the Frankfurt Lions looked tired in their visit to Nuremberg where they got routed by the Ice Tigers Friday night. Led by defenseman Pascal Trepanier, who scored a hat trick, Nuremberg climbed back to the top of the DEL standings by virtue of Cologne's loss in Mannheim. While the Krefeld Pinguine continued to struggle, Augsburg and Iserlohn underlined their respective playoff ambitions: The Panthers lit up the scoreboard against expansion Wolfsburg and Colorado's John Michael Liles scored his first DEL goal as Iserlohn upset Berlin on the road.

The Nürnberg Ice Tigers rebounded from back-to-back losses with a 7-2 (0-1, 4-1, 3-0) rout of the Frankfurt Lions, who were coming off an 0-3, dead-last finish at the European Champions Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia. Offensive defenseman Pascal Trepanier led the rout with three goals and two assists. Lasse Kopitz (1G, 2A), Yan Stastny (3A), Sean Tallaire (2G), Mike Green (2A) and Brad Tapper (1G, 1A) also had multiple point nights for the Tigers, who went 5-for-13 on the power-play. Frankfurt, which had won five consecutive DEL games coming into Friday's contest, took an early lead on a power-play tally by Mark Beaucage. Nuremberg turned the game around early in the middle frame, taking a 2-1 lead on back-to-back power-play goals from Trepanier and Tapper. Trepanier then scored on a 3-on-1 rush with Stastny and Tapper to extend the Tigers' lead to 3-1 at the 6:18-mark, the eventual game-winner. Off Mike Green's face-off win, Tallaire ripped a wrister past Ian Gordon to make it 4-1 halfway through the second. Frankfurt cut the lead to 4-2 on a tally by Jason Young, but Nuremberg added three more power-play goals in the third to complete the 7-2 rout (Kopitz, Trepanier, Tallaire).

Fabio Carciola re-directed a point shot from Andy Delmore past Chris Rogles with 2:27 remaining to lift the Mannheim Adler to a 4-3 (2-0, 1-1, 1-2) home victory over the Kölner Haie. Mannheim was up 3-1 after tallies from Derek Plante, John Tripp and Vitalij Aab. Eduard Lewandowski had scored Cologne's only goal eight minutes into the second. The Haie erased the 3-1 deficit with two third-period power-play goals by Mirko Lüdemann and Colin Beardsmore. Dave McLlwain could have completed the rally, but his shot rang off the goalpost. Instead, the Adler came up with the lucky game-winner. Adler defender Yannick Tremblay recorded an assist in his first-ever DEL game.

Kevin Mitchell recorded three assists on the night and Bryan Adams notched a pair of goals, including the eventual game-winner with 41 seconds left in the middle frame, as the Iserlohn Roosters skated to a 4-1 (1-0, 1-1, 2-1) road win over the Berlin Eisbären. Iserlohn ended a three-game losing streak. An unassisted goal from youngster Tobias Schwab broke a scoreless tie midway through the first. Off the face-off, Schwab threw the puck at the net. The deflected shot somehow found its way past Eisbären goalie Youri Ziffzer as to put the Roosters in front, 1-0. Berlin tied the score on Mark Beaufait's second-period power-play goal. But Iserlohn reclaimed the lead when Adams scored on a breakaway, also on the man advantage. Penalties marred Berlin's hopes of a comeback. Iserlohn tallied twice within a 25-second-span on 5-on-3 power-plays to put the game out of reach with under seven minutes to go. With Sven Felski ejected after a boarding major plus game misconduct and Denis Pederson in the sin bin for holding, John Michael Liles netted his first DEL goal to make it 3-1. Just seconds later, Rob Shearer's delay-of-game penalty put Iserlohn on the two-man advantage again. Rhett Gordon cashed in to cap the scoring at 4-1 with 6:02 left in the game.

The Krefeld Pinguine, currently holding on to the eighth and final playoff spot in the DEL, suffered their third-straight loss in a 3-2 (1-0, 1-1, 1-1) home defeat against ERC Ingolstadt. Defenseman Jakub Ficenec blasted a rocket shot from the blueline past Robert Müller to give Ingolstadt a 1-0 lead on the man advantage halfway through the opening frame. Steve Brulé tied the score at 1-1 after a nifty no-look backhand pass by Scott King. Ingolstadt regained control thereafter and went up 3-1 on back-to-back goals by Cameron Mann in a span of two and a half minutes before and after the final intermission. After a neutral zone turnover by Krefeld's Tom Preissing, Marco Sturm sped down the left wing and passed the puck across to Mann who tucked it home to make it 2-1 with 1:47 left in the second. With Steffen Ziesche in the sin bin, Mann connected on a one-timer to double Ingolstadt's lead to 3-1 35 ticks into the final stanza. Ivo Jan flipped in a backhanded goal two minutes later, but 3-2 was as close as the Penguins would get.

Ronnie Arendt's power-play goal with 39 seconds to go in the first period went down as the game-winner as the Augsburger Panther routed Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg, 7-1 (2-1, 2-0, 3-0) at home, handing the expansion team its highest loss of the season and moving the Panthers within one point of the eight-place Krefeld Pinguine. Shawn Carter (2G, 1A), Steve Bancroft and Rick Girard (2A each) also had multiple-point games for Augsburg which clearly dominated Wolfsburg over three periods, outshooting the Wolves 48-17 and going 4-for-9 on the man advantage. Brian Felsner, Francois Methot, Duanne Moeser and recently acquired defenseman Rich Brennan also scored for Augsburg. Jan Zurek netted Wolfsburg's sole goal.

Jason Cipolla had three points on the night (2G, 1A) as the last-place Hannover Scorpions skated to their third straight win, edging the Hamburg Freezers on the road, 4-3 (1-2, 3-0, 0-1). A power-play goal by Cipolla put Hanover in front 1-0 early on. Back-to-back goals by Craig Johnson, who had two goals, and Nils Antons gave Hamburg a 2-1 lead after twenty minutes. The Scorpions turned the game around with three second-period goals. Just 35 ticks into the middle frame, former Freezer Dan Lambert took a drop pass from Patrik Augusta and ripped a slighlty deflected slapshot through Boris Rousson's legs to tie the score at 2-2. A pair of power-play tallies extended Hanover's lead to 4-2: Cipolla one-timed a shot from the left face-off circle through Rousson's five-hole at the 8:00-mark and Augusta tallied after a behind-the-net feed from Andreas Morczinietz to make it 4-2 with 3:25 left in the second. The Freezers tried to mount a comeback, but a goal by Craig Johnson, who skated around the net and went top-shelf on Rich Parent, would be as close as Hamburg would get.

The Kassel Huskies squandered a 4-2 lead, but prevailed in the penalty shootout to down the DEG Metro Stars on the road, 5-4 (3-1, 1-1, 0-2, 1-0). Tobias Abstreiter was credited with the game-winning score. Düsseldorf's Daniel Kreutzer recorded a hat trick. Kassel's Ted Drury scored a pair of goals.