Munich, Germany - Doug Weight scored at 13:58 of overtime as defending champion Frankfurt Lions edged the Hamburg Freezers in the extra session Monday for the second straight game to advance to the DEL semifinals. Frankfurt will face the 6th-seeded Mannheim Adler, who completed their upset of the Nürnberg Ice Tigers. The 2nd-seeded Berlin Eisbären will have to wait for their semifinal opponent until Wednesday. The Kölner Haie responded to a must-win situation, beating ERC Ingolstadt on the road and forcing a Game 7 showdown with ERC Ingolstadt at KölnArena Wednesday night. The relegation battle will also be decided in a seventh game Wednesday as Wolfsburg managed to stay alive with a 4-1 road win at Kassel.

Defending champ Frankfurt ends Hamburg's season, wins series 4-2

A controversial overtime goal from Doug Weight ended the season of the 8th-seeded Hamburg Freezers. The top-seeded Frankfurt Lions prevailed 1-0 (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0) after almost 74 intense minutes of hockey at Hamburg's ColorLine Arena to move on to the DEL semifinals for the second straight year.

Dwayne Norris played give-and-go with Weight and tried to go top-shelf from the left slot. His bad angle wrister hit Freezers goalie Boris Rousson in the mask and Weight went for the rebound. The puck landed right on the belly of the goalie, who was lying prone on the ice. Replays showed that the puck had clearly crossed the goal line. The question whether referee Harald Deubert should have called the play dead after the puck hit Rousson's mask sparked controversy, though.

"It's very bitter to lose like this", said Hamburg Freezers head coach Mike Schmidt. "The play should have been whistled off immediately after Boris got hit. The video judge can only decide whether the puck was across the line or not. He is not allowed to overturn the referee's call. But I think it was kinda symptomatic of our season to have it end like this."

Said Frankfurt Lions coach Rich Chernomaz: "Maybe the goal was a little lucky. But overall, I think we deserved the win. We had a lot more chances tonight."

Starting instead of NHL netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Rousson was the main reason that Frankfurt needed 73:58 minutes to eventually bury the puck. The goalie recorded 38 saves on the night, including a number of big ones. Lions goalie Ian Gordon also played very well, stopping 26 shots for his third shutout in five playoff appearances.

Mannheim completes upset of Nuremberg

René Corbet led the way with two goals and an assist as the 6th-seeded Mannheim Adler kept the 3rd-seeded Nürnberg Ice Tigers at bay, 3-1 (1-0, 0-0, 2-1) to win the best-of-seven series 4-2. The loss marked Nuremberg's fifth straight first-round exit.

Poor scoring efficiency once again killed the Ice Tigers, who outshot the "Eagles" 31-18 over three periods. Corbet put Mannheim on the board, 1-0, with 4:01 remaining in the opening frame. With traffic in front of Tigers goalie Adam Svoboda, Corbet knocked a pass from Jochen Hecht out of mid-air and tucked it home.

Nuremberg was pressing hard for the equalizer, but failed to cash in on its chances. The Tigers went 0-for-11 on the man advantage, including a 5-on-3 power-play. A power-play tally by Hecht doubled Mannheim's lead to 2-0 with 5:18 left in the third. Just 23 seconds later, Greg Leeb scored for Nuremberg to cut the lead to a goal again, 2-1. But the Tigers' hopes of a late comeback were dashed when defender Felix Petermann was assessed a high-sticking minor moments later. On the ensuing power-play, Corbet deflected in a point shot from Andy Delmore, 3-1, to seal Mannheim's win with 4:16 remaining.

Kölner Haie stay alive, knot series at 3-3

A late first-period power-play goal from defender Stephané Julien went down as the game-winner as the 4th-seeded Kölner Haie jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never looked back in a 3-1 (2-0, 1-1, 0-0) road win over 5th-seeded ERC Ingolstadt, knotting the first-round series at 3 games apiece.

Cologne controlled the hosts from the opening face-off and took a 1-0 lead on a tally by Colin Beardsmore from the slot 2:14 into the tilt. Haie forward Tino Boos was assessed a controversial game misconduct after hitting ERC forward Craig Ferguson in the face while trying to get his stick free.

The Haie doubled their lead to 2-0 when Julien connected on the power-play 8 ticks before the first intermission. Another power-play tally by Jean-Yves Roy extended the lead to 3-0 just 29 seconds into the middle frame. Andy McDonald put Ingolstadt on the board late in the second. But unlike Saturday, when they managed to erase a 3-0 deficit, Ingolstadt could not stage a comeback.

Relegation battle heading into Game 7 showdown

The question whether Wolfsburg or Kassel will be relegated to Division-2 will also be answered Wednesday as Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg managed to stay alive in the relegation series with a 4-1 (0-0, 1-0, 3-1) road win over the Kassel Huskies Monday. The series is tied at 3-3. Wolfsburg will host Game 7.

Richard Pavlikovsky, Christoph Paepke, David Musial and Todd Simon (empty-netter) scored for Wolfsburg.

Stephan Retzer brought Kassel within a goal, 2-1, at 8:33 of the third. But the Huskies' hopes of a comeback were dashed when David Gosselin was assessed a five minute major plus game misconduct for a check to the head a minute later. Musial's tally on the ensuing powerplay put the game out of reach, 3-1.