Munich, Germany - Four-time DEL champ Mannheim Adler is headed for its sixth appearance in the DEL Finals. Goaltender Cristobal Huet made 24 saves for his second shutout of the playoffs as the sixth-seeded Adler completed their upset of defending champion Frankfurt Lions Tuesday night with a Game 5 road win.

Coming off back-to-back losses, the Adler scored two goals early in the second period and never looked back, blanking the top-seeded Lions 2-0 (0-0, 2-0, 0-0) on the road to win the best-of-five semifinal series. Mannheim will be on the road again Friday in Game 1 of the 2005 DEL Finals against the second-seeded Berlin Eisbären, which will be played as best-of-five, too.

The Adler dominated the early going but failed to get the puck past Frankfurt's netminder Ian Gordon in the first twenty minutes. Back-to-back penalties to Gordon (tripping) and Doug Weight (hooking) gave Mannheim a 5-on-3 power-play advantage late in the first. They cashed in just 18 seconds after the intermission when Delmore blasted home a one-timer from the left face-off circle. Mannheim doubled the lead on a 2-on-2 rush six minutes later. Devin Edgerton cycled into the right corner and played a perfect behind-the-net pass to Corbet, who tucked it in from the doorstep to make it 2-0 at the 6:32-mark.

The Lions had their opportunities, but failed to solve Huet. They went 0-for-6 on the power-play.

Already missing injured forwards Sean Pronger and Michael Hackert, and Jason Young, who was serving a one-game suspension after his second misconduct penalty of the playoffs, Frankfurt lost another key player in the early going.

Dwayne Norris got ejected five minutes into the tilt after a controversial call by refeere Richard Schütz. His elbow to the head of Mannheim's René Corbet was penalized in a severe manner: five-minute major plus game misconduct for a needless blow to the head.