Lehoux with a hattrick for Mannheim

21 Nov 2012 | Dennis Mende

Two DEL games were played on Tuesday. League leaders Adler Mannheim and Augsburger Panther both won their matches.

The Adler Mannheim now have a five-point advantage towards second-placed Kölner Haie with one more game played but until there it was a hard way. Against the last in the table Düsseldorfer EG it was an up and down for both sides with the better end for Mannheim. In the first period Ronny Arendt and lockout star Dennis Seidenberg had earned a 2-1 lead for Mannheim with a goal by DEG player Justin Bostrom in between. In the second period though the DEG became stronger and even turned around the game completely to earn a 3-2 lead after strikes by Daniel Kreutzer and Manuel Strodel. But there was one man who took the game into his own hands, Adler forward Yanick Lehoux who scored a hattrick in the third period to give his side a two-goal advantage. Again Justin Bostrom cut the lead for the DEG but although Düsseldorf played without a goalie in the last 75 seconds the result stood.

In the other match of the day the Augsburger Panther received the Nürnberg Ice Tigers for another Bavarian derby in DEL. In the duel of two teams who want to improve their position to make the playoffs the hosts had to see how Nürnberg went in front through Marco Nowak already at 03:06. The usually very strong team at home, Augsburg, though wasn't too shocked as they scored three consecutive goals through Stephen Werner, Daryl Boyle in power play and Ryan Thang to give their side a 3-1 lead. Connor James only could cut this lead to one and also pulling out their goalie for an additional attacker didn't bring a better result for the guests. Augsburg now is only one point behind a top 6 playoff spot which qualifies for direct entry into the playoff quarter finals.