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By Claude McGyver, Hellcats beat writer for The Athletic

COLOGNE — Three days ago, this paper asked whether the Cologne Hellcats' second period in Stuttgart was the start of something sustainable, or the right night colliding with the right opponent. Sunday night at MühlenArena am Dom delivered what looks, increasingly, like the answer.

The Lansing Lynx — a team currently outside the World Conference playoff line — walked into Cologne, outshot the home side 33-16, and won 3-1. Filip Forsberg's late power-play goal in the third was the only Hellcats marker. Without it, the home side would have been shut out by a team they had every reason to beat.

Sixteen shots. At home. Against a club chasing the playoff cutline from below.

That number is the story. The Hellcats took 21 shots at home against the worst team in the league nine days ago and were rescued by Arvid Soderblom. They have now taken 16 shots at home against another non-playoff team and could not be rescued by anyone. The Stuttgart eruption — four goals in a single second period — looks, in this light, less like a return to form than a single bright night against an opponent willing to let them play.

Forsberg's return was supposed to be the structural answer. He has now played two games since coming back. In one of them, his presence helped open space for a four-goal explosion. In the other, his power-play tip was the only thing keeping his team from being shut out at home by a team most of the league has already left behind. One player, by himself, cannot generate offence. He needs the other twelve forwards to want it. On Sunday, they did not.

"That's not good enough from us," the head coach said postgame. "Sixteen shots at home. That's on everyone in this room."

He is right, but the more pointed version of that statement is the one nobody in the building wants to say out loud: this is not new. This is the team Cologne has been for most of three weeks, and one good period in Stuttgart did not change it.

The standings now reflect what the play has been suggesting. Cologne sits at 99 points, tied with Halifax, holding second in the World Conference by tiebreaker. First place is gone again. The chase pack is no longer chasing — it has arrived. And the Hellcats' 3-7-0-0 record over their last ten games is the worst stretch of any team currently inside the conference playoff picture.

Three games remain. None of them will be against the league's worst team. Whatever Cologne is going to be in the playoffs that begin in two weeks, they are going to have to find it now — and Sunday night was not a step toward finding it.

The Stuttgart performance was the exception. Everything before it, and everything since, has been the rule.

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