Moscow 5, Oslo 2

Moscow didn’t take a single penalty and was able to beat Oslo goalie Jimmy Howard four times in the first two periods to build a 4-0 lead they would never relinquish. Two of Moscow’s marquee names – Alexander Ovechkin and Anze Kopitar – got it rolling a little, as each scored goals, but the big stars aren’t piling up points nearly as fast as Dynamo fans would like. Through 15 games, Kopitar as 11 points and Ovechkin has 9. Eleven players in the EURO currently have as many points as Ovechkin and Kopitar combined. Michal Handzus and David Jones have been picking up the slack and helping Moscow’s second line outperform its first line. After Dave Bolland made it 4-0 on Sunday, Oslo’s Brendan Morrison tried to make a game of it, scoring a goal 6 seconds later and assisting on a Mark Giordano tally 15 seconds after that.

Munich 5, Berlin 1

For the first time in three tries, the Munich Duns were able to defeat a fellow German Club. Berlin beat them 4-2 in the second game of the year and in the Duns’ most recent game, Frankfurt beat them 4-3. They will play Frankfurt again on Tuesday. In the win against the Smurfs on Sunday, Jonathan Quick was stellar, stopping all but one of the 31 shots he faced. Berlin took a 1-0 lead on a Logan Couture goal, but Munich scored 5 unanswered goals. Milan Hejduk had two of the them, with Patrik Elias, Brooks Laich and Jim Slater getting the others. Chris Higgins had 3 assists, while the defense pairing of Dion Phaneuf and Dan Boyle was plus 2 in 26 minutes. The Duns’ powerplay was fearsome, scoring 3 times in 5 chances.

Copenhagen 3, London 1

Kevin Shattenkirk was on the ice for 25 minutes and assisted on all 3 Copenhagen goals to help his  teammates defeat their Ahearne Division rival. The Tridents got goals from Boyd Gordon (his 3rd), Dany Heatley (3rd) and Troy Brouwer (4th) into an empty net. Tyler Bozak (4th) scored London’s only goal to ruin Roberto Luongo’s shutout bid. Both teams were 0 for 4 on the powerplay. That means the Tridents were 0 for 14 with the man advantage through their last 3 games, but fortunately for them their penalty killers were a perfect 11 for 11 during that time. The last Trident powerplay goal came four games ago against Gothenberg, when Heatley tallied on the first of 4 powerplay tries. Copenhagen’s penalty killers went four straight games without giving up a powerplay goal. The last one scored on them was Nick Spaling’s game winner for Helsinki.

Prague 5, Geneva 2

Prague outshot Geneva 31-18, including 13-1 in the second period, to squash the Generals. Chad Larose scored two powerplay goals for Prague, with Zach Parise, Jason Pominville and Chris Niel also scoring.  Geneva got goals from Nick Foligno and Teemu Selanne. Mike Fisher assisted on both of those goals. Eric Brewer had 4 hits and 5 blocked shots for Prague.  Sparta has won 2 in a row after losing the 4 previous games. They will have a home-and-home series with Copenhagen this week. Geneva had a four-game win streak broken Sunday.

Madrid 6, Belfast 5 (shootout)

Belfast was 4 for 8 on the powerplay and managed a point in the standings against one of the league’s top teams. Belfast used a three-goal burst to take a 4-3 lead in the third period, but gave up goals by Brian Gionta and Alex Tanguay and found themselves trailing again. In the final minute, a long wrist shot by big John Scott got through traffic and into the Madrid net to force overtime. A dozen Royal players made it onto the score sheet, as did 9 Belfast Giants. Matt Duchene and Cody Hodgson each had a goal and 2 assists for the Giants, but Duchene and his linemates Rick Nash and Lars Eller were minus 4, while Hodsgon, centering the second line and getting prime powerplay time, had 5 shots and was even in plus/minus.

League notes

• As good as Copenhagen’s penalty killing has been recently – they are perfect in four games and counting – they are not the league’s best penalty killing team to this point. The top three teams are Milan at 91.5 percent, Bern at 88.9 percent and Oslo at 88.6 percent. Oslo was ahead of Bern in that statistic until Moscow’s Alexander Ovechkin and Michal Handzus scored with the man advantage against Oslo on Sunday night. Handzus’ goal, while on the powerplay, went into a empty net with 7 seconds remaining.
• It’s early yet, but it’s always nicer to be above that bold line in the conference standings that separates the 8th and 9th place teams. The teams in those positions in the Southern Conference will go head-to-head Monday when Milan takes a train north through the Alps to visit Zurich.  In the Northern Conference, Minsk and St. Petersburg, two teams just over that bold line, will play Monday in Belarus. Patrik Berglund of Minsk and Andrew Ference of St. Petersburg are expected to miss that game. Both are on the mend with injuries. Berglund has missed 9 games this season, Ference has missed 4.