Belfast 2, Dublin 1
Carrying a 9-game losing streak into Dublin, the Belfast Giants barely defeated their Irish neighbors. Sidney Crosby returned to the Belfast lineup and he caught the Fighting Irish off guard on the first shift of the game by drawing their attention and firing a pass into the slot where Chris Campoli was waiting to convert it into a game-opening goal. From that point on, Crosby was relatively invisible. Sid won the majority of faceofffs he took, but was unable to get a shot on goal against Dublin. Later in the first period, Campoli and Nick Palmeiri assisted on a Cody Hodgson goal and Dublin was suddenly trailing 2-0 to the cellar-dwellers. Dublin made it a one-goal game in the second period, when Bobby Ryan scored from Ryan Kesler and Phil Kessel, but Devan Dubnyk was miraculous in net, saving 37 of 38 shots and refusing to relinquish that elusive win. The game also cost Dublin forward Tomas Fleischmann, who went down with an injury. Four Fighting Irish are currently injured, but Fleischmann and James Wisniewski shouldn’t be out for too long.
Bern 3, Berlin 2 (shootout)
Bern won again, but they have been looking shaky lately. The Bears were outshot on home ice by the Smurfs, 32-26, and Jason Spezza’s line was stopped cold, but Mike Smith did his job so well in goal that Bern was able to pull out 2 points. Defenseman Dennis Seidenberg scored his first of the year and Martin Havat scored on the powerplay for Bern, but both tallies were countered by Berlin, first by Jochen Hecht and then by Nikolai Kulemin in the third period. In the shootout, Smith stopped all three Berlin shooters, while Ray Whitney was successful on Bern’s first of 3 shots. German rivals Berlin and Munich are tied for third in the Southern Conference, five points behind Bern. The Bears will be back at it on Thursday night when they host St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg 6, Paris 3
David Legwand led the Lynx to victory against visiting Paris by scoring 3 goals and adding one assist. Legwand scored once in the first period and twice in the second and he proved he can work with anyone as 6 different players earned assists on those goals. St. Petersburg also got two goals from defenseman Brent Burns and one from center Brad Richards. Legwand is now second on the team in scoring, 2 points behind Richards, who has 17 points in 16 games. Paris defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Kris Letang had interesting line scores Wednesday. Pietrangelo had 4 hits and 6 blocked shots, and Letang had 4 hits and 2 blocks, but both ended up minus 4 for the game. Winger Alexander Semin finally scored his first goal of the year against the Lynx. Other Paris goal scorers were Mike Ribeiro (2nd) and Joffrey Lupul (5th). St. Petersburg, which started the season very slowly, is now in fifth place in the Northern Conference, while Paris and Frankfurt are tied for last in the Southern Conference.
Gothenberg 7, Madrid 3
Gothenberg played outstanding hockey in the first and third periods to upend the Royals in Sweden. Ales Hemsky scored twice on five shots and he picked up an assist to lead Gothenberg. Gberg scored twice in the first period to lead 2-0, entered the third period with a 4-3 lead and then poured it on with 3 in the third. Defensemen Stephane Robidas and Dan Girardi were both plus 4. Jeff Carter scored his 11th of the season for Madrid, while Erik Karlsson and Henrik Sedin each earned his 10th and 11th assists of the year. Madrid goes home to Spain tonight to host Bratislava on Thursday.
Milan 3, Helsinki 0
Josh Harding shut out Helsinki and three goals in a nine-minute period of the first period chased Ilya Bryzgalov out of the Jokerit goal. Steve Mason relieved Bryzgalov and stopped all 28 shots he faced, but Harding wouldn’t have any of it, stopping all 29 Helsinki shots. Dustin Brown scored his 12th goal of the EURO season, Jordan Staal scored his 8th, and Steve Ott his 6th. Helsinki played an aggressive game, out-hitting Milan 30-23, with Jack Johnson (6 hits) and Jared Cowen (5) leading the charge. Helsinki will travel farther south in the morning for a game in Athens on Thursday.
Minsk 2, Stockholm 0
Carey Price slammed the door on Stockholm and outdueled Spartan goalie Cam Ward in front of 18,496 home fans in Belarus. Minsk was afforded 7 powerplay opportunities, scoring on the first one when Patrik Hornquist ripped a wrist shot past Ward. Stockholm’s veteran winger Ryan Smyth took 3 minor penalties in the first period. The only other goal was scored in the third period, when another Swedish forward in the Minsk lineup tallied on backhander. Niclas Backstrom scored his fifth of the season from Roman Josi and Andrej Sekera. Minsk will host Moscow on Thursday.
