Bern 4, St. Petersburg 2
The Bern Bears trailed 2-1 throughout the second period and into the third, but fought back to emerge with another win. The big third period goals were scored by Brent Seabrook, Ray Whitney (on the powerplay) and Radim Vrbata. Bern defenseman Dennis Seidenberg scored a first period shorthanded goal and Mike Smith held the fort, making 32 saves. For the visiting Lynx, five players had between 4 and 6 shots on goal, with Erik Cole leading the way with 6 shots and a goal. Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson scored on his only shot late in the first period.
London 4, Zurich 2
There were more than 14,700 displeased fans in Zurich on Thursday, but some of the people sitting there for the start of the game weren’t there at the end and many of those people seemed to be more active than the Lions players were. Zurich managed just 16 shots on London goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, while Lion goalie Brian Elliott was much busier, facing 36 shots. London limited Zurich’s top line to just 3 shots … and Zurich had 6 powerplay chances. The Knights’ young guns were firing, with Devin Setoguchi scoring twice and Taylor and Tyler (Hall and Seguin) getting one each. Jeff Skinner, the former Carolina Hurricane, assisted on 3 of the Knights’ 4 goals. Left wingers Patrick Sharp and Ilya Kovalchuk scored for Zurich.
Prague 6, Copenhagen 4
Prague spread out the scoring nicely on home ice against Copenhagen, with 6 different players scoring goals and 13 different players getting at least a point. Their first period was basically a knockout blow, as they outshot the Tridents 24-5 and built a 4-0 lead from which Copenhagen could not recover. Penalties were a big problem for the Tridents. They gave Prague a man advantage 11 times, and Sparta chased in on four of those opportunities. Copenhagen’s powerplay was a perfect 2 for 2, with Stephen Weiss and Fyodor Tyutin scoring. Those two were the first two stars, despite being members of the losing team. Prague’s Brett Clark didn’t record a point, but he was his team’s best defensive player, blocking 3 shots and administering 2 hits in 17 minutes of ice time. Prague outshot Copenhagen 49-20.
Moscow 6, Minsk 0
He doesn’t show it every game, but Alexander Ovechkin wowed a stadium full of people Thursday, reminding them that he has all-world talent. OV scored 3 times and had an assist in his 20 minutes of ice time, firring 7 rockets at Carey Price in the Minsk net. He and linemates Anze Kopitar and Mike Knuble were an impressive plus 5 as a unit. All 5 of that line’s goals were scored in the third period. Kopitar had 2 goals and an assist while going 18-11 in the faceoff circle. Jaroslav Haalk earned a 22-save shutout, getting help in the puck blocking department from Duncan Keith and David Jones, who stopped 3 each. Young defensemen Ryan McDonough and Nick Leddy of Minsk were victimized the most by Ovechkin’s line and were both minus 5. Moscow is now tied with Gothenberg for the Kharlamov Division lead, with Minsk 2 points behind them and St. Petersburg just a point out of first.
Helsinki 4, Athens 1
The Greeks outshot the Jokerit 39-29 but lost 4-1 thanks mainly to the scoring of Brad Marchand and the goaltending of Ilya Bryzgalov in the Helsinki net. The Russian stopped 38 shots, while Tomas Vokoun struggled at the other end of the rink. Vokoun was booed by the nearly 18,000 Athens fans and talk after the game was that the veteran net minder has played himself onto the trading block. Vokoun has started 14 of his team’s 18 games and has a 3.48 goals against average and a save percentage of .892. Backup Corey Crawford’s numbers aren’t as good (4.55 and .852). Marchand scored 3 goals, with Jack Johnson and John Tavares assisting on each one of them. Marty St. Louis scored Helsinki’s first goal, his 5th of the season from center Paul Stastny. Nathan Horton scored Athens’ only goal. The game got a little testy in the first period as Athens’ Scott Hartnell and Helsinki’s Anthony Stewart were each called for checking from behind majors about 6 minutes apart.
Bratislava 4, Madrid 3
Ryan O’Byrne, called up when Tyler Myers went down with an injury, was spectacular in his first EURO League game. The rough and tumble defenseman assisted on 3 goals, including the game-winner, and was named the game’s first star. He and Bratislava defense partner David Schlemko were each plus 3. Jonathan Toews scored a pair of goals for the Eagles and he’s in second place in the individual scoring race, now just 2 points behind Bern’s Jason Spezza. For the Royals, Sean Couturier and Alex Tanguay each had 2 assists and Joe Pavelski scored his 12th goal of the year, tying him for second in the league in that category. But the win in Madrid was very costly for Bratislava. Toews’ right wing, Marian Hossa was injured late in the second period with a knee injury after being taken into the boards by Royal defenseman Erik Karlsson, who is not known as a dirty player. Hossa, who is Bratislava’s second-leading scorer, is expected to miss in the neighborhood of 10 games. Bratislava will call up David Moss from the farm team and will probably move Tim Connelly to right wing and move Martin Erat to the place he started the season before being demoted due to Connolly’s strong play.
