Stockholm 4, Paris 2
The first step new ownership took in Stockholm was out of the basement. Coming into Sunday’s game against Paris, the Spartans were in last place and the original owner bolted from Sweden. Stockholm fans didn’t have to wait long as Soberboy stepped in and agreed to take over. His team responded with a 4-2 win to leapfrog over Paris and Frankfurt in the standings. The situation certainly isn’t grim for the Spartans. With 64 games left in the season, they are only 4 points out of a playoff position. Daniel Cleary scored twice against Paris and now has a team leading 11 goals for the season. Kyle Okposo scored his first of the year for the winners. The bright spot for Paris was the plus-2 play of Les Rouges Eiffels’ top forward line of Evgeni Malkin (2 assists), Corey Perry (1 goal) and Joffrey Lupul (1 goal).
Copenhagen 6, Oslo 3
Stephen Weiss had a pair of goals and an assist to lead the way for Copenhagen against their closest division rival. Four other Tridents had multi-point games in track meet that saw the winners outshoot Oslo 44-34. Shea Weber had a goal and 2 assists for the Devils.
Gothenberg 6, Edinburgh 3
Three third-period penalties hurt Edinburgh because they resulted in 2 powerplay goals. Carl Hagelin had a great game for Gothenberg, scoring 3 goals. There was a lot of hitting in the game, with Gothenberg’s Daymond Langkow and John Carlson each laying 5 hits on Capitals players. Erik Johnson had 2 hits and 4 blocked shots for Gothenberg. For Edinburgh, Jay Bouwmeester and Derek Stepan each blocked 4 shots. Gothenberg will host another home game Monday, when another tired team, Oslo, pays a visit.
Bern 7, Zurich 2
After trailing 2-0 through most of the first period, the Bears turned it on and scored 7 unanswered goals. Brent Seabrook played well all over the ice, scoring a goal, assisting on 2 others and blocking 5 shots. Pascal Dupuis scored twice and added an assist. Drew Stafford and Ilya Kovalchuk each had a goal and an assist for Zurich.
Prague 6, Madrid 2
Prague outshot Madrid 38-25 in front of 22,299 Czech fans and zoomed out to a 4-0 lead. Six different players scored for Sparta. Zach Parise was the offensive star of the game, getting a goal, 2 assists and taking 7 shots for Prague. Four of Parise’s teammates had 2 points, while Henrik Sedin and Jeff Carter also had 2 for the Royals. Prague was to fly to suddenly-quiet London for a game with the Knights on Monday. Meanwhile, Madrid flies to the west to do battle in St. Petersburg Monday.
Moscow 3, Athens 2
Two goals by Anze Kopitar and one by David Jones led to a win for visiting Moscow. Kopitar, who started slowly, now has 10 goals this season. He also assisted on Jones’ goal. Jaro Halak was huge in goal for the Dynamo, stopping 42 of 44 Athens shots. Only a powerplay goal by Scotty Hartnell and a late goal by Michal Rozsival got by him. Although Athens chose to sit big George Parros, there was still a fight in the game, as Athens’ Nathan Horton and Moscow’s Shane O’Brien slugged it out in the first period.
