Athens 1, Geneva 0

It’s a good thing David Backes scored in the third period for Athens or this game would still be going on. The lone goal came as a result of hard work. The Greeks were able to clog the area in front of Generals goalie Curtis Sanford and Backes was able to bang home a rebound of a Lubmir Visnovsky slapshot. It was the 10th goal of the year for Backes. Tomas Vokoun earned the shutout for the Greeks, who outshot Geneva 23-14.

Moscow 2, Munich 1

Moscow is climbing the Northern Conference standings with its 7th win in the last 10 games, a 2-1 win over the Duns. The Dynamos only took one penalty and got a second-period goal from James Van Riemsdyk and an overtime winner from David Bolland. Although they were shorthanded 6 times, Munich was able to outshoot the Dynamos 32-18, but the only scored once on Jaroslav Halak, a sharp-angle wrist shot by Joe Thornton.  Moscow’s Filip Kuba had a memorable game, blocking 2 shots, getting and assist and dishing out 8 hits.  Moscow now has 22 points, tied for third-most in the conference. Munich has not lost in regulation time on home ice this season, with a 7-0-4 record in Munich.

Stockholm 3, Zurich 0

Cam Ward showed his new boss Soberboy that he’s the man, stopping 37 shots to whitewash Zurich on Tuesday. Ward stopped between 11 and 14 shots each period while his Zurich counterpart Brian Elliott was only able to work two shutout periods. The game’s first goal came in the third period when Kyle Okposo scored 22 seconds in. The the trio of Shane Doan, Louie Eriksson and Eric Staal clicked twice on the powerplay. Zurich got a nice game out of defenseman Barrett Jackman, who registered 4 hits and blocked 3 shots.

Copenhagen 3, Berlin 2

Here was Copenhagen’s recipe for success on Tuesday: Give up 39 Berlin shots, take only 18  yourself, mix in 13 penalties, three pinches of defending 5-on-3 situations, close your eyes, say a good prayer … and win the game. It’s a box score that’s worth looking at if you haven’t seen it already. Copenhagen’s penalty killers are undoubtedly grateful they have Wednesday off and the Smurfs surely have to be angry at Roberto Luongo who turned in a super human effort in the Trident goal to thwart them.  Logan Couture and Jochen Hecht had 12 shots at Luongo between them, but neither was able to score. With the win, Copenhagen was able to widen their conference lead to 4 points over the second place team, Oslo.

Belfast 4, Edinburgh 2

Both teams started their backup goalies and the Irishmen topped the Scots. The Giants took a 3-0 lead with one in the first period and two in the second. Wayne Simmonds and Clarke MacArthur scored to bring Edinburgh within a goal, but Matt Duchene set up Gabriel Bourque perfectly for his 7th of the season to widen the lead. More than 21,000 attended the game in Belfast.

Bern 4, Frankfurt 3

Berlin’s Ray Whitney opened the scoring in the first period and closed it in sudden death overtime. In between, Jason Spezza became the EURO League’s first 20-goal scorer. Penalties hurt Frankfurt more than anything else. The first call of the game came early on Ryan Wilson, who earned himself 5 minutes in the box for a checking from behind major. Whitney made him pay about a minute into it with a goal. But 24 seconds into their first powerplay, the Inferno washed it out with a penalty of their own … followed by 4 more calls before the end of the first period. In the third period, they took 4 more penalties. Bern is the league’s top team with a 16-2-1 record, while Frankfurt is second from the bottom at 5-11-2.