Paris 5, Zurich 4
The Zurich Lions wanted to impress new owner CristoWall and put 48 shots on Paris goalie Jose Theodore, but there were just too many Swiss misses, as Les Rouges Eiffels emerged with a one-goal win. Michael Ryder had 10 shots himself to lead everyone in the game, but he managed just an assist and was a minus 2. The fast-paced game was right up the alley of Zurich’s Patrick Kane (2 goals and 1 assist) and Ilya Kovalchuk (1 goal and 1 assist), but they were outdone by a pair of Paris defensemen – Alex Pietrangelo (2 goals and 2 assists) and Mike Green (3 assists). Green was a plus 3. The real dagger came with 41 seconds left when the two defensemen assisted on Corey Perry’s 10 of the season.
Edinburgh 3, Athens 2
The Edinburgh Capitals came back from Wednesday’s loss to Belfast with a win over visiting Athens on Thursday. The Caps scored the first 3 goals of the game and held on to win by a goal. They outshot the Greeks 34-20. Edinburgh was led by the defense pairing of Francois Beauchemin and Ed Jovanovski, who were plus 2 on the day. James Neal, Andrei Kostitsyn and Chris Stewart scored the Capital goals, while Ryan O’Reilly and Ian White scored for Athens. Edinburgh is now 6-4-2 at home and they are tied with Helsinki for that all-important 8th place spot in the Northern Conference. Athens has sifted down to the bottom of the league standings after 24 games, but it’s still too early to count them out.
Geneva 6, Bern 1
Geneva produced one of the season’s most shocking outcomes thus far by turning the Bears into Teddy Bears in front of 22,500 Bern fans. Bern could only muster 11 shots in the game, which is one more than Michael Ryder had for Zurich in their game with Paris Thursday. Geneva had everything going their way as scoring came from six different sources, including 3 blueliners. And they committed no penalties. Voting for the 3 stars had to be difficult for the local media with such a team effort but they gave veteran defenseman Greg Zanon the first star. He scored a goal and had one assist, along with 4 hits and a blocked shots in 17 minutes of work. The league’s top line of Jason Spezza, Radim Vrbata and Henrik Zetterberg was minus 3 and each of those skaters had just 1 shot on goal. The Generals have now won 7 of their last 10 games and only trail Bratislava by 3 points and Bern by 5 in the Southern Conference. They have also beaten Bern in two of the three meetings of the Swiss rivals.
Dublin 5, Belfast 2
After snapping Bratislava’s win streak at 13 games, the Fighting Irish are looking at another win streak: their own. A 5-2 win over their Northern Irish rival gives them three straight. Dublin doubled Belfast’s shot total 40-20 with Evander Kane and Ryan Kesler accounting for 12 shots combined. Kesler also blocked two Giants shots and was 23-9 on faceoffs. Four Dublin players had 2-point nights as Tomas Plekanec and Tomas Fleischmann each had a goal and an assist and Nick Schultz and Jaromir Jagr had 2 assists each. P.K. Subban had two points for Belfast and he and Rick Nash were the only Giants to score. Sidney Crosby was minus 3 and had just 1 shot on goal, but managed an assist. The season series between the Irish teams is 1-1.
Copenhagen 6, Gothenburg 3
The Tridents got to Martin Brodeur for 5 goals on 17 shots and the hall of famer was lifted in the second period with his team trailing 5-0. Teddy Purcell scored a goal in each of the first two periods and was named the second star of the game behind teammate Fyodor Tyutin, who had 2 points including his 5th goal of the year and was a plus 2. Derek Roy, Troy Brouwer and Dany Heatley were plus 3, skating as Copenhagen’s second line. Cal Clutterbuck and Sam Gagner each had two points for Gothenburg. Jonas Hiller got a win in his 5th start of the season and his record is 3-2 for Copenhagen.
Berlin 3, Oslo 2
R.J. Umberger’s goal in the second period put the Smurfs ahead 3-0 and it wound up being the game-winner. It was goal number 13 on the year for Umberger. Berlin got first-period goals out of Brayden Coburn and Matt Read, and then they went into a defensive shell in the third period and were outshot 11-3 by Oslo. Fortunately for the Smurfs, goalie Mika Kiprusoff bent – he allowed goals by Mikhail Grabovski and Daniel Briere – but he didn’t break. Briere and Tykler Kennedy each had 5 shots on goal for Oslo and Shea Weber was big, getting 3 hits and blocking 3 shots. Alexander Edler of Berlin led everyone in hits with 7.
