Athens 6, Milan 3
T.J. Oshie racked up 5 points on Wednesday as the Greeks won convincingly in Milan. Oshie scored the Greeks’ fourth goal and assisted on 4 other goals, including two by David Backes. The two former St. Louis Blues teammates are by far the top two scorers on the Athens squad this year, Oshie with 28 and Backes with 26 including a team-high 14 goals. Milan tried to make a game of it even though they were down 5-0 later in the second period. Sheldon Souray, Matt Moulson and Ryan Callahan scored three goals for the Guerriero, but Backes put it away with his second goal and fourth point of the game. He, Oshie and linemate Todd Bertuzzi were plus 5 as a unit, although Bertuzzi’s only contribution was an assist.
Berlin 6, Paris 4
The Smurfs are now 13-1 at home following a two-goal win over Paris. Mikael Samuelsson scored twice for the Smurfs, and three of his teammates had a goal and an assist. Paris’ Alex Pietrangelo was named the first star because he had the best plus/minus in the game (plus 3) as well as a goal, 3 hits and 2 blocked shots. Paris was shorthanded 6 times in the game while their powerplay unit didn’t get even one chance.
St. Petersburg 3, London 0
Both goalies had impressive games in this one, but London’s Semyon Varlamov had too many St. Petersburg shots coming his way. The game was scoreless until David Legwand scored his 12th of the season on Varlamov. The 1-0 game entered the third period when the home team dominated the visitors, outshooting them 17-5 and scoring two more goals. Pekka Rinne stopped 25 shots for the Lynx to earn his 4th shutout of the season while lowering his goals against average to 2.39, which is fourth in the league but just .17 from the top of the list. Marc-Eduoard Vlasic had 3 hits and 5 blocked shots for Petrograd, while Derek Morris had 7 hits and 2 blocked shots for the Knights. Both teams have an impressive 8-2 record in their last 10 games.
Minsk 4, Frankfurt 2
Patrik Berglund came into the game with 2 goals in the season, but he scored a hat trick in Frankfurt to lead the Hussars to a win. Matt Martin made an impact for Minsk as well, scoring a goal and registering 4 hits in just 9 minutes of ice time. Jakub Voracek and Magnus Paajarvi each had two assists on Berglund goals. For Frankfurt, Josh Gorges had a good game, logging 27 minutes, getting 4 hits and blocking 3 shots. Both teams had 29 shots on goal.
Bratislava 3, Dublin 1
Bratislava’s Tomas Kopecky has had about as bland a season as a player can have. He’s had second, and sometimes first line ice time, but has never stood out in one way or another. He never has a good game, but rarely has a bad one. He’s been like gravity; that is, you don’t notice him, but you know he’s doing his job. On Wednesday, he broke out by his standards, scoring a goal and getting an assist in helping the Eagles beat Dublin. Craig Anderson stopped 26 shots, allowing only Jaro Spacek to score on him. Bratislava’s big man, Zdeno Chara, put up some big numbers, with 5 shots on goal, 7 hits and 4 blocked shots.
Madrid 3, Copenhagen 2
Copenhagen was able to shackle Madrid’s top line of Joe Pavelski, Alex Tanguay and Brian Gionta, but the Royals still had enough weapons to win. Gabriel Landeskog, Brandon Prust and Sergei Gonchar scored for Madrid. Gonchar’s was his first of the year and it was the game-winner. Dany Heatley scored his 7th of the year and Teddy Purcell his 9th for the Tridents. Copenhagen’s Kevin Shattenkirk had 2 assists and 3 blocked shots, while Andrew Ladd had way more shots than anyone in the game, putting 8 on Madrid’s Tomas Vokoun. Copenhagen made an emergency free agent signing, enlisting for Vancouver Canuck Keith Ballard, who promptly got into a scrap with Paul Gaustad.
