Little hat trick bags the Bears

Prague 5, Bern 3 Prague took down the mighty Bern Bears, and Bryan Little was their biggest player. Little scored a hat trick and one was one of 4 Sparta forwards who had 6 shots on goal. Prague ended up outshooting Bern 39-28. Bear star Jason Spezza had a tough go of it, getting an…

Giroux fires in 2 for Inferno

Frankfurt 3, Berlin 2 Claude Giroux took a Steven Stamkos pass and with a lightning fast release, beat Mika Kiprusoff to give the Inferno a 1-0 lead over the Smurfs in the first period. It worked so well, Stamkos and Giroux did it again in the second period. And when Yannick Weber scored his second…

Ray Whitney moves into second in scoring

Bern 6, Madrid 2 Madrid outshot Bern 39-32 but lost by 4 goals.  The line of Henrik Zetterberg, Jason Spezza and Radim Vrbata did the most damage, with Zetterberg scoring two times. Spezza and Ray Whitney, who are now the league’s top two scorers, each had 3 assists. Sergei Gonchar and Jeff Carter of Madrid…

Schneider shuts out Moscow in 1-0 game

Belfast 1, Moscow 0 Cory Schneider was spectacular in net for the Giants Saturday, stopping all 38 Moscow shots to earn his first EURO League shutout in 14 games. Schneider now has a goals against average of 3.03 and has a save percentage of 91.9, which places him third in the league in that category…

Penalties punish Milan in Madrid

Madrid 6, Milan 0 The ref hates Milan. It’s the only explanation. On Friday, the Guerriero were whistled 11 times for penalties and the Royals went the whole game without being shorthanded even once. And the Royals really took advantage of the situation, scoring 5 powerplay goals. Michal Neuvirth did a fine job in goal…

St. Perfectburg

St. Petersburg 1, Edinburgh o (overtime) Sixty minutes of play ended with neither Pekka Rinne nor Henrik Lundquist allowing a single goal. Then, on the first shot of overtime, Brad Richards beat Lundquist to end it and give St. Petersburg a road win and an extra point in the standings. A day after Felix Hernandez…

EURO League attendance report

Pop quiz: Which team do you think draws more fans to their homes games – the team at the top of the standings, or the team at the bottom of standings? The answer is last place Paris. Les Rouges Eiffels have an average attendance of 22,242 per game this season, which is tops in the…

Belfast wins 3-1 for fifth straight

Belfast 3, Helsinki 1 Whoa. What has gotten into Belfast? After starting the season 2-13, the Giants have reeled off 5 straights wins, their latest victim being goalie Steve Mason and the Helsinki Jokerit. The easy answer for the Giants’ turnaround would be Rick Nash and a healthy Sidney Crosby. But the two superstars haven’t…

Backes scores lone goal in Athens win

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…

Burrows goal downs Gothenberg

Oslo 4, Gothenberg 3 Gothenberg fought back to tie the game with 5:28 left on a Daniel Girardi powerplay goal, but Alex Burrows of Oslo dashed Gothenberg hopes with a shorthanded goal with just over a minute left. Oslo was very liberal with hockey rules, giving Gothenberg 11 powerplays, including 3 after Girardi’s goal with…