Paris 4, Munich 3 (shootout)
Shut out the night before and trailing 3-1 with a little more than 2 minutes to go, the Paris Rouges Eiffels found something inside them and pulled out 2 points. Kyle Turris scored his 5th of the season on a 2-on-1 with David Perron with 2:14 to play, and then with their goalie plled, Alex Pietrangelo intercepted a pass in the neutral zone, skated in and blasted a slapshot past Jon Quick to tie the game with 18 seconds remaining. Evgeni Malkin, Cory Perry and Perron all scored in the shootout, ignitinghe sellout crowd of 22,500 with each goal. Malkin also scored in regulation to become the fifth EURO League player to score 20 goals or more this season. Munich’s Joe Corvo had 5 hits and 4 shots on Tukka Rask. Mike Green of Paris had 7 hits. Munich outshot Paris 42-37, and both teams have 5 wins int heir last 10 games.
Dublin 4, Moscow 3
The Fighting Irish are on a roll, as their one-goal win in Moscow gvies them 9 wins in their last 10 games. On Thursday, they were paced by an odd couple, 39-year-old Jaromir Jagr and 20-year-old Evander Kane. Each scored two goals against Jaroslav Halak and they are now fifth (Kane) and sixth (Jagr) on their team in scoring with 19 and 18 points respectively in 31 games. Their linemate, Tomas Plekanec, assisted on all 4 goals. Moscow had a two-goal man of their own in Mike Knuble, and Vinny Prospal scored once on Tim Thomas, who made 37 saves. Moscow is now in danger of being passed in the standings by Helsinki for the all important 8th spot int he conference.
Copenhagen 2, Edinburgh 1
Great goaltending by Roberto Luongo and two goals int he second period vaulted Copenhagen back into first place in the Northern Conference. Luongo stopped 32 of 33 Capitals shots and was named the game’s first star. Ben Ferriero and Derek Roy pumped in goals in the second for the Tridents, but Jamie Benn made it interesting with under 3 minutes to play when he scored his 10th to make it 2-1.
Bratislava 7, Frankfurt 5
The Eagles came out on top in a track meet that featured 12 goals. They only outshot Frankfurt 24-23, but Richard Bachman was a little better than Ondrej Pavelec between the pipes. Steven Stamkos had the best offensive game of anyone despite being on the losing side. Stamkos scored 3 goals and had one assist. He is now has 45 points and is fourth in the league in scoring behind Joe Thornton of Munich (46) Jonathan Toews of Bratislava (47) and Jason Spezza of Bern (52). Toews had a goal and an assist and was one of five Eagles with multi-point games. Martin Hanzal led all Bratislavians with 3 points (1 goal and 2 assists) and 3 blocked shots in just 9 minutes of play. The Eagles are now in first place overall.
Prague 6, Milan 1
Prague waited until they were down 1-0 about 4 and a half minutes into the second period before they got on the scoreboard thanks to a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins goal. Then they turned on the after-burners, got two goals apiece from Jason Pominville and Ryan Getzlaf, and left Milan in their jet trail. Pominville ended the game with 4 points, while Getzlaf had 3, as well as 3 hits and 3 blocked shots. Eric Brewer also had 3 points, all assists. Viktor Stalberg scored his 6th of the season for Milan. Prague is now in fourth place in the Southern Conference, 4 points behind leader Bratislava.
Geneva 5, Athens 4
Much to the delight of more than 18,500 home fans, the Greeks were able to tie their game with tough Geneva and send it into overtime, but Teemu Selanne silenced them with the game-winner in a shootout. Marion Gaborik staked the Generals to a 2-0 lead with goals in the first period and later added an assist to win first star honors. Justin Williams and Michael Del Zotto also scored for Geneva, while Todd Bertuzzi, Jared Spurgeon, Scotty Hartnell and Eric Condra scored for Athens. Nick Lidstrom had 4 blocked shots for Geneva and Spurgeon had 3 for Athens.
