Copenhagen 7, Oslo 4
Oh sure. The league announces there is going to be an all-star game and Derek Roy goes ballistic, coming up with a five-point, plus 4 performance in 14 minutes of playing time while going 14-6 on faceoffs. We’re surprised Royzie didn’t change his jersey number from “9” to “Vote for Me.” But Copenhagen will certainly take the 3 goals and 2 assists that helped them put away Oslo on Monday. It’s fairly safe to say that if it wasn’t for Roy, Oslo could have won. They outshot the Tridents 37-19, so Copenhagen’s Roberto Luongo played a pretty large role himself in the victory, but Roy seemed to have Devils goalie Jimmy Howard’s number. Oslo got nice games out of Daniel Briere and Mikhail Grabovsky, who each scored a goal and had two assists.
Dublin 4, Gothenburg 3
Dublin scored three goals in the first period to assume the lead earlier, but it took a Phil Kessel goal with 5:41 left to give the Fighting Irish their win in Gothenburg. The win turned a 3-point gap between the two teams into a 5-point bulge in the super tight Northern Conference standings. Two young defensemen – Alec Martinez and John Carlson – scored their first goals of the year to make a game of it for Gothenburg and the they fought back to tie the game on a Milan Lucic tally in the third period, but Kessel clinched it for Dublin. Lucic and Jordan Eberle had 2 points each for Gothenburg, while Ryan Kesler, Bobby Ryan and Keith Yandle equaled the feat for Dublin. Yandle also had 4 blocked shots and was named the game’s first star.
Geneva 3, Madrid 1
Revenge was sweet for the Generals, beating Madrid by 2 just 24 hours after Madrid beat them by 2. Madrid came out flat, getting only 3 shots on Geneva netminder Kari Lehtonen in the first period. Generals fans mocked Madrid’s fans by chanting “Ole!” on many of the saves Lehtonen made. It was retaliation for what went on in Spain the night before. Patrick Marleau finished off a pretty passing play with Nick Lidstrom and Marion Gaborik to score his 17th of the season and put Geneva up 1-0 in the second period, but the Generals took four straight penalties in the third period to allow Madrid back into the game. In fact, on the first of those four powerplays, Madrid’s Tomas Holmstrom, parked in front of Lehtonen, deflected in a shot to tie it. But Geneva got a huge goal from Michael Del Zotto while they were killing off a bench minor, and Nick Foligno added an empty-net goal to quash any hopes the Royals had of tying the game.
Prague 8, Frankfurt 4
Bryan Little and Zach Parise led the Prague goal parade with two each, and Niclas Kronwall and Jason Pominville had 3-point games for the Sparta. Little now has 22 goals this season. Frankfurt had more shots than did the winners, but what hurt them the most was a major penalty taken by Josh Gorges with the score tied at 1-1. Prague was able to put two past Frankfurt’s Ray Emery while Gorges was in the penalty box. Steven Stamkos scored his 20th of the season for the Inferno.
Munich 7, Stockholm 4
Two Patrik Elias goals in the second period broke a 3-3 tie and made it 5-3 Munich going into the third period. Elias also had 8 shots on goal, a shot block and a hit to his credit, but wound up as a minus 1 for the night. The Duns’ powerplay practice paid off with 4 goals in 7 chances with the man advantage and Munich was one of three EURO teams that scored at least 7 goals on Monday. Overshadowed in the game was the play of Loui Eriksson, one of Stockholm’s most consistent performers this season. Eriksson scored a hat trick and assisted on the only other Spartan goal, scored by Eric Staal.
Bern 5, Milan 2
The Bears opened up a 3-point lead over their closest rivals – Bratislava, Geneva and Prague. How they did it on Monday remains a bit of a mystery. They were outshot by Milan 44-20 but J. S. Giguere was simply stupendous for Bern in goal. The Bears also gave Milan 9 chances to score on the powerplay, but the Guerriero came up empty every time. Milan coach Randy Carlyle might want to watch tape of what the Munich powerplay did on Monday. Aside from Giguere, two Bern players contributed substantially to the win. Brent Seabrook scored two goals and had one assist from his defense position, while center Andy McDonald scored a pair of goals. Bern’s top two scorers, Jason Spezza and Ray Whitney, each added 2 points to their season totals. For Milan, Viktor Stalberg was most productive player despite skating only 7 minutes. He had a goal and an assist on Jason Garrison’s 5th of the season which opened the scoring in the game.
