Jarome Iginla will be looking for a new home in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Russia, and the mortgage shouldn’t be a deterrent in his house hunting. SergeiP signed the star free agent to a three-year, $7.75 million deal with a player option after Iginla was bought out by Munich. St. Petersburg stumbled out of the gate this season but have been among the most powerful teams in the league since. The Lynx are battling Copenhagen for the top spot in the Northern Conference, and today they were boosted by two bits of good news: the Iginla signing and the announcement that they placed a league-high six players on the roster for this weekend’s all-star game. Forwards Brad Richards, Erik Cole and Blake Wheeler will start for the North, while Daniel Alfredsson, David Legwand and goalie Pekka Rinne also made the team. Iginla gives Petrograd an embarrassment of riches and the fact that he’s a right wing means … well, geez, they already have two all-stars – Wheeler and Alfredsson – on that side! The pressure will be on Coach Kevin Dineen to figure out a way to get all three of them sufficient ice time. None can play the point on the powerplay and a sneak preview of a lineup card has Wheeler – the first team all-star Wheeler – playing on the Lynx’ third line with Artem Anisimov and Vladimir Sobotka.
Athens 3, Paris 1
Paris had been quietly sneaking up the standings in the Southern Conference but their momentum hit a road block in Athens on Thursday. Les Rouges Eiffels are 5-5 in their last 10 games including the Athens loss. All 3 of the Greeks’ goals were scored on the powerplay, with Ian White, all-star T.J. Oshie and Ryan O’Reilly doing the honors. Kris Letang, a member of Paris’ strong corps of defensemen, scored their goal, while his teammates and fellow blueliners Mike Green and Alex Pietrangelo blocked 4 and 3 shots respectively. Another Paris D-man, Alexander Sulzer, had 6 hits and 1 blocked shot.
Madrid 6, London 2
Gabriel Landeskog and Joe Pavelski packed a 1-2 punch that the Knights couldn’t fight off. Each of them scored a pair of goals and Landeskog added an assist. London outshot the Royals 38-31 but it didn’t help that London gave Madrid 5 powerplay opportunities. The game was tied 2-2 in the second period when Madrid broke it open thanks to goals by Max Lapierre and Tomas Holmstrom. Madrid goalie Marty Biron stuffed the Knights 36 times to earn the win. Although Scott Gomez led London in shots on goal with 5, he doesn’t want to see Madrid’s Paul Gaustad ever again. Gomez was totally overmatched in the faceoff circle, taking most of his draws against Gaustad. Gomez was 2-14 on draws, while “the Goose” went 12-2.
Geneva 6, Edinburgh 3
Justin Williams had a great night for the Generals, scoring 2 goals, assisting on 2 others, getting credit for 2 hits and he was a plus 3. Imagine the game he would have had if he had gotten more than 7 minutes of ice time. His linemate Nick Foligno managed a goal and 2 assists in his 7 minutes. Edinburgh’s Chris Stewart played almost twice as much and he made an impression with 5 hits, a goal and and assist. Two of the Capitals’ defense pairings had wildly divergent results, with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Andy Greene going plus 3 and the Jay Bouwmeester-Francoios Beauchemin pairing suffering through a minus 4 night.
Prague 5, Stockholm 1
The home team scored four goals in the first period – Ryan Getzlaf netting two of them – to pull away from Stockholm early. Miko Koivu’s 11th goal of the season kept Ryan Miller from getting a shutout, but he’ll take the win. Jay McClement scored a goal and had an assist for the Sparta team which is now tied for first place overall with Geneva. In 21 home games, Prague has failed to come away with 2 points only 4 times. Madrid, at 15-2, is the only EURO team that has had more success on home ice.
Copenhagen 2, Helsinki 0
The Tridents are back at the top of the Northern Conference standings, thanks to a 2-0 shutout that was more great team play than great goaltending by all-star Roberto Luongo. Copenhagen outshot Helsinki 48-14. A sharp-angle wrist shot to the top of the net by Derek Roy broke a scoreless tie late in the second period. Roy’s 14th of the seas0n was the first puck Steve Mason allowed past him in about 35 Copenhagen tries. Mason was giving recently-acquired Henrik Lundquist some relief in Helsinki’s goal. Jamie Langenbrunner added a goal to Copenhagen’s slim lead early in the third period. The game featured a lot of hitting, with Helsinki’s Mark Stuart leading the pack with 8 hits. On the Copenhagen side of the scoresheet, every skater except Carl Gunnarsson was credited with at least one hit.
Bratislava 6, Minsk 3
Kyle Clifford used his snapshot instead of his fists to get Minsk going in the right direction early in the third period when he scored to tie the game, but Bratislava’s Martin Hanzal and Franz Nielsen saw his goal and raised him a goal. Patrik Hornquist scored another Minsk goal to make it 4-3, but the visiting Eagles had two more goals in them before it was all over. Zdeno Chara was named the game’s first star after a 26-minute, plus 3 performance that including a goal, an assist and 4 hits. The Hussars’ Ryan McDonagh played well, getting 2 asissts, 3 hits and 3 blocked shots in 27 minutes of ice time. Chara and McDonagh will face each other again this weekend in the EURO all-star game.
