Big names have big games for Moscow

Moscow 6, Paris 0

Filip Kuba was voted into the all-star game as Moscow’s only representative, leaving some big names back in Russia when the league’s best were playing in Slovakia on Sunday. Names like Ovechkin, Keith and Kopitar watched the game from a far … and apparently thought hard about why they weren’t there. Each of them scored a goal in Paris on Monday and each also had at least one assist. Kopitar ended with 4 points. Mike Knuble also made a statement with 2 goals for the Dynamo, who got shutout goaltending from Jaroslav Halak. Paris was just flat on Monday and will look to rebound in Milan on Wednesday. Two of Les Rouges Eiffels’ worst losses of the year have come at the hands of Moscow. The Dynamo beat them 7-2 a couple of weeks ago.

Oslo 6, Minsk 1

A day after waxing Moscow 7-3, the red-hot Devils buried Minski 6-1. Oslo has won its last 6 games and 9 out of their last 10. Doing most of the damage against Minsk was Daniel Sedin, who scored two goals and assisted on one. Defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron was a plus 3 with 2 assists, 5 hits and 2 blocked shots, while teammate Dan Girardi was nearly as good, going plus 3, with 2 assists, 2 hits and one blocked shot. Hussar Jakub Voracek broke up Jimmy Howard’s shutout, but Matt Niskanen might have been Minsk’s best player, blocking 4 shots in 13 minutes of play.

Stockholm 6, London 2

Stockholm scored 3 in the first and two more early in the second period to open a 5-1 lead on London. The Spartans shot more as the game went on, which is a good way to keep the opposition away from your goalie, but strangely, their scoring touch all but vanished. Unfortunately for London, they couldn’t get any momentum started against Stockholm goalie Johan Hedberg. Jordan Leopold scored one of Stockholm’s 3 powerplay goals and the veteran defenseman now has 7 goals this season. Eric Staal and Loui Eriksson also scored on the PP for Stockholm, who also benefited from goals by Staal again, Joey Crabb and Ryan Smyth. Jeff Skinner and Marco Scandella scored for London. The Knights are in fifth place in the Northern Conference, while Stockholm is in 10th place, 7 points out of a playoff spot.

Berlin 2, Zurich 0

Thomas Greiss was Smurf of the Day as he stopped 32 shots to shutout the Lions on Monday. It was Greiss’ first EURO League shutout and his goals against average dropped to 3.69, which isn’t as good as the 2.98 average of Mika Kiprusoff, the regular Berlin starter. Greiss stopped 10 Zurich shots in the first and third periods and 12 in the middle frame. Logan Couture scored for Berlin in the first period and Alexander Edler tallied in the second period. Berlin and Zurich are currently in 7th and 8th place, respectively, in the Southern Conference.

Helsinki 3, Gothenburg 1

Gothenberg outshot Helsinki 21-10 after two periods, but the score was tied 1-1 after powerplay goals by the Jokerits’ Paul Stastny and Gothenburg’s Milan Lucic. In the third period, it was all Helsinki. The home team outshot Gothenburg 17-2 and won it with goals from Nick Spaling – his 10th – and 23-year-old Zack Smith, his 1st in 7 games played this season. The game featured two of hockey’s most respected names in goal. Henrik Lundquist made 22 saves for Helsinki to win, while Martin Brodeur stopped 24 pucks for Gothenburg.

League notes:

Munich has new ownership, a new nickname and a new logo. Abandoned by Nicholas Dun, the Duns were purchased by Bavaria’s new favorite son, JCC1644, who promptly changed the team name to the Foxes. The sly guys will host Belfast on Tuesday in their first game under their new owner. Jonathan Quick is likely to get a little more rest from now on. For the Duns, the goalie who was picked third overall in the draft behind Gabriel Landeskog and Pekka Rinne often played tired with his stamina at very low levels.
Two teams that are tied at the top of their conference standings will do battle on Tuesday. Copenhagen will visit Bern. Both of the previous games between the two teams were fought tooth-and-nail and had to be decided in a shootout. Bern won the first meeting, while Copenhagen got its revenge 9 days later.