Fans attending the first-ever EURO playoff game in Copenhagen Sunday were hoping Swiss-born goalie Jonas Hiller would be able to get the job done in net while Roberto Luongo nurses a finger injury he sustained in the final game of the regular season. But it was apparent by the end of the first period, Hiller was not ready. Gothenburg scored four times in the first period and twice in the second en route to a 6-2 win and a 1-0 lead in the series.
Hiller, who played in 15 games during the regular season with an 86.9 save percentage, stopped only 22 of the 28 shots sent his way on Sunday. Coach Brent Sutter would not say if he thought Luongo will be ready for Game 2 of the season on Tuesday, and if he’s not, Hiller will have to sharpen his game if the Tridents hope to stay out of a 2-0 hole.
Gothenburg got goals from six different players in the game. David Booth scored one of them and assisted on two others. The line of Booth, Vincent LeCavalier and Radek Dvorak was plus three as a unit, as was the defense pairing of American John Carlson and Swede Johnny Oduya.
Derek Roy was the most noticeable Copenhagen player, getting 8 shots on goal in a losing effort.
During the regular season, Copenhagen – the second seed – had the best home record of all Northern Conference teams with a 30-8-3 record. Gothenburg was among several teams on the bubble of getting into the playoffs late in the year, with Helsinki being the odd team out, finishing 4 points out.
Stockholm 5, Edinburgh 2
In Stockholm, the third seeded Spartans, outshot the visiting Capitals 42-23 and got a great performance out of their top line of Eric Staal, Shane Doan and Loui Ericksson. Ericksson scored two goals and had one assist, Staal scored one and had 2 assists, while Doan had 2 assists. Together, they accounted for 15 shots on Edinburgh goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.
During the regular season, Staal finished third in scoring behind Steven Stamkos of Frankfurt and Jason Spezza of Bern. He and Stamkos were the only players to reach the 50-goal plateau. Ericksson was 13th in the league with 97 points.
Edinburgh stayed in it for two periods thanks to goals by Andrei Kostitsyn and Daniel Winnick, and was trailing by only a goal when the third period began.
Dublin 5, Oslo 3
Dublin scored twice while shorthanded in the final minute of the second period and that proved to be the margin of victory in Norway. Bobby Ryan, Ryan Kesler and Cody Franson each scored to give the Fighting Irish a 3-0 lead before a booming shot by Shea Weber gave the home fans a chance to cheer. But Olli Jokinen grabbed a mishandled puck and whipped it past a startled Jimmy Howard and into the Oslo net to make it 4-1 with just 4 seconds left in a Devils powerplay. About 10 seconds later, Dublin’s Jaromir Jagr was whistled for another penalty, but 20 seconds into that man advantage and it was another shorthanded goal for Dublin courtesy of James Wisniewski. Jokinen did not have a shorthanded goal during the regular season, while Wisniewski had 1. The league leader in that category was Bryan Little of Prague, with 7.
Alexandre Burrows narrowed the gap with a pair of third period goals, but Tim Thomas and the Fighting Irish held on for the 1-0 series lead.
St. Petersburg 4, London 1
The powerful Lynx, who won the conference crown in the regular season, dominated London in Petrograd, outshooting them 33-17 on Sunday. Second liners Blake Wheeler and David Legwand did the most damage, with 11 shots between them while each tallied a goal and an assist against Marc-Andre Fleury in the London net. Vladimir Sobotka and Eric Belanger scored the other Lynx goals. The young Knights had trouble getting close to the St. Pete net and when they did Pekka Rinne was there to stop almost everything.
On Monday, four other series open with top-ranked Geneva hosting Berlin, Bern hosting Madrid, Bratislava visiting Prague in a battle of two cities from the former country of Czechoslovakia, and Milan traveling to Munich to test their luck against Jonathan Quick and the Foxes.
