Southern Conference powers Geneva and Bern steamrolled their opponents on Monday to set tones in their first playoff series, while Prague did the same to Bratislava. But in the conference’s other game, Milan stunned Munich in Germany as Steve Ott’s overtime goal ended a wild shootout that featured 54 shots by each team. The triple overtime game went 107 minutes.
Guerriero coach Randy Carlyle chose to start Josh Harding in goal instead of Antti Niemi and the move paid off. Harding was named the game’s first star, with his Munich counterpart Jonathan Quick earning the second star. During the regular season, Niemi played in 55 games for Milan, but Harding’s (29 games) stats were a little bit better. Niemi had a 3.07 goals against average and 0.887 save percentage, while Harding posted a 2.96 GAA and an 0.889 save percentage.
Milan’s penalty killers deserved praise as well. Not only did they keep the Foxes from scoring on any of their 11 powerplay chances, they killed off a 5-on-3 situation in the first period and again in the second overtime period.
Seven players logged more than 40 minutes of ice time, with Milan’s Henrik Sedin playing the most at 48 minutes. He also led all players in shots on goal, with one of his 9 shots getting through Quick and into the Munich net. Munich players were rammed all night by Milan’s massive Dustin Byfuglien, who was credited with 10 hits. But Byfuglien hurt himself too and is likely to miss some time in this series, leaving the Guerriero without two top defensemen. Trevor Daley is also injured and did not play Monday. Mike Richards put Milan up 2-0 near the end of the first period, but Brooks Laich of Munich scored in the second and Joe Thornton tied it in the third.
Geneva 4, Berlin 1
Mike Fisher had a goal and two assists to lead the Generals to a 1-0 series lead. He and linemates Marian Gaborik and Chris Kunitz helped Geneva to a 2-0 first period lead, with Nicklas Lidstrom’s slapshot goal in the third period essentially sealing the deal in the third period. Kari Lehtonen played solidly in goal for the Generals, stopping 24 of 25 shots. David Krejci and Braydon Coburn were the top Smurfs in the game, as Krejci fired 6 shots on goal and scored once. Coburn delivered 6 hits and blocked 2 shots. Berlin played the second and third periods without Nikolai Kulemin, who injured a foot, and they’ll likely have to go the rest of the series without him in the lineup. Kulemin, who was a 20-goal scorer with 52 points, started the series on the Smurfs’ top line with Logan Couture and R.J. Umberger. It is likely Kris Versteeg (18 goals and 54 points) will take the right wing spot on the top line with either Kevin Porter, Nick Bonino or Colton Gillies to be pressed into action for the remainder of the series.
Bern 6, Madrid 1
Henrik Zetterberg scored two powerplay goals and four other Bears scored goals for Bern in front of a sell-out crowd of 22,500 in the Swiss city. Zetterberg also had two assists, including one on Martin Havlat’s powerplay goal in the first period that made the score 4-1. Goalie Mike Smith was good for Bern, stopping 21 of 22 shots, while Madrid’s Tomas Vokoun left the game after giving up Bern’s sixth goal with 5:37 left to play. Jason Spezza, the league’s second-leading scorer during the regular season was held pointless by the Royals. Brent Seabrook, Bern’s all-star defenseman, played a great 28 minutes, blocking 2 shots, dishing out 6 hits and getting an assist while being plus 2 with fellow blueliner Sami Salo, who had two assists in 11 minutes.
Prague 5, Bratislava 1
Niclas Kronwall and Zach Parise each had a goal and two assists and the game was 5-0 by the time there was half a period to play. Prague scored twice in each of the first two periods, as Ryan Getzlaf, Jason Pominville, P-A Parenteau and Parise all lit the lamp. Kronwall scored in the third before Marian Hossa ruined the shutout bid of Sparta’s Ryan Miller. Getzlaf, centering Prague’s top line, had a game-leading 6 shots on goal and he won 20 of 33 faceoffs. Ruslan Fedotenko, the left wing on Sparta’s second line, had 5 shots on goal in 16 minutes of ice time. Bratislava’s top line of Jonathan Toews, Tyler Ennis and Hossa were clearly overmatched by Getzlaf’s line and coach Bruce Boudreau will be helpless to do much about it in game two of the series, with Prague having the last-change advantage as the home team.
Tuesday
When Oslo hosts Dublin for game two of their series, both teams will be missing a starting forward. Bobby Ryan, who scored a goal and had an assist in Sunday’s 5-3 win for the Fighting Irish, will be out of the Dublin lineup with “lower body” injury. Ryan scored 34 goals and 74 points during the regular season. Max Talbot of Oslo will also miss time, but with an “upper body” injury. It appeared that Talbot’s head hit the boards behind the Dublin net after he was checked by Irish defenseman Zbynek Michalek. Talbot, a checking forward, had 13 goals and 48 points for Oslo this season.
