Twice in a matter of 9 seconds, the Derek Roy to Dany Heatley combination worked for goals to blow open a tight game and win it for Copenhagen. Seventh-seeded Gothenburg took the Tridents to Game 7 in the opening round playoff series, and the contest was tied for almost all of the first 30 minutes. But Teddy Purcell put Copenhagen in front by a goal with 9:24 to go in the second period and a minute later, Roy-to-Heatley made it a steep 3-goal hill. The goals were Heatley’s second and third of the playoffs. Copenhagen wound up outshooting Gothenburg 36-23 with Roberto Luongo getting the win in net over Gburg’s Martin Brodeur. Gothenburg, which had to play minus injured forward Ales Hemsky, took a few too many penalties (6) to stay in the crucial game. Purcell had 5 shots on goal to lead all players in that category while six players had at least 2 points. Copenhagen played strong team defense in front of Luongo, with forwards Boyd Gordon and Colin Greening each blocking 3 shots in 8 and 14 minutes of ice time, respectively. The Tridents will probably spend more time in Sweden over the next two weeks, as Stockholm was one of the four Northern Conference teams to advance to the second round. It is likely top-seeded St. Petersburg will play the Dublin Fighting Irish in the other series.
Dublin 6, Oslo 3
Evander Kane had a lot to do with the win that the Fighting Irish celebrated in Game 7 between the fourth and fifth place teams in the Northern Conference. Kane scored two even-strength goals, giving him 6 for the series. Ryan Kesler also scored two for the winners, one on a powerplay and the other into an empty net. The game was virtually over after the second period, with the Irish visitors on top 5-2. They outshot Oslo 18-6 in that period and outscored them 2-0 on goals by Kane and Olli Jokinen. The first period was different. The Devils did much more of the shooting, owning a 17-9 advantage, but Dublin got more goals. Phil Kessel opened the scoring just 13 seconds after the opening puck drop and Kane added a goal shortly thereafter. Daniel Sedin scored his 6th of the series and Mikhail Grabovski tallied his 5th before the end of the first, but Kesler also scored. Int he battle of goalies, veteran Tim Thomas won over young star Jimmy Howard. Each team was 1 for 3 on the powerplay and the Irish’s second defense pair of Nikita Nikitin and Zbynek Michalek were plus 3 as a unit. Jaromir Jagr, Tomas Plekanec and Bobby Ryan each had 2 assists for Dublin, while Oslo’s Sedin had 2 assists to give him a 3-point night.
Saturday
The final first-round game will be held in Prague, where the Sparta will host Bratislava. The winner will move on to the second round and the loser’s season will be history. The only injured player is Ryan Getzlaf of Prague.
