The Dublin Fighting Irish got a taste of the St. Petersburg Lynx at their best on Tuesday and now they’re feeling a bit queasy. Jarome Iginla, Viktor Stalberg and Willie Mitchell served up three goals and that was plenty big enough for Pekka Rinne, who starts the second round of the EURO playoffs with a shutout. St. Petersburg, the conference champ during the regular season, outshot Dublin 39-22 – and 19-3 in the third period – in front of their home fans. The game was scoreless for the first 30 minutes. Then Stalberg struck with a backhander from the about 10 feet out to beat Tim Thomas. The game was marked by spirited play with a total of 12 penalties being assessed in all. The Lynx couldn’t score on 7 powerplay opportunities, while Dublin was 0 for 5. Ryan Kesler didn’t have one of his typically good efforts. The first-line center took three penalties and was a minus 3 along with linemate Phil Kessel. Kessel and St. Petersburg’s Erik Cole, two American players, both had 5 shots on goal to lead all skaters in the game. Eric Belanger and Kevin Bieksa each had two assists for the Lynx. In the first round, St. Petersburg dispatched another UK team, London, in five games, while Dublin squeaked past Oslo in seven games to earn the trip to Russia this week.
Copenhagen 2, Stockholm 1 (OT)
In an evenly played, tight defensive game, three Copenhagen forwards shared the hero’s spotlight. The line of Derek Roy, Troy Brouwer and Dany Heatley combined for the two goals, including the huge overtime tally by Brouwer to win Game 1 of the series. The trio made up the Tridents’ second line, playing behind Stephen Weiss, Teddy Purcell and Andrew Ladd. Roy’s line was out against Stockholm’s line of Kyle Okposo, Ryan Clowe and Tuomo Ruutu for both of their goals. Stockholm has an equally talented set of forwards and their powerplay provided a game-tying goal in the second period. Mika Koivu scored his first of the playoffs with assists going to Daniel Cleary and Steve Sullivan. Goalies Roberto Luongo of Copenhagen and Cam Ward of Stockholm were solid, allowing just one goal each through regulation. despite being minus 2, Jordan Leopold turned in some noteworthy stats on Tuesday. He played 31 minutes and blocked 5 shots to go along with 3 hits. Stockholm’s top line of Eric Staal, Lui Ericsson and Shane Doan was out there together for more than 30 minutes and registered 13 shots on Luongo.
