Stockholm 4, St. Petersburg 2
Mikko Koivu and his partner in crime Dan Cleary dominated Wednesday night as their Stockholm team topped St. Petersburg 4-2. Cleary assisted Koivu for goals four times, including two in the first period and two more in the final one. Those two are suddenly tied with Prague’s Ryan Getzlaf atop the scoring leaders chart. Cleary has 1 goal and 9 assists, while Koivu has 6 goals and 4 assists. Stockholm is used to having players near the top of the league scorers, but not necessarily those two. Last season, Eric Staal finished 3rd in scoring and Loui Ericsson finished 13th in the league. Koivu scored 23 goals and 75 points while Cleary put up 27 goals and 54 points. St. Petersburg fought back to tie the game at 2-2 on a shorthanded goal by David Legwand, but Koivu had more goals up his sleeve.
Belfast 4, Dublin 3 (OT-SO)
The Giants won the latest Battle of Ireland thanks to their two marquee players who didn’t seem to do much until the game went to a shootout. Belfast tied the game at 2-2 when rookie Tony Martensson scored his second goal of the game in the third period, and then they took the lead on Marcel Goc’s second of the season. But the Fighting Irish tied it and sent it into overtime when Ryan Kesler notched his second of the game and 4th of the season. In the shootout, Sidney Crosby and Rick Nash both scored on Dublin’s Tim Thomas, while Cory Schneider stopped both of Dublin’s shooters. Before the shootout, Nash was out there for 26 minutes but was almost invisible, with no shots and a minus 1 rating. Crosby managed to fire 6 shots at Thomas, but he was also a minus 1. Kesler was the best offensive player in the game, getting 8 shots on goal, scoring twice and assisting on a Keith Yandle goal.
Oslo 6, London 2
Pavel Datsyuk and Daniel Sedin scored two goals each and the Outlaws powerplay clicked 3 times in 7 tries in beating the Dons in front of nearly 18,000 Oslo fans. Shea Weber and P.A. Parenteau each had three assists for the winners. The young London squad was led by forward Jeff Skinner, who had a goal and an assist, and defensemen Luca Sbisa and Jake Gardiner, who blocked 7 shots between them. The game seemed to stall out in the third period, when there were only 8 shots on goal, 5 of them by Oslo, which is now 3-2. London is 1-4.
Helsinki 3, Athens 1
The Jokerit got two pucks past Corey Crawford early in the game and Henrik Lundqvist was his stingy self, stopped 27 of 28 Greek shots. Paul Stastny started the scoring and then assisted on a Marty St. Louis goal to give Helsinki an early lead. Ryan Smyth assisted on both goals. Athens made it a one-goal game when T.J. Oshie banged one off the crossbar and in to score his 3rd of the season. But in the second period, Helsinki struck again on a goal by Nik Antropov from defensemen Chris Phillips and Jack Johnson. The final period was scoreless but featured a fight between Greek rookie Staffan Kronwall and Jokerit forward Justin Abdelkader.
Moscow 5, Berlin 4
A three-goal outburst in the third period had the Moscow fans rocking and offset a ferocious Berlin attack that besieged Spartak goalie Jaroslav Halak with 40 shots in the first two periods alone. With Berlin on top 3-2, Jannik Hansen score his third of the year and got momentum on Moscow’s side. Moscow’s Travis Moen and Benoit Pouliot added goals, the second of the season for both. Pouliot, who played just 5 minutes, was the game’s top scorer with 2 goals and 1 assist. Berlin’s best players were David Krejci and Nikolai Kulemin, who each recorded a goal and an assist, and Alexander Edler, who had 4 hits and 2 blocked shots. Filip Kuba had the same stats on the Moscow side.
Zurich 5, Prague 1
The Lions were as ferocious as they have been in their EURO League existence Wednesday in Prague, winning 5-1, outshooting Sparta 33-24 and collecting 6 minor penalties along the way. Patrick Kane notched his first and second goals of the campaign on Prague goalie Ryan Miller, with Drew Stafford, Patrice Bergeron and Joni Pitkanen also beating him. Prague only took one penalty, but they managed to beat Brian Elliott just once, on a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who has looked dangerous this season and now has 4 goals. As a rookie last season, he scored just 9 goals in 72 games. Pitkanen and defense partner Dan Hamuis were plus 3 as a pair, while four Sparta players were minus 3 for the game. It was Zurich’s first win of the season and they dropped Prague to 3-2.
