Stockholm 6, Minsk 4
Coach Peter DeBoer and General Manager Tim Wagner hope Wednesday’s amazing comeback is symbolic foreshadowing for their Stockholm team. The Spartans trailed Minsk 4-0 after a period of hockey but stormed back with Kyle Okposo leading the charge that had Stockholm scoring 6 straight goals to win it. The Spartans need another comeback from a shaky start this season. They finished 10th overall last season with 93 points, but were in 19th place – 9th in the Northern Conference – before tonight’s game. Stockholm traded or failed to sign three members of the Season 1 squad – namely Ryan Smyth, Mark Fayne and Steve Sullivan – but in their place, they have some good players in Josef Vasicek, Mark Giordano and Ruslan Fedotenko. Smyth, by the way, has been reborn in Helsinki it seems, with 12 points in 12 games.
If Stockholm fans aren’t pleased with the start their team has gotten, they will look first at goalie Cam Ward, a foundation of the franchise who was only the 26th best goalie in the league today with a 4.08 goals against average and a save percentage of .870. Last season, his numbers were 3.22 and .893. Ward gave up 4 quick goals to the Hussars tonight, but hung in there and shut them out over the final 2 periods. His backup, Mathieu Garon, has great numbers, albeit in only two starts. In fact, Garon’s 1.39 goals against average and .950 save percentage are both better than those of Jonathan Quick, the EURO’s top-ranked goalie. Another slow starter has been Loui Eriksson, the talented Swedish-born winger who has just 7 points in 12 games. Last season he scored 97 points. Mikko Koivu, who had 2 points today and 2 points in the first meeting between the two teams ( a 5-2 Stockholm win on Oct. 7) has definitely not been part of the Spartans’ early problems. He is currently tied with 5 other players for 4th in scoring in the league with 18 points in 12 games, and he is tied with Bryan Little of Prague for the league goal scoring lead with 10 already this season.
Munich 3, Berlin 0 – The league’s top goalie was perfect in a battle of German teams Wednesday. Jon Quick stopped 30 shots to blank the Berlin Smurfs. He is the first goalie in the league to have 2 shutouts so far. And Munich winger Patrik Elias was a dead-eye, scoring three goals, one in each period. Joe Thornton assisted on 2 of the Elias goals and the Fox got good performances from defensemen Dion Phaneuf (5 hits) and Joe Corvo (1 hit and 3 blocked shots). The top Smurfs were Brian Campbell with 4 blocked shots and Ray Whitney with 5 shots on Quick.
Athens 2, Milan 1 – The Greeks treated the home fans to two early goals and held on for a win over Milan. David Backes scored his 5th of the season to open the scoring and teammate Nathan Horton scored his first of the season to make it 2-0. Goalie Michal Neuvirth couldn’t keep Henrik Sedin from scoring in the second, but he stopped the other 20 Guerriero shots to earn the win. Milan had more hits than Athens, 27-22, but Backes led everyone in the game with 6.
Madrid 4, Geneva 3 – Four Royal forwards scored in the first period and Tomas Vokoun shut the door in the third period as Madrid beat the visiting league champs. Jeff Carter and Joe Pavelski were the top scorers in the game, each notching a goal and an assist.
Zurich 4, Bern 3 – The Lions beat their Swiss rivals thanks in large part to the work of two of their Finnish stars. Joni Pitkanen assisted on Dan Hamhuis’ goal that made it 2-0, and then scored a goal of his own in the third period to make it 3-1. Jussi Jokinen made it a 4-1 hill for Bern climb when he scored with 12:53 to play. Zurich nearly choked by taking 10 penalties, which ended up costing them 3 Bern powerplay goals scored by Henrik Zetterberg, Jason Spezza and Martin Havlat.
Prague 4, Belfast 3 (OT-SO) – Goalies Ondrej Pavelec and Ryan Miller were not very impressive in the shootout, as 7 of 12 shooters scored on them. Fortunately for Miller, four of those scorers were his teammates. Ryan Getzlaf, who was not picked among the 6 Sparta shootout shooters, scored twice in the third period to force the game into overtime. Belfast had led 3-0 when they scored three times in 6 minutes of the first period. Victor Hedman and Pavel Kubina were active on the Giants’ back line, combining for 7 hits and 5 blocked shots.
