Weekend Wrap-up
Sunday Games
Edinburgh 3, Belfast 2 (OT-SO) – Matt Duchene’s shorthanded goal tied it for the home town Giants, but Rick Nash and Sidney Crosby were stopped by Ilya Bryzgalov in the shootout. Derek Stepan scored in the first period and in the shootout. Victor Hedman blocked 5 shots for Belfast but accounted for 2 of Belfast’s 20 minutes in penalties. The bad news for Edinburgh is that leading scorer John Tavares suffered an injury and should have to sit out several games.
Geneva 5, Bratislava 1 – David Desharnais scored twice as the visiting Generals outshot the Eagles 26-17. Ville Leino scored for the second time this season and ruined Geneva goalie Kari Lehtonen’s shutout bid.
Gothenburg 4, Copenhagen 3 – Martin Brodeur made 29 saves and Jordan Eberle had a goal and an assist for the Devils. Ville Peltonen had two assists for Copenhagen, while Kevin Dallman and Fyodor Tyutin blocked 4 and 3 shots respectively. Last season’s leading scorer for Gothenburg, Vinny Lecavalier, went down with a back injury and is expected to miss more than 2 weeks.
Helsinki 5, Prague 2 – Prague fired 40 shots on Henrik Lunqvist in the Helsinki goal but came away on the short end of a 5-2 score. Israel-born Eli Sherbatov scored his first-ever goal for the Jokerit, who also got two goals from veteran Jarret Stoll. Jack Johnson, a big defenseman for Helsinki’s, scored his 5th goal of the season, which has his tied for second in that category among blueliners. Sherbatov seemed proud of goal number one in the EURO. “It felt great to get the first one, the first goal is something you remember. I hadn’t thought about it (being the first Israel-born player to score in EURO), but it’s pretty exciting now that you point it out,” he said. “Jordin (Tootoo) was a great addition to our line, he provides some veteran leadership and he’s a real spark plug player. We had instant chemistry out there.”
Milan 6, Athens 1 – Milan defenseman Dustin Byfuglien hadn’t scored a goal yet this season until Sunday’s game against Athens and now he has three. Two of his 3 goals were scored on Michal Neuvirth with the last coming against Corey Crawford. Milan’s other Dustin – Dustin Brown – assisted on all 3 of Byfuglien’s goals and scored two more himself.
Dublin 5, Berlin 2 – Bobby Ryan scored Dublin’s last two goals in a 5-2 win over Mika Kiprusoff and the Smurfs. Ryan and linemates Ryan Kesler and Phil Kessel each had 2 points and combined for 13 shots on goal. Berlin’s Kris Versteeg scored a goal and blocked 3 shots. Late in the game, Berlin defenseman went down with an injury while trying to defend a 2-on-1 and suffered a pretty serious groin pull. He is expected to miss significant time. Of all the injuries in the league this season, the two worst – in terms of man-games lost – have been to Berlin players. Earlier this season, Logan Couture suffered a slightly torn shoulder labrum, forcing him out of 6 games and counting.
Saturday Games
Paris 5, Munich 4 – Darrick Brassard picked a good time to score his first goal of the season, winning it for his team in the third period. Alexander Semin scored twice for Paris earlier in the contest. David Perron collected 3 assists for Les Rouges Eiffels. Munich was 3 of 7 on powerplays. The French team which finished 19th overall and missed the playoffs last year has shown dramatic improvement this season and is now 2 points behind the leader of the Southern Conference, the Munich Fox.
St. Petersburg 6, Moscow 0 – Pekka Rinne slammed the door on the other team from Russia, stopping all 34 Moscow shots. The Red Stars had 32 shots themselves and were able to score four times in the first period. Brent Burns scored two and added an assist for Petrograd.
London 2, Minsk 1 – Nathan Gerbe and Tyler Seguin goals were enough to give the Dons the win over visiting Minsk, who got its only goal off Colin Wilson’s stick. London outshot the Hussars 34-25 but backup Martin Biron stopped all but two of the Dons’ shots. London’s Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 24 of 25 shots. Minsk’s Ryan McDonough was active, delivering 7 hits and blocking 3 shots.
Stockholm 4, Zurich 2 – Stockholm’s powerplay clicked three times in seven chances, with Loui Eriksson scoring two of those goals. The Spartans won despite being outshot by the Lions 32-27. Backup goalie Mathieu Garon stopped 30 shots.
Oslo 6, Madrid 1 – Oslo scored four goals in the second period and had two more in the third period before the Royals could get one past Outlaw goalie Jimmy Howard. The big scorers for Oslo were Curtis Glencross and Mikhail Grabovski, who each scored twice. Glencross assisted on Grabovski’s first goal and was named the game’s first star. Ben Lovejoy blocked 3 shots for the Outlaws. Gabriel Landeskog scored the lone Madrid goal, his fifth of the season.
Bern 5, Frankfurt 0 – Mike Smith was on top of his game, recording a 31-save shutout. Five different Bears scored – all of them in the second period – with Pascal Dupuis, Sami Pahlsson, Jason Spezza and Radim Vrbata all having 2-point games.
