Munich evened up its season with Bratislava and three other series in the Southern Conference turned into 2-0 leads on Saturday.
The biggest statement of the day was made in Athens, where the Greeks’ top line of Jason Pominville, Scott Hartnell and David Backes were a wrecking crew. Each member of the line had five shots on the Madrid goal and Pominville had 4 points to give him 7 in two games. There was plenty of hitting in the game (32 hits for Madrid, 20 for Athens), one fight, and Athens took 8 penalties, but the rough-and-tumble game seemed to suit them better. And for the second game in a row, the Kronwall brothers were plus 3. Madrid was able to muster two goals from defensemen, but the forwards couldn’t find a way into good scoring positions in front of Greek goalie Cam Ward. Game 3: Both teams will board planes tonight for a 4-hour flight to Madrid. It appears the Royals’ fabulous momentum is now stopped, but they hope the home crowd will start a new run. They know they are capable of going on long winning streaks and they will be looking for Erik Karlsson, Joe Pavelski and Rick Nash to play the kind of hockey that shot them up through the Demitra Division standings late in the year.
The Munich Fox built a 5-1 lead after two periods and held off Bratislava’s attempt at a comeback in the third. Neither Munich goalie Jonathan Quick nor Bratislava’s Craig Anderson was particularly fantastic in goal, but Munich had the better of the play overall and outshot the visiting Eagles 38-32. Andrew Shaw netted the Foxes’ first and fifth goals, while Patrik Elias scored their second and third goals. Bratislava was let down by their top line of Jonathan Toews, Ville Leino and Kyle Brodziak, who were all minus 4 on Saturday. Game 3: A three-and-a-half-hour flight through Austria, will take the teams 520 kilometers (325 miles) to the Eagles’ rink in Slovakia. Bratislava coach Bruce Boudreau said his lines will be different for home games in an effort to match lines and stifle the Joe Thornton line. Look for Toews to play with Marian Hossa and either Tyler Ennis or Martin Erat on Monday. A positive sign for Bratislava fans is that captain Zdeno Chara is playing much better than he did earlier in the year. The big Slovakian has 6 shots in the two games, as well as two assists. Munich’s Thornton and Dany Heatley haven’t scored points yet in the series, but writers don’t seem too worried about their play since no Fox players performed well in Game 1 and the rest of the team picked up the slack in Game 2.
Les Paris Rouges Eiffels frustrated the Zurich Lions to no end Saturday. They emerged from a wild first period with a 4-2 lead, applied maddening pressure on Lion goalie Brian Elliott in the second, and then shifted to a stingy defensive strategy in the scoreless third period. Paris winger Corey Perry led the way with two goals and an assist. Mike Ribeiro and Joffrey Lupul also played strong offensive games, as did Zurich’s Alexander Radulov. The four aforementioned forwards accounted for a total of 25 shots and 5 of the game’s 8 goals. Zurich’s Janne Niskala had 7 more hits in the game to give him a league-leading 16 in the playoffs, but the rest of his game has been suspect. He has 4 more giveaways than takeaways and he is a minus 4 thus far. Game 3: The players will all fly 1 hour and 15 minutes to the east and south – that’s 490 kilometers (305 miles) for Monday’s game. For Zurich, Patrick Sharp has emerged as the best of the ultra-talented forwards with a team-high 3 points and plus 1 rating in the playoffs thus far. He has to be more of an influence on linemates Patrick Kane and Drew Stafford, or whoever else he’s out there with, if the Lions have any hope of upsetting Paris. As for the Eiffels players, they are all doing what was expected of them so far and Ribeiro’s doing more. He leads the team in shots with 11 and has been strong in all areas.
Bern goalie Mike Smith played better than he did two days earlier, but the Berlin Smurfs again started the game with a furious pace and by the last 20 minutes built a lead they refused to relinquish. Berlin outshot Bern 12-6 and 15-8 in the first two periods. Russians Nikoai Kulemin and Slava Voynov scored goals to give the German team a 2-0 lead before Bern’s Tobias Enstrom scored to make it very interesting halfway through the game. But Kris Versteeg scored a deflating goal for the Smurfs with 11 seconds left in the second period. Smurf Josh Gorges was the most physical player in the game, registering 6 hits and doing a lot of good work along the boards without being called for any penalties. Enstrom not only scored the only Bern goal, but he was the best player in the defensive end as well, blocking 5 shots. Game 3: An 1:45 flight over Bavaria and the teams will have traveled 818 kilometers, or 508 miles, to the Bears’ home rink in the middle of Switzerland. Bern faces a 6-0, 218 pound barrier if they want to get back into the series. It is called Jimmy Howard. The Smurf goalie has stopped 48 of 49 shots so far in the playoffs and only allowed the one Enstrom goal.
