Couture leads Smurfs to 2-1 win

Logan Couture, ladies and gentlemen. Nine shots on goal and both of the goals for his team in a 2-1 win Sunday. Couture is now the leading scorer in the playoffs, with 5 goals and 8 assists in just 6 games. During the regular season,he was just as effective, scoring 38 goals and 105 points.…

OT goals by Ladd, Kalinin even series

After a 63-minute pitchers duel, Andrew Ladd scored on Helsinki’s Henrik Lundqvist in overtime Saturday to win the game for Moscow and even the series at 1 game a piece. For a while – a long while to Spartak fans and team members – it looked like King Henrik was going to claim another game. He stopped all 34…

Callahan’s big goals sink Athens

Ryan Callahan scored two huge goals to give the Berlin Smurfs the early lead in their series with Athens. The Greeks had a 2-1 lead after an evenly played first period, but Berlin controlled the remainder of the game. Slava Voynov scored for Berlin in the first period, but Athens pulled ahead when Ian White…

Lundqvist steals Game 1; Tridents dominate

Moscow saw the enemy, and he is Lundqvist. King Henrik was the difference in Game 1 of the Helsinki-Moscow series, as he led the Jokerit to the win despite being outshot 41-17. And that wasn’t even the most lopsided shot total of the two games played Thursday. Helsinki was revved up and raring to go, and when…

Second Round Preview

I got into work today and was greeted by Rose, who was prancing around, giddy about something. She then shoved two newspapers in front of my face. One had a big headline that read, “Bratislava ousts Munich” and the other had the headline, “Greeks victors!” She was boasting that she was right and I was…

Jokerit and Red Stars oust Dublin, Gothenburg

Penalty killing and goalie Pekka Rinne came to the fore as St. Petersburg won Game 7 and eliminated the Dublin Fighting Irish Monday on the Emerald Isle. The Red Stars delivered the first blow just 9 seconds after the opening puck drop.  St. Petersburg’s Brad Richards won the draw back to Marc-Eduoard Vlasic, who hit Valterri…

Bratislava, Ennis upset Munich

Bratislava dominated the first two periods and held off a furious charge by Munich in the third period Sunday to win the series and move onto the second round.  Three shorthanded goals were scored in the game, one by Milan Gulas of the Eagles and two by the Fox’s Dave Bolland and Eric Gryba on…

St. Pete, Helsinki force Game 7s

In the mood for a couple of Game 7s on Monday? St. Petersburg has fended off Dublin in two straight do-or-die games, and Henrik Lundqvist shut out Gothenburg Saturday in the Coin Flip Series. The Red Stars stormed out of the gate, showing their home fans they meant business. Brad Richards took a nifty pass…

Athens ends Madrid’s fabulous run

After making a meteoric ascent through the Southern Conference, winning 19 of their last 21 regular season games, the Madrid Royals flamed out. The Athens Greeks dispatched them in 5 games, taking the last one by a convincing 5-2 score.  Defense might have been the problem for the Spanish side, as they allowed Athens to…

St. Louis ‘tricks’ his former team

Martin St. Louis broke open a tie game in the third period with two goals just 11 seconds apart to lead the Gothenburg Devils to a 7-5 win and 3-2 series lead against the Helsinki Jokerit Thursday. The goals gave St. Louis a hat trick in the game. He opened the scoring 57 seconds into…