Recap of Friday’s games
Belfast 6, Athens 5 – The home team came out on top in a well-played game between two of the league’s best teams. Shots and powerplay chances were just about even, but Athens seemed to wither away at the end of regulation time. They were outshot 5-0 in overtime and outscored 2-0 in the shootout as Nathan MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri scored on Cam Ward and Jonathan Quick of Belfast turned away both Greek attempts. The stars of the game were the three members of Athens’ top line. David Backes, Scott Hartnell and Jason Pominville all had 4-point evenings.
Copenhagen 3, Oslo 0 – The visiting Tridents outshot Oslo 15-9 in each of the first two periods and entered the third period with a 3-0 lead for Brian Elliott to protect. They slowed the pace of the game, shots were only 8-5 in Copenhagen’s favor, and it was a shutout win. Jay McClement, Troy Brouwer and Mason Raymond puck pucks in the net. Brouwer had 10 shots on Oslo’s Fredrick Norrena, who made 35 saves in a losing effort.
Edinburgh 6, Frankfurt 1 – The Capitals scored two goals in each period and had 6 different goal-scorers. John Tavares notched his 26th of the season and all-star Jamie Benn scored a shorthanded goal for his 17th. Both players also added two assists. Frankfurt’s David Legwand, Magnus Paajarvi and Gareth Roberts played poorly, and were all minus 3 before more than 20,000 German fans. The Caps will try to make it two wins in two nights today when they host the Munich Dire Wolf.
Geneva 6, Milan 4 – The Guerriero fired 43 shots on goal Friday but still lost to the visitors from Geneva. The score was 4-3 Milan with 10 minutes to play, but the narrow lead vanished with 3 goals by Generals Karol Rachunek, Rickard Wallin and Deniis Wideman. Milan’s all-star, Derek Roy, scored twice and had 9 shots on goal. Wallin led all players with 3 points and four other Generals had 2 points. Ondrej Pavelec was outstanding in goal for Geneva, making 39 saves to earn the win. The Generals return home today where they will play Moscow at 5:30. Milan, meanwhile, has a game in Madrid.
Bratislava 5, Bern 4 – The Eagles got 4 goals from defensemen en route to a slim win in Bern. Former Rouge Eiffel Philip Larsen scored twice and now has 8 this season, but the biggest goal was Tyler Myers’ 14th of the season which occurred just after Bern killed off a penalty in overtime. For Bern, Jason Spezza had 1 goal and 1 assist, but was one of 4 Bears who were minus 3 or worse. Corey Crawford made 35 saves for visiting Bratislava.
Stockholm 6, St. Petersburg 1 – Stockholm made the most of their shots against Red Star goalie Mikka Kiprusoff on Friday. Meanwhile Braden Holtby was awesome at the other end. Stockholm blitzed Kiprusoff for three goals in the second period thanks to Pavel Datsyuk, Marcus Johansson and Derick Brassard, but Dmitri Kalinin kept St. Pete in it with a slapshot goal before the end of the period. But in the third, Stockholm pulled away for good, getting goals from Kevin Bieksa, Mike Green and Jeff Carter. Datsyuk was at the top of his game, scoring 2 points, winning 16 of 23 faceoffs, blocking 3 shots and ending the contest with a plus 4 rating. The dominance of Stockholm’s centers in the faceoff circle might have been a major contributor to the win. The Eagles fly to Frankfurt to play the Inferno tonight.
