Recap of Sunday’s games
Prague 3, Bratislava 2 – The Siamese Cats won the latest battle of teams from the former country of Czechoslovakia with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins coming away as the hero. In the second period, Bratislava led the game 2-1, but Nugent-Hopkins scored twice in a little more than 8 minutes to tie the game and give his team the lead. The 21-year-old now has 14 goals this season ranks third on his team in points and is tied for second in goals. Justin Williams scored his 8th for the other Prague goal and goalie Niko Hovinen closed the door on Bratislava in the final period.
Oslo 5, Bern 2 – Mike Cammalleri must have grabbed his passing stick from the rack before he took the ice against his old team in Bern on Sunday because the veteran winger set up teammates for goals four times to lead the Outlaws over the Bears. There were a lot of shots and not many penalties in the game. Matt D’Agostino, Max Talbot, Tomas Hertl and Luca Sbisa all scored on Cam Talbot after taking Cammalleri passes Sunday, with Andrei Loktionov netting the first goal of the game for Oslo without Cammalleri’s help. Cammalleri is on a pace to be much more productive in his first year in Oslo than he ever was in Bern. Through 41 games this season, he has 8 goals and 22 assists. His best season with the Bears was two years ago, when he scored 14 goals and 25 assists in 82 games. Unfortunately, his plus-minus rating is far worse with Oslo than it was in Bern, but he’s getting much more playing time under coach Claude Julien than his ever did under Mike Babcock in Bern.
Copenhagen 6, Belfast 2 – The Tridents’ powerplay was on fire Sunday, scoring five times in 10 chances as the home team breezed past the Giants. The combination of Tomas Fleischmann, Alexander Ovechkin and Stephen Weiss was too much for the young Belast team to contain. Fleischmann and Ovechkin scored twice each and Ovechkin added 3 assists to give him 5 points. Weiss had a goal and 3 assists. The shot total was lopsided, with Copenhagen firing 40 shots on Jon Quick while allowing just 18 Belfast shots to get to goalie Brian Elliott.
St. Petersburg 5, London 0 – Mikka Kiprusoff didn’t have to work too hard – in fact he could have taken a seat on the bench during the first period – to earn his second shutout of the season and third of his career. St. Petersburg dominated the game and especially the first period, when they outshot London 15-0. Jonathan Huberdeau scored a shorthanded goal about 2 minutes into the contest, Brian Boyle added a goal before the end of the first, and the Red Stars cruised to victory. Huberdeau and Boyle both finished with 2 points to lead all scorers. Brent Burns had a goal, 5 hits and 3 blocked shots for Petrograd. Burns has been an all-star in two of his four EURO seasons, but not this year. In fact, his prodigious drop in play could be a big reason the Red Stars are stuggling to make the playoffs right now. Burns, 29, will have to work hard to match his third-best point total (46) by the end of the season, and his plus-minus rating stands at minus 31, which follows seasons of -8, plus 14 and plus 23 in his first year in the league.
Paris 4, Athens 3 – Last season’s MVP, Evgeny Malkin, scored the only goal of the third period, much to the delight of the home fans, as the Rouges Eiffels handed league-leading Athens their fourth straight defeat. The Greeks’ general manager, Terry Moutafis, pointed out his team as taken just 3 of a possible 8 points in these last four games. “At least Kyle Palmieri is back,” he said. “The Greeks need to turn this around ASAP.” Paris outshout the Greeks 32-21 on Sunday and were able to battle back from a 2-1 deficit after a period. Four Eiffels had two-point nights: Jozef Vasicek, Alexander Semin, Mike Ribeiro and Kris Letang, David Backes, Scott Hartnell and Nicklas Kronwall did the same for Athens.
Minsk 5, Gothenburg 3 – Like Athens and Belfast also learned Sunday, Gothenburg found out it’s dangerous at the top of the standings. The Devils, who are third overall, dropped a home game to Minsk and it was a native Swede who did the most damage. Nicklas Backstrom opened the scoring for Minsk just 28 seconds into the game and he added the insurance tally to make it 5-3 with 2:31 left in the second period. Until that goal, Gothenburg had a steady comeback going. They used two quick goals from Marc-Eduoard Vlasic and Adam Henrique to pull within one goal. But Carey Price, in the Hussar goal, was rock steady the rest of the game and made 34 saves in total.
