Recap of Monday games
Minsk 5, Helsinki 1 – The Minsk Hussars are for real. Their 5-1 win over Helsinki Monday was maybe even a little more lopsided than the score indicated. Minsk, playing at home before a crowd of 16,673, outshot their Finnish visitors 49-12, led 3-0 after a period and 5-0 after two. Five different players had at least 5 shots apiece on Henrik Lundqvist, and three of them – Nicklas Backstrom, Milan Lucic and Jakub Voracek – scored goals, with Backstrom’s coming off a pass by Lucic that went through Lundqvist’s legs just a minute into the contest. Backstrom and Lucic finished with 3 points each. It was Minsk’s third straight win and Helsinki’s third straight loss. The Hussars now in 8th place overall with Helsinki struggling to maintain the 8th and final playoff spot in the Northern Conference.
Stockholm 6, Bratislava 2 – Stockholm was outshot by 5 shots, but they won the Battle of the Eagles by 4 goals. Former Philadelphia Flyers and L.A. Kings teammates Mike Richards and Jeff Carter are together again in Sweden and they led the way for Stockholm. Each had 3 assists. The winners got goals from 6 different sources: Sean Monahan, Ryan Johansen, Marcus Johansson, Bobby Ryan, Cam Fowler and newly acquired Zach Bogosian. Bratislava’s two towering defensemen – Zdeno Chara and Tyler Myers – hurt their team by each taking 5-minute checking from behind major penalties in the third period. Stockholm scored 3 of their goals while Bratislava was trying to kill off the majors.
Zurich 6, Munich 4 – Roberto Luongo started in goal for the Lions, but when Munich scored 3 goals on him in their first 8 shots, Zurich coach Paul MacLean summoned Luongo to the bench and sent Jeff Zatkoff into the goal crease. The move worked like a charm. The Lions picked up their play, got a quick goal from Tyson Barrie and took control of the game. In the second period, they scored 5 goals, with Ilya Kovalchuk’s league-leading 37th and 38th of the season provided the eventual margin of victory.
Moscow 6, Berlin 4 – Spartak started well and finished poorly. The Smurfs did the exact opposite. It was the second period, when both teams played at the same level that was the key period. Slava Voynov of Berlin tallied in that period but was outdone by Moscow’s Duncan Keith, David Jones and Jason Garrison, who secured a 6-2 lead for Moscow going into the final period. Nearly 19,900 German fans urged Berlin to come back in the final period, but Spartak goalie Jaro Halak only allowed the 4-goal deficit to be trimmed by 2 goals.
Frankfurt 7, Geneva 6 – Goal scoring was the name of the game in Frankfurt on Monday, with each team racking up a half-dozen goals and the home team winning the shootout. Max Pacioretty and Alex Steen scored twice each for Frankfurt, while David Desharnais put 2 in for the Generals. Nine players had multi-point games, with Geneva’s Ilya Nikulin and Patrick Marleau doing the best. Each scored 3 points. In the shootout, each team scored 3 times in five rounds. In the decisive sixth round, Rickard Wallin of Geneva was stopped, and Sami Vatanen of Frankfurt scored to end it.
St. Petersburg 3, London 1 – It was a good battle of goalies between London’s Marc-Andre Fleury (38 saves) and Antti Niemi of the Red Stars (29 saves), but the key moment came with the score tied 1-1 and 4 minutes left on the clock. That’s when Viktor Stalberg of St. Petersburg bounced a pass off the boards and back to the point and Brent Burns hammered it for his 8th goal of the season. Petrograd later added an empty-net tally. Burns and Carl Gunnarsson of London each blocked 4 shots in the game. The loss ended a 7-game win streak for the Dons.
