Recap of Tuesday and Wednesday games

Bern 3, Belfast 1 – A Pascal Dupuis goal, his 8th, late in the first period put the Bears ahead of the Giants and they built the lead on Tobias Enstrom’s 9th goal with 2:13 to play in the game. Belfast, who challenged for first overall earlier in the season have dropped to 6th in a very competitive top of the league.

Gothenburg 5, Milan 3 – The Guerriero put up a good fight, but Adam Henrique and Petr Vrana were too good on Tuesday. Henrique scored three times and Vrana twice. Henrique now has 22 goals this season and Vrana has 9. Henrique is now tied for 6th in the league in scoring and his plus-minus rating of plus 34 is better than anyone else’s. His improved play is why the Devils are currently just two points out of first place overall in the EURO League.

Madrid 3, Oslo 2 – The Royals scored three times in the first period and held on for a narrow win in Norway. Goalie Robin Lehner made the big saves when his Madrid team needed him to. Oslo’s Max Talbot was 14 of 24 in faceoffs and with 2 assists, he was the only player in the game with a multi-point performance.

Copenhagen 5, Prague 3 – The hosts in Copenhagen outshot the Siamese Cats by a lot – 42-23 – but the game was in doubt until the third period, after Trident Alexander Ovechkin’s second goal of the night tied it at 2-2. Ovechkin’s teammate Nathan Gerbe came through about a minute later with his 13th of the season on a pretty pass from Paul Byron and Brooks Laich put a nail in Prague’s coffin with a backhand goal – his 12th – with a little more than 5 minutes to play. Ryan Miller made 37 saves in the Cats goal.

Dublin 4, Edinburgh 2 – The Fighting Irish got to Edinburgh goalie Kari Lehtonen for 4 goals in the first two periods and held on to deal a 0-point blow to a team trying to climb into the top tier of the league. The Caps are currently 4 points behind 6th place Belfast, but they have four other teams nipping at their heels in the standings. Dublin’s all-star forwards Ryan Kesler and Phil Kessel had 2 points each on Tuesday, but the only Dublin players who finished with plus ratings were defensemen Olexander Pobyednostsev and Hampus Lindholm. John Tavares’ shorthanded goal for Edinburgh in the third period made it 4-1, and it was his league-leading 6th shorthanded tally.

Paris 2, Athens 1 – Fans in Greece are a little grumpier these days now that their team has fallen from first to fourth overall. On Tuesday, Paris came to town and simply outplayed the Greeks, winning 2-1 thanks to goals from David Perron and Joffrey Lupul. Six Paris players had 4 or more shots on Athens goalie Cam Ward.

Wednesday’s games:

Milan 2, St. Petersburg 1 – Ben Bishop and the Guerriero bounced back from their loss in Gothenburg the night before to win in Russia on Wednesday. Bishop made 37 saves and got all the help he needed from Joakim Lindstrom and Tyler Johnson, who scored in the second and third periods, respectively. Milan’s Danny Dekeyser played well, logging 27 minutes, blocking 4 shots, with 2 hits and 3 shots on the Petrograd net. St. Petersburg dominated most of the team stats, but they made it harder for themselves by taking 11 penalties.

Paris 6, Zurich 0 – Paris Stifled Zurich 6-0 at home, a day after they beat the Greeks in Athens. The first star in the game was defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who finished plus 3 with a goal, 2 assists and 4 hits. David Perron and Miko Koivu also scored 3 points including 2 goals each for the Rouge Eiffels. The win elevates Paris to 5th in the league, just a point behind the Greeks with two games in hand. For the second straight game, Zurich coach Paul MacLean pulled Roberto Luongo from the net and replaced him with Jeff Zatkoff. Luongo allowed 5 Paris goals on 22 shots before being pulled with 7:23 to go in the second period. The Lions have always been known for their two strong forward lines, but after the game, news leaked out that general manager Dennis Sullo is breaking up one of them with a trade. In a deal with struggling Helsinki, Alexander Radulov, 22, is being traded for a comparable young defenseman. TSN’s Pierre McGuire, while wrapping a Christmas gift for Sidney Crosby, reported Helsinki GM Trevor Grimm admitted he is moving highly touted Jacob Trouba after shopping Nerius Alisauskas earlier in the year. The deal has been agreed to in principle but still has to be approved by league officials.

Bratislava 4, Prague 2 – The Siamese Cats had tired legs after playing the night before and the Eagles took advantage of that in another battle between the two cities from the former Czechoslovakia. Jonathan Toews, who had started the season very slowly for Bratislava seems to have his game back and he scored the first two goals of the game. His linemate, Marian Hossa, was the most frustrated man in the arena because his 10 shots on goal were all stopped by Prague backup goalie Niko Hovinen.

Berlin 3, Geneva 2 – Logan Couture’s 22nd goal of the season was a landmark tally for the Smurfs. It came on a second period powerplay and turned out to be the game-winning goal. It also pushed Berlin to the very top of the EURO League standings for what is believed to be the first time ever. Nikolai Kulemin was the game’s first star, with a goal and an assist for Berlin in the first period. Teammate Gerhard Unterluggauer, a defenseman, was plus 2 for the game with a goal and 4 hits. The Generals got good performances from Marian Gaborik (1 goal, 1 assist), Dennis Wideman (1 goal, 4 blocked shots) and Patrick Marleau (1 assist, 7 shots and 3 hits).

Edinburgh 4, Helsinki 1 –  John Tavares scored two goals and he is now tied with Dublin’s Phil Kessel for second in the league in goal scoring with 33. The Caps had a relatively easy time of it, outshooting the Jokerit 39-21. Tavares took 9 of those shots and he and linemate Jamie Benn each had 3 points. The Edinburgh powerplay is good and Helsinki gave them too many opportunities to prove it. The Caps scored 3 goals on 9 man-advantage situations.