Recap of Thursday’s games
Oslo 3, Copenhagen 2 – Fredrik Norrena kicked, poked, slid, dropped and flopped his way to a thrilling win for the Oslo Outlaws on Thursday in Copenhangen against a Trident team that fired 44 shots at him. Mark Fayne, Calvin De Haan and Max Talbot blocked 7 more Copenhagen shots in a game that was played mostly in the Oslo end of the rink. Tomas Fleischmann, who now has 26 goals, and Mason Raymond both gave Copenhagen 1-goal leads in the game, but Oslo was able to counter both with goals by Curtis Glencross and then Tyler Kennedy, and with the score tied 2-2, Tyler Seguin made a slick move to beat Thomas Greiss and put Oslo in front for the first time with just 41 seconds left in the game. Norrena, 35, is on the last year of his 3-year contract with the Outlaws and before Thursday, was not doing much to encourage GM Chris Lee to resign him.
Moscow 3, Frankfurt 1 – We wouldn’t be surprised if some fans who attended the game in Frankfurt Thursday claimed they heard the puck cry. Frankfurt managed 30 shots on the Moscow net, which isn’t bad. But Moscow fired the disc at on the Inferno goal 57 times for a total of 87 shots in the game. Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves for Moscow and Kari Ramo turned away 54 for Frankfurt. He stopped 20 in the first period alone, but unfortunately for him, 2 got by him. Andrei Markov and Jannik Hansen scored those goals. The two most active shooters were Moscow’s Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, who had 9 and 7 shots, respectively. Kevin Dallman was plus 2 for Spartak with 5 hits, and Frankfurt’s Drew Doughty blocked 4 shots. Moscow is a point behind Berlin in the overall standings and those two teams have a date in Moscow tonight.
Gothenburg 5, Madrid 4 – Jordan Eberle was the last to score in a nip-and-tuck affair in Spain. The game was close throughout with Madrid always struggling to wipe out Gothenburg’s early lead, and the Royals finally did it on a powerplay in the third period when Fyodor Tyutin scored his second goal of the year to tie it 4-4. But Eberle wheeled out of a corner and whipped the puck past Madrid’s Robin Lehner with 7:15 left and Madrid didn’t have another comeback goal in them. Backup Anders Lindback got the win for the Devils.
Bern 6, Munich 3 – Mika Zibanejad and Henrik Zetterberg powered Bern past the Dire Wolf in a game of two teams that need points to fend off Bratislava, Frankfurt and Prague, who are also fighting for the last playoff spots in the Southern Conference. Zibanejad scored twice and had 3 points, and Zetterberg scored once and had 3 points. Mark Girodano was Munich’s best player, getting an assists to go with his 4 hits and 4 blocked shots.
Belfast 3, London 0 – A couple of Belfast’s big trade acquisitions come through with big plays to help the Giants past the Dons in Northern Ireland. Free agent signing Joe Pavelski snapped a shot past London’s Marc-Andre Fleury to open the scoring midway through the first period. On the play, Belfast worked the puck around the perimeter of the London defense and Matt Moulson tried a pass into the slot, where Pavelski was stationed. Pavelski took the pass, turned and shot as London’s Brandon Saad was slashing toward him with his stick. The puck deflected off Saad’s stick blade and went between Fleury’s pads as the goalie went down into the butterfly and snapped his legs shut. Fleury immediately tilted his head in disappointment when he realized the puck didn’t touch him on its way through. Belfast trade acquisition goalie Jonathan Quick was good enough to let Pavelski’s goal stand as the game winner, but the Giants added insurance with goals by Lars Eller and Nazem Kadri. It was Quick’s first shutout as a member of the Giants and his 19th ever in the EURO League.
Stockholm 3, Minsk 2 – Second-period goals by Ryan Johansen and then Jeff Carter gave Stockholm a 3-2 lead against visiting Minsk, and the Eagles were able to shut out the Hussars the rest of the game. Brayden Hotlby stopped 34 shots to earn the win in goal, getting a lot of help from Mike Green, the defenseman, who blocked 5 other shots. Mike Richards of Stockholm, scored a goal and an assist and was the only multi-point player in the game. Both clubs have games tonight. Minsk plays in Zurich, while Stockholm plays host to Athens.
