Prague 4, Stockholm 2 – Bryan Little has struggled a bit over the last season and a half, but on Monday, he and his center found chemistry they both hope will last a lot longer. Little, 27, is among the older forwards on a very young Prague team. During the first two seasons of the team’s existence, he put together back-to-back 84-point seasons, but last year, he took fewer shots, blocked fewer pucks, checked less, committed more penalties, scored less and saw his plus-minus rating bottom out at a league-worst minus 65 by the end of the year. This season hasn’t been much better for Little and linemates Ryan Getzlaf and Marcel Hossa. But against a Stockholm Eagles team with a small cushion between themselves and the other Northern Conference teams trying to reach the playoffs, it looked like Little and Getzlaf had some telepathy going. Stockholm was cruising through the second period with a 2-0 lead against one of the teams they expected to win 2 points from when Little blew a huge hole in their plan. He turned Eagle defenseman Olli Maatta inside out with a fabulous deke and wristed one over Braden Holtby’s right shoulder for a goal and then added a second goal a few minutes later on the powerplay. His hat trick goal in the third period was his 21st of the season and the nail in Stockholm’s coffin with 6:42 to play. Getzlaf scored an assist on all three Little goals.

Belfast 4, Dublin 3 – The Northern Irish prevailed in a shootout after being frustrated in a late-game surge. Dublin defenseman James Wisniewski scored on a long, screened shot a minute into the third period and that put Belfast behind for the first time in what had been a nearly dead-even game to that point. Then Belfast shifted gears and started firing shots from all angles at the Dublin net and goalie Tim Thomas. They scored twice to take the lead, but another Dublin bleuliner, Olexander Podbyedonostsev, tied the game with his 7th of the season with just under 6 minutes to play. Belfast outshot Dublin 14-5 in the final period and 4-0 in overtime, but Thomas forced a shootout. That was when he stopped stopping pucks. Sidney Crosby scored and then James Neal did and the Giants had won. Belfast took two major penalties in the second period and gave up 2 Dublin powerplay goals in 5 man advantage situations. The league’s leading scorer, Ryan Kesler of Dublin, might have lost a trophy Monday after he left the game with a foot injury. Kesler has 89 points to lead everyone, but Evgeny Malkin of Paris and Steven Stamkos of the Frankfurt Inferno are just 2 points behind him.

Frankfurt 4, Zurich 3 – In one of those rare occasions when Steven Stamkos didn’t pick up a point, his Inferno teammates did enough to win anyway. Zurich got strong play from Jarrett Stoll (1 goal and 2 assists) and Patrick Sharp (2 goals and 1 assist) and were able to tie the game at 3-3 by scoring on their only powerplay opportunity of the game. But David Legwand scooped up an errant pass in the Lions zone and whipped it past goalie Roberto Luongo to give Frankfurt the lead for the second time in the period. Frankfurt didn’t sit on the lead and instead built a 13-5 advantage in third-period shots to take some of the heat off goalie Kari Ramo. Nick Bjugstad was the only Inferno player with a multi-point game as he scored a goal and assisted on a Chris Higgins score.

Bern 5, Munich 4 – Despite being outshot 39-18 by Bern, Munich only lost by a goal in Switzerland. Going into the third period, the Dire Fox had a 4-2 lead and shots were even at 17 per team. We don’t know what coach Mike Babcock and captain Henrik Zetterberg said between periods, but we saw what assistant captain Shane Doan did in the third. Three assists, hard work and leadership by Doan contributed to what has to be one of the finest third periods Bern has ever produced. They outshot Munich 22-1 and turned a 2-goal deficit into a win. Doan and linemates Mika Zibanejad and Johan Franzen finished the game plus 3 and Doan was credited with 4 hits.

Berlin 5, Paris 2 – The Smurfs were angry – especially at Paris star Evgeni Malkin – but the Rouge Eiffels were playing in front of their home crowd and they rarely lose at home. Something had to give and the Eiffels did. After a Berlin goal early in the first period, that dastardly Malkin scored a powerplay goal for Paris to tie it and the Rouge Eiffels seemed to be in control after a period, although the score was 2-2. They had outshot Berlin 16-4. Berlin’s players turned blue with anger and proceeded to dominate the rest of the game, outshooting Paris 12-5 in the second and twice as bad (24-9) in the third period. Logan Couture and Ryan Callahan led the Smurfs in scoring with 2 points each, while Ken Kuusk had a goal and an assist for Paris. Malkin got in the way of 4 Berlin shots to protect goalie Tuukka Rask, but he was outplayed by the Smurfs and finished minus 2. Still, with only 12 or 15 games per team remaining in the season, Paris has the best chance of winning the conference and the President’s Trophy. They are tied with Moscow at the top of the league standings, but have 3 games in hand. Berlin is in 5th place.

Moscow 2, St. Petersburg 1 – In a well-attended battle between the league’s two Russian teams, Spartak prevailed by a goal but lost another forward to injury in the process. St. Petersburg took the lead in the second period when Valtterri Filppula beat Jaro Halak for his 19th goal of the year and the Red Stars took their 1-0 lead into the third period. But Mikka Kiprusoff in the St. Petersburg goal finally cracked to Moscow pressure, giving up goals by Andrey Kalyuzhny and Dustin Brown in a 1:03 span early in the period. Martin St. Louis of St. Petersburg led everyone in shots on goal with 8. His teammate Brent Burns led everyone but Kevin Dallman in hits with 6. Dallman, a Moscow defenseman, also had 6 hits. Spartak center Anze Kopitar was good, winning 24 of 35 faceoffs and coming up with an assist, 3 hits and 1 blocked shot. Moscow left wing Max Pacioretty, who was acquired from Frankfurt in a trade, hurt his leg or foot and will miss some time. In his 11 games in a Moscow uniform, the 26-year-old Pacioretty has managed 8 goals and 6 assists. He is the third Moscow left wing to be injured in the last 5 days. Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg are also sidelined. As of this morning, Moscow was playing Kalyuzhny and Brandon Bochenski out of position as fill-ins for Ladd and Versteeg. They have five sub-70 OV forwards ready for the call to take Pacioretty’s spot.