St. Petersburg 3, Bern 0 – That’s two wins in two days for the Red Stars and goalie Antti Niemi. On Wednesday, he shut out the Bears, making 24 saves. St. Petersburg scored a goal in each period with Devante Smith-Pelly scoring his second of the season in the first, Jeff Petry getting his 7th in the second and Brad Richards notching his 25th in the third. Niemi, who grew up on the outskirts of Helsinki and just a 4-hour drive from his new home, was traded from Gothenburg mid-season. His save percentage (89.4) is currently 21st best in the league. Brent Seabrook was Bern’s most active player Wednesday, getting credit for 7 hits. The league leader in that category, Seabrook is 7 away from getting to 300 hits for the second time in his career and 19 away from tying the league record that he set last season. Bern has 8 games remaining in the season and they are in 4th place in the Southern Conference, a point ahead of Bratislava, which has a game in hand. St. Petersburg is placed 23rd out of 24 teams in the EURO League. Jason Spezza will be ready to return to the Bear lineup when they host Athens on Saturday. He suffered an upper body injury in a win over London and missed the next three games.

Prague 4, Belfast 2 – The Siamese Cats continue to impress as they beat the Giants in convincing fashion.  Playing on home ice, Prague outshot Belfast 49-24 and allowed just 6 Giant shots in the first period and 6 in the second. Despite the disparity in shots, the score was tied 2-2 in the early stages of the second period.  Marcel Hossa got assists on two first-period goals by the Cats, but in the second, Matt Duchene tied things up with his 20th and 21st goals of the season. The goals came 3 minutes apart. But Hossa scored a short time later to put Prague back on top and Andrey Bykov added an insurance goal in the third period. Hossa, linemate Bryan Little and defenseman Justin Schultz each had 7 shots on goal for Prague, while teammate Ryan Getzlaf had 5.  Another Cat, Roman Josi, had an assist, 5 hits and 2 blocked shots in the win. Belfast’s loss keeps them in fifth place in a highly competitive race for home-ice advantage in the Northern Conference playoffs. The four teams in places 2 through 5 are separated by just 4 points. In the Southern Conference, Prague moves into sole possession of 9th place, just one point behind Geneva. But Geneva has one game in hand and Frankfurt and Munich are still very much in the picture.

Minsk 3, Oslo 1 – The Hussars’ top line can claim credit for their latest win. Minsk outshot 31-17, with the top line accounting for 14 shots. Each member of the top line – Nicklas Backstrom, Jakub Voracek and Milan Lucic – scored a goal and getting an assist in the game. Backstrom is now third in the league in scoring, a point behind Evgeny Malkin of Paris, and two points behind Frankfurt’s Steven Stamkos. Mikhail Grabovski scored Oslo’s lone goal.

Athens 3, Gothenburg 2 – Home ice advantage might have been the difference in a game that featured two of the best teams in the league. The Southern Conference’s Athens Greeks topped their opponents from the North, but it had to be decided in overtime. Gothenburg had the lead in the game twice after Zach Parise set up Adam Henrique in the first period and John Carlson in the second. Scott Hartnell of Athens countered Gothenburg’s first goal with a dart that beat Anders Lindback with just 16 seconds left in the period. Kyle Palmeiri came through with a clutch goal for Athens in the second period. It tied the game 2-2. In overtime, Stockholm-born Niklas Kronwall took a pass from David Backes and scored to win it. Palmeiri earned an assist on the goal. Athens played backup goalie Richard Bachman and they outshot Gothenburg 33-24.

Milan 5, Bratislava 3 – Tyler Johnson scored a hat trick and helped the Milan Guerriero cool off hot Bratislava. Johnson now has 21 goals and he’s tied with Marcus Kruger for the team lead in that category. He is also tied with Belfast’s Ondrej Palat among rookie goal scorers in the EURO. The Eagles got off to a sluggish start, managing just 5 shots in the first period and the Warriors (English translation) took advantage in the second, when they scored 3 times and then added 2 more goals for good measure to take a 5-0 lead with less than 10 minutes to play in the game. Bratislava managed to score three times on Alex Stalock in the last 8 minutes, but the comeback attempt started way too late. Milan’s Andrew MacDonald continued his fine play of late by scoring a goal, getting off 3 shots, and adding 4 hits and a blocked shot. The Eagles blew a chance to leapfrog Bern in the standings because Bern also lost Wednesday.

Copenhagen 4, London 1 – Tomas Fleischmann scored two goals to help visiting Copenhagen to a win in London. His second goal came with the score 2-1 as London seemed to be climbing back into the gameafter just getting a goal from Tyler Bozak. Fleischmann now has 34 goals this season. He is tied with Corey Perry and Milan Lucic for 15th in the league in goals. last year, he scored 32 goals and 91 points for the Tridents. London’s Jamie McBain played well, blocking 4 shots and delivering 2 hits. He leads the Dons in blocked shots and it’s the second time in his career he has reached the 100-blocks mark. Only 8 EURO players have blocked more shots than McBain has this season.