Zurich 3, Bratislava 2 – Thanks to three goals in the final 11:16 of the game, the Lions overtook Bratislava in the standings and moved into 5th place in the Southern Conference. Bratislava had a 2-0 shutout going until Patrick Kane scored and then set up the league’s leading goal scorer – Ilya Kovalchuk – for another goal just a minute later. Jussi Jokinen won it for Zurich by scoring on Craig Anderson with 1:14 to play. Bratislava coach Brent Sutter was livid at his players after the game. It was the Eagles’ chance to vault ahead of Bern and into fourth place in the conference. Instead, Bratislava dropped to 6th place. Veteran Tomas Kopecky felt the brunt of Sutter’s tirade. Only Franz Nielsen has played more games in a Bratislava uniform than Kopecky has, but he won’t play Wednesday against Milan. Sutter benched him for taking two penalties in the third period; penalties that resulted in Zurich’s first two goals. “This was a very important game for us and we needed everyone to keep their heads and play it that way,” Sutter said after the game. “Let this be a message that careless or undisciplined play will bring you a seat in the press box.” Antoine Roussel was called up to replace Kopecky.

St. Petersburg 3, Frankfurt 1 – St. Petersburg did Geneva a big favor when they bottled up the Stamkos line and defeated the Inferno Monday. If they had won, Frankfurt would have supplanted the Generals in the 8th and last playoff spot in the South. Both Frankfurt and Geneva have 8 games remaining to play and Geneva holds a 1-point lead over Frankfurt and Prague, which has 6 games left. Munich is 3 points behind Geneva. On Monday, the Red Stars were great. They outshot Frankfurt 43-22 and got goals from Erik Cole and Jonathan Huberdeau before Gareth Roberts finally got Frankfurt on the scoreboard. Artem Anisimov assisted on both of the Red Stars’ first two goals. Antti Niemi got the win in goal for St. Petersburg by making 21 saves, while fellow Finn Kari Ramo made 40 stops in a loss. The bigger story was that Frankfurt’s top line saw 26 minutes of ice time and two of the three players on that line failed to get even one shot on Niemi. Claude Giroux had 6 shots, but Steven Stamkos and Alex Steen were shutout in the shot department.

Gothenburg 2, Bern 1 – Gothenburg’s Eric Staal snapped a shot over Mike Smith’s glove hand to break the 1-1 tie that the Devils and Bears had been wrestling with for a period and a half. In the first period, Gothenburg opened the scoring when Zach Parise recorded his 41st of the season, but Bern tied it later when Shane Doan scored shorthanded. The biggest thorn in Smith’s side Monday was Jordan Eberle who fired 10 shots on goal in 13 minutes of ice time. Bern’s defense corps was busy in their own end. Brent Seabrook blocked 4 shots and had 2 hits, Dennis Seidenberg had 5 hits and 2 blocked shots, and Tobias Enstrom had 3 hits and 2 blocks.

Copenhagen 3, Oslo 0 – Brooks Laich scored 2 goals, Alexander Ovechkin had a goal and an assist, and Andrew Cogliano contributed two assists as the Tridents shutout Oslo. The Tridents outshot the Outlaws 39-19 and Brian Elliott recorded the shutout, his 6th of the season. Only Jaroslav Halak of Moscow has more shutouts this season.

London 6, Dublin 3 – The Dons outscored the Irish 2-1 in every period and outshot them 34-25 in the game. For London, Sam Gagner scored 3 points and four other skaters had 2 points. Ryan Kesler was outstanding for Dublin, scoring 2 goals on 4 shots and winning 24 of 34 faceoffs. Kesler and Steven Stamkos of Frankfurt are now tied for the EURO scoring lead with 96 points, which puts them 3 points ahead of third-place Adam Henrique of Gothenburg. London is trying to fight off Helsinki for the last playoff berth in the North but they will have to do it without Taylor Hall for a couple of games. Hall has the flu. A disappointing season got a little worse for Dublin when it was revealed James Van Riemsdyk will be forced out of the lineup with a lower body injury. His teammate Evander Kane was injured three days earlier.

Moscow 5, Milan 1 – Spartak added 2 more points to their season total and are now 4 points ahead of second place Athens in the race for the Presidents Trophy. Moscow handled Milan pretty easily despite being in enemy territory. They outshot the Guerriero 46-25, led 3-0 after the first period and 5-0 after the second period. Andrew Ladd scored both second-period goals and he led everyone in scoring with 3 points. Four other Spartak players had multi-point games. Nicklas Danielsson scored in the third period for Milan to deny Jaroslav Halak his 8th shutout of the season.