Athens 3, Bratislava 2 – Athens leads series 1-0
Knowing his team would beat Bratislava in the first round of the playoffs, Athens coach John Tortorella did a curious thing. He benched veteran right wing T.J. Oshie and inserted Czech Tomas Vincour in his place. After the game, he called the move unintentional, blaming his office staff. But with about 5 minutes to go in Game 1, it looked like the coach’s move – inadvertent or not – might backfire. Jason Pominville and Ryan O’Reilly of Athens scored goals on former Greek backstop Corey Crawford, but Bratislava answered both goals with goals of their own. Milan Gulas and Shawn Matthias scored for the Eagles. Luckily for Tortorella, he had Vincour in the lineup. Vincour took a pass from fourth-line center Bobby Butler and jammed the puck past Crawford to give the Greeks a 3-2 lead with 5:01 remaining. For Game 2 of the series, Oshie has been reinserted in the lineup and Vincour is out. There were only two penalties called in the game, minors that both went against Athens. The third period was Bratislava’s downfall. They managed just 3 shots on Cam Ward in a period that started with the Eagles holding a 24-20 advantage in shots on goal. Pominville took a slapshot on the forearm but will keep playing – with pain – on the second line with O’Reilly and Dimitrios Kalyvas.
Berlin 4, Frankfurt 3 – Berlin leads series 1-0
The Smurfs edged the Inferno in the first battle of an all-German playoff series. David Krejci scored the game-winner with 1:29 remaining to break a 3-3 tie. Frankfurt had tied the game a few minutes earlier by scoring two powerplay goals. Joe Thornton and Drew Doughty cashed in for the Inferno with the man advantage. But on another Frankfurt powerplay earlier in the game, Ryan Callahan of Berlin dealt the Inferno a vicious blow by blasting a slapshot past Kari Ramo for a shorthanded goal that broke a 1-1 tied late in the second period. Callahan and teammate Loui Eriksson were handfuls for Frankfurt as both players managed to get 7 shots on goal. Nicklas Hjalmarsson and Slava Voynov were plus 2 for the Smurfs and teammate Alex Edler played 30 minutes, blocked 3 shots and delivered 5 hits. Berlin’s defensemen will have to do a little more this series because fellow blueliner Gerhard Unterluggauer strained a groin is likely to miss the rest of the series. Ladislav Smid has been called into the lineup. Smid, 28, has played in 196 games for Berlin over the past four seasons, but only 4 playoff games.
Zurich 3, Bern 1 – Zurich leads series 1-0
Ilya Kovalchuk scored in the first period for Zurich and Jussi Jokinen and Dan Hamhius were able to build the Lions’ lead to 3-0 at the end of two. Bern finally got a puck past Roberto Luongo when Radim Vrbata one-timed a shot into the upper left corner of the net, but that came with just 1:39 left in the contest. Patrice Bergeron was the only player able to notch more than one point. He had assists on Zurich’s first two goals. The tight game between Swiss rivals featured only 5 minor penalties and Zurich got the only powerplay goal, scoring on their second of three PP chances. Shane Doan was in the penalty box at the time. Kevan Miller, a free agent signing during the last off-season, had 5 hits in 14 minutes of play for Bern.
Paris 7, Madrid 2 – Paris leads series 1-0
The Rouge Eiffels were just plain not nice Thursday. The Madrid Royals came to town to play Game 1 of their playoff series and they were greeted with a frying pan in the face. Paris pummeled them in the first period, scoring 5 times and outshooting the visitors 16-3. The third period was almost as lopsided in shots, although Paris managed just one goal in that frame. And Paris had their hitting skates on, much to the delight of 19,294 fans who attended the game in Paris. The Eiffels out-hit Madrid 39-24, with Alex Pietrangelo leading the way with 6 hits. Corey Perry earned first star honors with 2 goals and one assist. Mikko Koivu did the same (2 goals and 1 assist) and won second star honors, while Alexander Semin and David Perron each had 2 points in the game. Derek Stepan managed a goal and an assist for Madrid in the second period. Robin Lehner started in goal for Madrid but was replaced by Jonas Hiller after 16 minutes.
Gag order?
Seven teams are petitioning the league office to prohibit Frankfurt GM Bryan Camara from posting comments on the website. Two days before the playoffs, Camara posted, “Looking forward to the EURO playoffs hoping for some upsets.” In eight playoff games so far, the higher seed with home-ice advantage has won every time.
