Frankfurt 4, Berlin 1 – Series tied 2-2

Two wins at home by Frankfurt have the German series in a deadlock. On Wednesday, Alexander Steen scored the first two goals of the game and he added an assist on a Claude Giroux goal that put the Smurfs in a 3-0 hole. Frankfurt’s top line of Steen, Giroux and Steven Stamkos provided the offense while Kari Ramo and the defense corps shut down Berlin at the other end. Frankfurt outshot the Smurfs 29-17, with Giroux getting off 10 shots by himself. Almost half of Berlin’s shots came off the stick of their lone goal scorer, Logan Couture. Dougie Hamilton and Drew Doughty were each credited with 3 shot blocks for the winners. The series goes back to Berlin for Game 5, and while the home team has won all four games of this series, Frankfurt was victorious in two of the three regular season games the teams played in Berlin. The only injury affecting either lineup is one to Berlin’s Gerhard Unterluggauer.

Zurich 5, Bern 4 – Zurich leads series 3-1

The tight Swiss series has featured two one-goal games and Zurich has won both of them. On Wednesday, they had to fight off Bern’s comeback attempt which produced two third-period goals and made for a thrilling last half of the third period. The league’s leading goal scorer during the regular season, Ilya Kovalchuk, played an important part in the win for Zurich. He scored twice, both goals coming at the end of a period. His first-period goal tied the game at 2-2 and his second-period goal was the eventual game winner. Kovalchuk has 3 goals in the series, as does Bern’s Radim Vrbata. The third period started 5-2 Zurich, but Mika Zibanejad led a charge back in front of the home fans. About five minutes into the period, he feathered a pass to Henrik Zetterberg who deposited the puck in the opposing net and then three minutes later, Zibanejad worked along the boards and laid off a puck for Brent Sebrook, who blasted in another goal. For Zetterberg and Seabrook, it was their first goal of the series. Zibanejad has scored points in the last three games. Roberto Luongo made 31 saves in the game to get the win for Zurich, while Bern’s Mike Babcock went with the hot goalie, Cam Talbot, who came up with 28 saves. Neither team’s penalty killers did very well. Zurich was 3 for 3 on the powerplay, while Bern was 2 for 4.

Athens 6, Bratislava 4 – Athens leads series 3-1

Before the series, the commissioner hinted that a goalie in this series would come back to haunt his former team. He was right … he just had the wrong goalie and team in mind. Bratislava got off to a great start in the game. They took 3 shots in the first 8 minutes and they scored on all three shots. John Tortorella pulled Cam Ward from the net and stuck Richard Bachman in his place. Bachman was originally drafted by Bratislava and he played as a backup there for one season and then two seasons in Helsinki before being acquired by the Greeks this year. When he stepped into the crease Wednesday, it was Bachman’s first action in a playoff game. He proceeded to make saves on 28 of the next 29 Bratislava shots and his Greek teammates roared back to win the game and take a commanding lead in the series. Athens scored 6 straight goals in the game, including 5 in the second period, all against former Greek Corey Crawford. Vadim Shipachyov of Athens led all scorers with 3 points.

Paris 6, Madrid 3 – Paris leads series 3-1

The Madrid Royals deserved a better fate on Wednesday, losing by three goals to a team they outshot 45-27. And while Derek Stepan and Gabriel Landeskog have been great for Madrid in the series, the Rouges Eiffels have been too good overall. Stepan leads all players in the series with 8 points and he and Landeskog have points in all four games. On Wednesday, they combined for 2 goals and 5 points. But Paris was been propelled by multiple engines. Tuukka Rask made 42 saves, Alexander Semin, who leads the team in scoring with 7 points in the series, scored twice and added an assist in Madrid on Wednesday, and Alex Pietrangelo and Mikko Koivu had multi-point games. Even Ville Leino chipped in with a goal for Paris. Leino, who was a Bratislava Eagle the three previous seasons, had zero points in 23 playoff games entering the contest. His goal was one of 5 that Paris scored in the first period against Madrid starter Robin Lehner, who was replaced by Jonas Hiller in the last minute of the period. To win the series, Madrid will have to win out, including the two games to be played in Paris, which has been the most difficult place for visiting teams to win all season long.