The home teams all won their Game 3s in the EURO Playoffs, leaving defending champion Moscow and Berlin on the brink of elimination. Belfast and Paris saw their 2-0 leads shrink to 2-1 leads.

Minsk 3, Belfast 2 – Belfast leads series 2-1

Milan Lucic, who has been quiet for most of the playoffs, came to life on Tuesday, scoring two goals and assisting on a Michael Del Zotto slapshot goal.Minsk led 2-0 midway through the second period before Belfast scratched their way to a tie game on goals by James Neal and Nathan MacKinnon. Minsk had been leading in shots on goal and just 3 minutes after MacKinnon tied the game, Nicklas Backstrom sent a pass through the slot and Lucic one-timed it past Jonathan Quick for what turned out to be the winning goal. The game featured a good fight between Micki Dupont of the Giants and Minsk’s Matt Martin late in the second period. Even with the win, Minsk fans got bad news as their team lost two defensemen. Renat Mamashev missed a check on Joe Pavelski in the first period and fell awkwardly into the corner boards. He left the game with a back injury and did not return. Del Zotto played 32 minutes but didn’t seem to be at his best, getting just one shot on goal – which he scored on – and blocking just 1 shot. He was credited with no hits. It is believed he suffered a concussion at some point in the game and played anyway. Coach Lindy Ruff refused to give details of the injury but did say Del Zotto was doubtful for the remainder of the Belfast series. Unless Ruff makes a last-minute change and inserts Willie Mitchell into the lineup tonight, then former Spartak defenseman Kyle Quincy will suit up for only his third game as a Hussar and Tamir Ganbold will become the first Mongolian-born player to play a playoff game in the EURO league. Ganbold, 24, played 33 games for the Hussars during the regular season and 76 over three seasons. He has scored 5 goals and 16 points in his career and was a minus 2 player this season. Mitchell, formerly of St. Petersburg, has played 3 games for Minsk.

Copenhagen 3, Moscow 1 – Copenhagen leads series 3-0

After three consecutive 3-1 wins, the Tridents have the Russian Bear right where they don’t want them: with their backs against the wall and desperate. GM Michael Banker’s teams have had a way of clawing their way back from series deficits before and GM Dylan Callow of Copenhagen has got to be thinking of last year’s loss to Moscow as Game 4 approaches tonight. Dustin Brown played hurt for Moscow on Tuesday, Stephen Weiss played hurt for Copenhagen, and Anze Kopitar’s dog Gustl was still unaccounted for as of this morning as members of PETA kept a candlelight vigil around the arena in Copenhagen throughout the night. (#savekopisdog). Goaltending was the story in Games 2 and 3 of this series. On Sunday, Brian Elliott stopped 36 Moscow shots to steal the victory for the Tridents, and on Tuesday, he was equally as strong, allowing only one of Spartak’s 27 shots to pass. Jaroslav Halak, meanwhile, had an off day in the Moscow net. He faced just 13 Copenhagen shots but allowed goals by Weiss, Brooks Laich and Drew Shore. Defensive forward Boyd Gordon on Tuesday delivered 5 checks and blocked 3 shots to make a difference for the winners. The team has been led in playoff scoring by Alexander Ovechkin, who has 10 points in as many games. Ovechkin was acquired in a trade with Moscow. Kopitar leads Spartak in playoff scoring with 9 points in 7 games.

Zurich 4, Paris 2 – Paris leads series 2-1

Joni Pitkanen was the hero for Zurich on Wednesday, scoring twice in the second period and helping Zurich build a 4-0 lead in front of the home folks. Three of Zurich’s 4 goals were scored by defensemen. Jacob Trouba, acquired in a trade with Helsinki, snuck one in for his first of the playoffs after Jussi Jokinen scored the only goal of the first period. Paris was able to score two powerplay goals in the third period, but their rally started too late. They also put themselves in bad positions often throughout the game, taking 7 minor penalties. Zurich did a good job of shutting off the points in their own zone. Four Paris blueliners including Kris Letang and Alex Pietrangelo failed to get a shot on goalie Roberto Luongo. Janne Niskala played well for the Lions, assisting on both Pitkanen goals and delivering 6 hits.

Athens 3, Berlin 2 – Athens leads series 3-0

Scott Hartnell scored twice – including the winner in overtime – for the Greeks as they continued to look impenetrable. Athens outshot the Smurfs 44-19 in the game but trailed 2-0 five minutes into the game before they got their impressive act together. Both teams’ penalty killers were excellent as the teams went a combined 0 for 12 on the powerplay. Dustin Byfuglien has been a force for Athens and he leads everyone in the league with a plus 10 rating in the playoffs.  Berlin has the playoff’s leading scoer in Ryan Callahan (3 goals and 10 assists in 10 games) but he has been held to just 1 assist in this series. The biggest Smurf killers in the series have been Vadim Shipachyov and David Backes, both with 6 points. Michael Ryder has 3 goals and 2 assists in the series. Athens GM Terry Moutafis hopes history doesn’t repeat itself in inverse fashion. Last season, Berlin had a 3-0 series lead when the two teams met in the playoffs, but Athens won four straight games to advance to the Conference Finals against Paris.