Tonight’s games in roughly two sentences each.
Three young stars injured: Three young stars were injured today and will miss significant time. Filip Forsberg on the first shift of his second game. He injured his groin and will be out of the lineup for the rest of October and most if not all of November. To replace Forsberg, Coach Craig Berube has one left winger on the depth chart and that’s 37-year-old veteran Matt Cooke.
After a goalie save and a whistle, Paris and London players scuffled and Mikko Koivu of Paris knocked Taylor Hall to the ice. Hall, who scored more than 70 points in each of the last two seasons for London, hurt his arm when he fell and will miss time. Koivu was penalized for roughing. Expect Daniel Sedin, Brandon Saad and Jiri Hudler to all move up a line, with Jason Zucker in a position to make his league debut thanks to the injury. Hall could miss two or three weeks.
Olli Maatta of Stockholm will miss time for the first time in his short career after sustaining an ankle injury against Dublin. And he could miss up to two months. Dalton Prout, who played in just 2 games last season, has been called up to replace him.
Munich 4, Zurich 2 – Munich survived an all-Zurich first period and entered the third period tied at 2-2 before winning it on goals by Patrik Elias (1 goal and 2 assists) and Dany Heatley. Talgat Zhailauov assisted on both goals and had 3 helpers in the game. Ilya Kovalchuk, last year’s leading goal scorer in the EURO, scored his second in two games for Zurich and fired 7 shots at Munich goalie Cory Schneider.
Paris 4, London 1 – Rookie goalie Martin Jones kept the London Dons in the game until Alex Pietrangelo scored a goal to break a 1-1 tie in the third period. Paris added a Joffrey Lupul goal and then Pietrangelo scored into an empty net. Kris Letang had 2 assists and 4 blocked shots for the Rouge Eiffels, while London’s Jamie McBain had 5 hits and 2 blocked shots.
Dublin 3, Stockholm 1 – All three members of the Fighting Irish’s top line scored goals as Dublin built a 3-0 lead over Stockholm and wouldn’t allow the Eagles to come back. Evander Kane, Phil Kessel and Ryan Kesler combined for 15 shots and each player had a goal and an assist. Stockholm made a game effort in the third period, getting 14 shots on goal and a goal out of Zach Bogosian, but Brian Elliott, Dublin’s goalie, shut the door.
Moscow 6, Gothenburg 2 – Kevin Dallman’s return to Moscow following an off-season trade was unsuccessful and frustrating. His former team scored four second-period goals to put it away early. Dallman was in a bad mood, dishing out 6 hits against his former buddies and he took a major penalty. Of the 7 players who have played against their former team so far this season, Dallman is the only one not to collect at least a point. Moscow’s Ryan Suter and winger Blake Wheeler were also playing against their old mates in the game and they came away with three points between them.
Belfast 5, Minsk 2 – Two of the league’s best young teams were neck and neck in the second period before a fight between Belfast’s P.K. Subban and Minsk’s Milan Lucic seemed to shift the momentum. In the 10 minutes following the fight, Belfast scored three times. Nazem Kadri of Belfast had 4 assists in the game.
Geneva 3, St. Petersburg 2 – Sergei Kostitsyn was the hero for Geneva as he scored two goals, including the game-winner in the third period. Sergei Mozyakin and former Red Star Erik Cole both assisted on both goals. The three form the Generals’ second line. Valtteri Filppula had two assists for St. Petersburg, which out-shot the Generals 37-29. Red Star Dmitri Kalinin had another big night of hitting, with 6 and he leads the league in hits through two games.
