Prague 4, Belfast 3 – The Prague Wolf Pack, who haven’t lost in regulation time this season, handed the Giants their first loss of Season 5. The visitors from Belfast got a great game out of stars Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin and James Neal, but Prague was better as a whole, especially goalie Ryan Miller who made 30 saves. The Wolf Pack had to come back to tie the score twice in the game and won it after Marcel Hossa netted a powerplay goal to give them their first lead with 13:26 to play in the third period.Ten different Prague players had a point in the game, and Bryan Little had 2. As of today, Prague and Belfast share the league lead in powerplay efficiency and Prague is second in the EURO in penalty killing. Prague doesn’t get to rest after the hard-fought win because they play in a 4-hour drive away in Munich tonight.

Stockholm 4, Bern 1 – The Bears’ hard luck continued Thursday as the Eagles put a 4-1 hurting on them in Sweden. Young defenseman Simon Despres was the catalyst for Stockholm. He scored his first two goals of the season and in between them, he earned an assist on defense partner Cody Ceci’s second goal of the season. By the time Despres’ offensive outburst ended, the score was 3-1 with less than half a game to play. Despres and Ceci finished the game +4, while teammates Pavel Datsyuk, Marcus Johansson and Mike Richards were +3. Bern didn’t play poorly, in fact they only took two penalties and had 42 shots on goal. Fortunately for the home fans, goalie Braden Holtby was even better. The bad news for Stockholm was they sustained another injury, to Datsyuk this time, although Mike Green is healthy enough to play again.

Edinburgh 5, Munich 1 – The Capitals crushed the Dire Wolf, winning by 4 goals and outshooting them 33-16. Jamie Benn had 7 shots on goal and 2 goals, while Edinburgh teammate Olivier Roland led everyone in scoring with 3 points. The special teams were the difference in the game Munich was 0 for 9 in powerplay chances, while Edinburgh cashed in on 3 of 5 powerplays.

Zurich 6, London 1 – London goalie Martin Jones has had some very good performances in his short, 5-game EURO career, but the game in Zurich was not one of them. He was pulled early in the second period after allowing 5 goals on 16 Zurich shots. Six different forwards scored for the Lions, including Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrice Bergeron who currently share the league lead in scoring with 4 goals and 7 assists in 6 games. Despite being -2, London’s Jake Muzzin played a good game, blocking 2 shots and dishing out 6 hits.

Helsinki 4, Gothenburg 3 (shootout) – The visiting Devils and the Jokerit played as close as two teams can in a game that came down to the third round of the shootout. Thomas Vanek scored to give Helsinki the lead in that round, and Henrik Lundqvist stoned Patrick Marleau to give Helsinki the extra point. In regulation time, it seemed as if goal scoring was incidental and knocking opponents down was the actual object of the game. Gothenburg had 35 hits and Helsinki had 29, with Daniel Fernholm of Helsinki and Gothenburg’s John Carlson leading the parade with 7 and 6 hits, respectively. Jokerit Alexander Radulov scored the biggest goal of the game, tying it with less than 3 minutes to play.

Minsk 3, Copenhagen 0 – Carey Price notched his league-leading second shutout of the season, turning away 44 Copenhagen shots in the process. Goals were scored by Hussars Thomas Powell (2nd of the season), Maxim Chudinov (1st) and Colin Wilson (1st). Chudinov’s was shorthanded. Six Trident players, including two defensemen, had 4 or more shots on Price.