Lisbon 6, Athens 1 – With an ailing John Tavares limited to 5 minutes of ice time, Lisbon HC put a hurting on Athens in Portugal. With centers Joe Thornton and Alexei Kalyuzhny available to fill in for Tavares, Lisbon steamrolled the Greeks, scoring 4 times in the second period. Tavares actually scored to stake the Portugese to a 1-0 lead before he seemed to hurt his shoulder. Then in the second period, his regular linemates – Steven Stamkos and Alex Steen – went to town, scoring 3 times between them. Goalie Karri Ramo stymied the Greek shooters, stopping 25 of their shots. That’s five straight wins for Coach Willie Desjardins’ guys and they are now in 5th place in the South, one point behind Athens. Lisbon will host Moscow tonight.
Munich 4, Oslo 1 – Alexei Morozov broke open a tie game with two third-period goals, giving him 3 this season. Travis Zajac assisted on both tallies. Munich maintained a sizeable advantage in shots on goal and faceoff wins throughout the game. Eric Gryba blocked 3 shots for Munich, while forward Tyler Seguin did the same for the Outlaws.
Helsinki 4, Minsk 3 – Henrik Lundqvist and the Jokerit looked good at home and they got two big goals from Thomas Vanek to jump over the Hussars in the standings. Daniel Fernholm and forward Alexander Radulov combined for 12 hits in the game for Helsinki. Brad Marchand scored his first goal of the season to open the scoring for the Jokerit. Minsk was led by Mark Giordano and Thomas Powell, who both scored 2 points.
Moscow 6, Copenhagen 3 – If not for the 9 goals in the games, there might have been some bored-looking Russians in the stands because much of the play occurred along the boards and in the neutral zone. Moscow only managed 21 shots in the game, and that was 3 more than Copenhagen had. Trident goalie Tim Thomas was beaten twice in the first period and four times in the second. Blake Wheeler of Moscow scored a pair of goals, while teammates Kris Versteeg, Marc-Andre Bourdon and Andrew Ladd all had 2 assists. Defenseman T.J. Brodie had a goal and two assists in a losing cause for Copenhagen.
Paris 3, Braislava 2 (shootout) – Alex Pietrangelo and Kris Letang combined forces to score an important goal to cut Bratislava’s 2-0 lead to 2-1, and then both scored as extra shooters in the shootout. One-time Rouge Eiffel Philip Larsen scored against his former club to open the scoring, and the Eagles got 2-point games from Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. But goals by Pietrangelo and Corey Perry tied the score in the second period and it remained that way through 65 minutes of play. Paris’ penalty killers were a perfect 8 for 8 in the game. Paris averages more shots on goal than any team in the league, with more than 37 per game, but on Wednesday, Bratislava held them to 26.
Madrid 6, Zurich 4 – The Lions turned it on in the second period, scoring 4 times to erase a 2-0 Madrid lead, but they turned it off in the third period. Madrid stormed back to score 4 in the period and capture the 2 points in the standings. R.J. Umberger was the best player on the ice. He scored a shorthanded goal in the third period to tie the score at 4-4 and he added 2 assists. Gabriel Landeskog scored the game-winner inside the final minute of regulation, giving him 8 goals on the season. The work Madrid did against Zurich stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Patrice Bergeron contributed greatly to the win. The talented forwards were allowed just 4 shots total, and that includes several powerplay chances, and each was minus 4 for the game.
