Gothenburg 4, London 1 – Saturday was a bad day for 4 teams that saw key forwards go down with injuries. Late in the first period in Gothenburg, there was a scramble of players fighting for the puck in front of the net and a few of them went to the ice at about the same time. Daniel Sedin of London didn’t get up quickly and limped to the bench with what turned out to be a knee injury that will keep him out of about 6 games, including the two this week against Bratislava. Sedin is London’s top scorer and had been on a point-per-game pace. It had been a tough day at the office for the Dons even before Sedin went down. Gothenburg started strong and cashed in on goals by Mikel Backlund, rookie Chris Legge and Carl Hagelin to lead 3-0 early. Hagelin scored a second goal in the second period. Gothenburg out-shot London 37-20 in the game and Devils defensemen Dan Girardi and John Carlson registered 6 hits apiece. Six teams are separated by 3 points in the Northern Conference standings and London and Gothenburg are two of them. The Dons are tied for third place while the Devils stand tied for 7th.

Bratislava 4, Paris 1 – About 15,000 Bratislava fans were happy to see their team’s win over powerful Paris, but the joy was tempered by the loss of Jonathan Toews to an injury late in the game. The Eagles’ captain won’t be out too long but he might miss the two games against London this week. Paris carried a 1-0 lead into the third period before Bratislava finally got to goalie Tuukka Rask. Christian Ehrhoff and Tyler Toffoli scored powerplay goals and Milan Gulas and Martin Hanzal added even-strength tallies in the period. Zemgus Girgenseons was called up to fill in for Toews. It will give the Latvian his first taste of EURO hockey.

Belfast 5, Dublin 2 – A strong third-period surge gave Belfast 2 points the latest Battle for Ireland, but the victory came at a high price. Nathan MacKinnon was on the ice in the game’s final 10 seconds and rather than playing out the meaningless few seconds, Dublin kept skating hard. MacKinnon turned quickly to try to stop Tomas Plekanec, and he tore a groin muscle on the play. The 20-year-old who has 19 points in 21 games will miss significant time. Dane Lars Eller will replace him in the lineup. Eller was a starter for the Giants during seasons 1 through 3, but in last year’s championship season, he played in just 14 games. He has not played yet this season. In the game, Dublin took a 2-1 lead when Ryan Murray scored shorthanded and the Fighting Irish entered the third period trying to protect the one-goal lead. Belfast would have none of it and they rattled off two quick ones – Sidney Crosby and Cody Hodgson scoring – before adding the clinching goal by Alexander Ovechkin with 4:35 to play. Hodgson and Ovechkin ended with 2 goals each.

Stockholm 5, St. Petersburg 4 – Mike Richards helped Stockholm win at home, picking up an assist, 3 shots on goal, 2 hits and an injury. Acknowledged as one of the two key veterans on the team along with longtime teammate Jeff Carter, Richards is now out of action with an upper body injury. His teammate Craig Smith hadn’t scored once this season, but in a close affair with the Red Stars, his first goal was the only one scored in the third period and it was the margin of victory. The Eagles’ Cam Fowler and Derick Brassard led all scorers with 3 points each, while teammate Marcus Foligno added a goal and an assist. For St. Petersburg, three players had 2 points apiece. Wayne Simmonds scored two goals and now has 8 this season, while Valtteri Filppula and Jan Kovar each had a goal and an assist. Filppula’s goal came shorthanded. Stockholm had nearly twice as many shots on goal as the Red Stars did.

Munich 4, Zurich 3 – Munich goalie Cory Schneider was strong as the Dire Wolf got a win for new general manager Mike Felter. Schneider stopped 36 shots against the offensive minded Lions. Munich led 3-1 at one point and Henrik Sedin had a hand in all 3 goals, scoring one of them. Travis Zajac fed Aleksey Morozov a nifty pass that the 32-year-old Russian converted to make it 4-2 and that play wound up as the game-winner.

Helsinki 3, Oslo 2 (shootout) – Helsinki got past their Kharlamov Division foe but had to go to a shootout to do it. Jokerit forward Alexander Radulov sat in the penalty box for a major boarding penalty in the second period and he had to watch as Mikhail Grabovski finished off a pretty passing play to tie the game at 2-2. Rookie Viktor Antipin and Matt D’Agostini assisted on the play. Oslo also got a goal out of defenseman Matt Irwin, his 4th of the season. Helsinki goal scorers were Daniel Fernholm and then Brad Marchand. Jhonas Enroth played great for the Outlaws, making 35 saves, but he gave up a goal to Nerius Alisauskas on the first shot in the shootout while some other Swedish goalie named Henrik Lundqvist stopped all 3 Oslo shots.