The Athens Greeks have had their fair share of injuries this season, but their old reliable has been Ryan O’Reilly. The 24-year-old center was the first person the franchise drafted when GM Terry Moutafis called his name on Season 1 draft day to make him the 22nd player selected overall. Two rounds later, Moutafis drafted the guy who would be firmly planted ahead of O’Reilly on the depth chart for going on five seasons now: team captain David Backes. Backes has been worthy of the top center spot, but O’Reilly has provided Athens with the powerful number 2 in their 1-2 punch. In Season 4, O’Reilly topped the point-per-game rate for the first time, scoring 83 points in 82 games, and this season, he is on pace to do even better. In fact he is currently tied with Belfast’s Sidney Crosby for the league scoring title. Aside from the obvious talents O’Reilly possesses, another thing that drew Moutafis’ attention was O’Reilly’s low price tag. That changes at the end of this season because O’Reilly is on the final year of a $1.7 million contract. As a restricted free agent, Moutafis should be able to resign him along with Nick Palmieri on the right wing. But the GM will have to use his best powers of persuasion and some neat finance work to keep four older Greeks in Athens, namely pending unrestricted free agents Dustin Byfuglien, Cam Ward, Nick Kronwall and Backes.

Athens 6, Geneva 3 – On Sunday, O’Reilly scored two goals, as did Scott Hartnell, and Backes scored one as the Greeks hammered Geneva 6-3, outshooting them 42-25 in the process. Geneva started well, taking a 2-1 lead in the game’s first 6 minutes thanks to goals by Sergei Kostitsyn and Marian Gaborik, but Athens started pulling away when O’Reilly scored his two goals before the first period ended. Erik Cole of Geneva scored his 100th career goal in the game.

Edinburgh 3, Dublin 1 – With 14,764 of their Scottish buddies behind them, the Edinburgh Capitals defeated the Fighting Irish in a game that featured two of the best forward lines in hockey. The trio of Rick Nash, Jamie Benn and Claude Giroux got the better of Ryan Kesler, Phil Kessel and Evander Kane. But after Nash of Edinburgh scored the first goal and Kessel tied the game a little over 5 minutes later, it was Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Steve Ott, who played just 6 and 5 minutes respectively, who put Edinburgh in front to stay. Ott checked Dublin’s Olexander Pobyedonostsev into the corner boards and threw the puck in front of the net where Bouchard collected it and deked Dublin goalie Brian Elliott before tucking it behind him.

Bratislava 2, Madrid 1 (OT) – The Royals were on their way to a 1-0 win when one of the players took a penalty in the final two minutes and opened the door for Bratislava. Andrej Meszaros had an assist on the only goal of the game to that point and he led his team in blocked shots with 4 and tied for the team lead in hits with 4, but he took a tripping penalty with 1:19 to play and 55 seconds later, Frans Nielsen scored to tie the game. In overtime, big Czech Martin Hanzal snapped a rising wrist shot that flew over Royal goalie Jonas Hiller’s right shoulder and ended the game. Nielsen was centering the Eagles’ top line for the first time in the absence of injured captain Jonathan Toews.

Stockholm 5, Berlin 4 (shootout) – The Smurfs got their anger out earlier in the week in two games against Geneva, beating the Generals by a combined score of 9-2, and now, after losing in a shootout to Stockholm in a game they should have won, they are furious. Bern better watch out on Tuesday. Stockholm had only 19 shots on Berlin goalie Jimmy Howard, the league’s top player at his position, yet they were able to score 4 goals. Berlin fired 51 at Braden Holtby and were also able to score 4. Bobby Ryan had 3 points for the Eagles, while Nick Bonino scored twice for Berlin.

Minsk 7, Zurich 2 – Seven different Hussars scored goals in their home win Sunday. One of them was Jordan Staal, who hit the 100-goal plateau in the third period with his 5th of the season. Minsk’s Alexander Burmistrov, Milan Lucic, Colin Wilson and Thomas Powell all had 2 points in the game. Still, a Lion was named first star of the game. Jakub Voracek of Zurich scored both of his team’s goals on 6 shots on goal.

St. Petersburg 3, London 2 – Artem Anisimov scored to break a 2-2 tie late in the third period and give the Red Stars a road win. St. Petersburg goalie Mikka Kiprusoff held the fort perfectly in a first period that saw London out-shoot his team 12-4. The second period belonged to Petrograd. Wayne Simmonds and Jonathan Huberdeau scored goals and the Red Stars led 2-0 after two. For Simmonds, it was his third goal in two nights. Then Taylor Hall made a pretty loud return to form, coming back from an arm injury he sustained in the season’s opening week. He scored his first two goals of the year, including his 100th EURO League goal and the game was tied until Anisimov beat rookie goalie Martin Jones.