Bern 6, Prague 1 – Tobias Enstrom was about all the Bears needed Monday to beat the visiting Wolf Pack. Enstrom, 31, has been an important member of the team since Season 1, teaming
Bern defenseman Tobias Enstrom scored 3 goals and had 1 assist Monday against visiting Prague.
with Brent Seabrook on the Bears’ back line for almost all of that time. He was voted to the all-star team in Season 3 and this year, he is on pace to have his best year yet. Enstrom is fourth in defensemen scoring in the EURO with 6 goals and 19 points. At the pace, he will score more than 60 points this season. He has never had a minus plus-minus rating, he has four straight seasons with more takeaways than giveaways, and in the last two years, he has been throwing his 180 pounds around more, getting more hits but more penalties as well. On Monday, Enstrom was at his very best. The Swede caught a pass from Andrei Kostitsyn and scored 41 seconds into the contest. Then, six minutes later, he made it 2-0 with a slapshot that got past Ryan Miller. The Bears took a 4-1 lead into the intermission and after a scoreless second period, Enstrom inflicted more damage on Prague by completing the hat trick with another point blast. To top it off, Enstrom earned an assist on the game’s final goal scored by his buddy Seabrook. Mike Smith was stellar in goal for Bern, making 30 saves. The Bears have won 5 of their last 8 games and are starting to scratch their way away from the league basement.
Stockholm 2, Madrid 1 – More than 16,700 Spaniards went home without smiles after Stockholm goalie Bradon Holtby stopped their team Monday, making it three straight losses and 4 in the last 5 games for the suddenly wobbly Royals. Madrid easily outshot the Eagles, but Holtby was beatable on just one of 36 shots. Stockholm took the lead in the game five minutes in when veteran Pavel Datsyuk scored his 5th goal of the season. Madrid tied in the second period when Alex Tanguay flipped the puck over the sprawled-out Holtby, but the game was only tied for about 2 and a half minutes before Datsyuk set up Marcus Johansson with a pretty backhand saucer pass. Both men had 2 points Monday. Their center, Jeff Carter, had an assist, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots and he won 12 of 18 draws.
London 3, Moscow 2 (shootout) – Goalies Martin Jones of London and Moscow’s Jaroslav Halak were on top of their game, with Jones coming out as the winner of a very close game in England.He turned away all of the Bare Bear Brawlers’ 16 shots in the first period and all three of their shootout attempts. Sam Gagner and rookie Artemy Panarin scored London’s goals, while Blake Wheeler and Duncan Keith tallied for Moscow.
Bratislava 6, Milan 1 – Wei Yang Zhang, “The Chinese Lucic,” now has points in 7 straight games after collecting a goal and an assist in Italy. Coach Brent Sutter made a lineup change between the warmup and the opening faceoff, swapping the center on the fourth line with Zhang’s regular center, Martin Hanzal, on the second line. Milan Gulas was also on a hot streak and the coach wanted to see if they could keep each other’s momentum going. Gulas didn’t score a point, but the line played well, ending plus 2 for the evening. Defenseman Patrick Wiercoch played he best game of the season, getting a goal and 2 assists to lead everyone in the game in scoring with 3 points. Milan’s Kyle Okposo ruined Marc-Andre Fleury’s bid for a shutout by scoring on a Guerriero powerplay with inside 2 minutes to play.
Minsk 6, St. Petersburg 2 – Minsk is looking increasingly dangerous, having piled up 13 goals in their last 2 games and getting 37 shots on goal both times. They were locked in a 2-2 game Monday before pulling away from the Red Stars with a 22-shot, 4-goal third period. Patrick Kane added 6 points to his season point total in the two games with 3 assists against Stockholm Saturday and a goal and 2 assists Monday. His linemates, Nick Backstrom and Milan Lucic, both had 4 points in the two games. St. Petersburg’s Oscar Klefbom had an interesting game. The rookie defenseman dished out 7 hits, blocked 6 shots, but finished minus 4. Minsk is now in 7th place in the league and in 3rd place in the Northern Conference, a point behind Moscow. St. Petersburg’s Wayne Simmonds engaged in a fight with Max Chudinov and the Red Star forward is now second in the league in penalty minutes. Chudinov is fourth on that dubious list.
