Madrid 3, Paris 2 – Fourth-line center Brandon Prust cashed in on a pair of goals to help Madrid top visiting Paris. Chris Kreider and Lee Stempniak earned assists on both goals. Prust has 5 goals this season. Paris got a goal from arguably the best and most underrated forward line in the EURO League. Justin Williams scored his 14th of the season to give his team a 2-1 lead in the second period, but they couldn’t hold the lead. Williams and line mates Josef Vasicek and Kyle Turris are the top three plus-minus players in the league.
Stockholm 4, Lisbon 1 – Stockholm crushed one of the league’s best teams when Lisbon came to visit. The Eagles outshot Lisbon 39-19 and limited the league’s leading scorer Steven Stamkos to a single shot on goal. Second period shots were 19-3 in favor of the winners. First-period goals came from Stockholm players who don’t score often. Zach Bogosian started the ball rolling with his 7th of the season and Craig Smith tallied his 5th. Karl Alzner and Mike Richards added goals in the second period and the team kept Lisbon off goalie Braden Holtby in the final frame.
Helsinki 4, St. Petersburg 2 – The Jokerit broke open a close game with two goals in the third period. Defenseman Nerius Alisauskas was the star of the game, scoring a pair of goals, including the game-winner, to give him 15 this season, a number that puts him tied for 8th among all defensemen. The game was a rough one with a total of 14 power plays. The loss put a dent in St. Petersburg’s playoff hopes. In a tight five-team race for the last 3 spots, the Red Stars remain just out of the picture but they have 14 games in which to make up ground. Rookie Jan Kovar scored his 18th goal in the game and he leads all first-year players in that category. The 23-year-old Czech has played on the third line all season for St. Petersburg and will get strong consideration for the Rookie of the Year trophy, although that could be a close race.
Athens 6, Copenhagen 0 – Copenhagen gave the host team too much power play time and they couldn’t get a puck past Greek net minder Cam Ward. Dustin Byfuglien had 3 points to lead all players in scoring and added 7 hits to his plus-4 performance. The game was only 2-0 when the third period started, but Athens piled on 4 goals in that period.
