Dublin 5, Moscow 3 – The Fighting Irish fought hard enough Sunday to claim two points in the standings and send Moscow home with none. Dublin got into penalty trouble early in the game but battled back to tie and eventually overtake the invaders from Moscow. David Backes put Moscow in front with a pair of goals in the first period and Moscow then took a 3-1 lead, but Dublin outshot Spartak the rest of the game. Dublin’s Mattias Tedenby and Zack Kassian each scored his first goal of the season to spark their team. Tedenby hasn’t played in the EURO League since he was a member of the Belfast Giants in Season 1. The 26-year-old played the last few seasons with the Albany Devils in the AHL and with HV71 in the Swedish League. He was claimed off waivers from Belfast and eight days later, Milan Michalek was injured,  giving Tedenby a chance to play again. He has appeared in 8 games this season for the Fighting Irish and is currently listed as the third line right wing with Jakub Petruzalek and Mason Raymond as his linemates. Kassian, the fourth-line right wing known more for intimidating than scoring, has played in 22 games and he now has 7 points. His goal in the third period on Sunday tied the game and four minutes later, with 8:15 remaining, Hampus Lindholm skated in and scored on a wrist shot to beat Alexander Salak and give Dublin a lead they didn’t relinquish. Lindholm finished plus 3 with 2 points and was named the game’s first star. In the Northern Conference standings, there is a considerable gap between the top 7 teams and the rest. Dublin and Copenhagen are at the top of the group of teams currently battling for 8th place. Dublin plays again at home tonight against Stockholm before traveling to Paris the day after St. Patrick’s Day.

Lisbon 3, Athens 2 – Lisbon deserved the win, outshooting visiting Athens 33-19, but the Greeks made their fans sweat it out for a long time. Joe Pavelski pumped home a powerplay goal, his 8th of the season, to put Lisbon in front 3-1 early in the second period. But a sharp backhander by Andrew Ladd lifted Athens to within a goal with 15:38 to play in the second. From that point on – for the next nearly 36 minutes – Lisbon had to hold onto to the slim lead with Athens goalie Richard Bachman refusing to give up any more ground. He finished with 30 saves. Early in the third period, Athens took their fourth straight minor penalty and Coach John Tortorella started screaming at the refs and pointing to the big screen where a replay of the penalty was being shown. The video seemed to show that Lisbon defenseman Sami Vatanen lost his balance on his own while Vadim Shipachyov was behing him. Shipachyov had been called for cross checking. Two seconds after the ensuing faceoff in the Athens’ zone, Dustin Byfuglien was called for high sticking in an apparent makeup call. Still, Lisbon fans had to suffer through two shorthanded situations after that. Athens could not muster any sustained challenges to goalie Kari Ramo and the game ended with Ladd’s goal as the winner. Pavelski and teammate his Lisbon Clarke MacArthur each had 2 points to lead everyone in scoring. Athens’ Ladislav Smid led everyone in hits with 7.

Bern 2, Madrid 1 (OT-SO)- The Madrid Royals limited Bern to 18 shots on goal, reeled off 30 of their own, and lost. Jan Laco turned in a stellar goaltending peformance for the Bears and won thanks to the shootout shooters for Bern who went 3 for 3.  The only goal Laco surrendered came 9 seconds into the game, when Patrik Berlund intercepted a pass and fired a pass to a streaking Gabriel Landeskog, who split the defense and burst in on a partial breakaway. But with Shea Weber in the penalty box late in the second period, Bern tied the game on a Mark Stone goal.Stone, Mika Zibanejad and lastly RadimVrbata scored in the shootout to beat the Royals and goalie Robin Lehner. Only three players in the game managed to get 3 shots on the opposing goal, while Landeskog seemed to have free reign most of the time. He ended up with 8 shots on Laco. Madrid’s Erik Karlsson played a good defensive game, blocking 6 Bern shots.

Stockholm 3, Gothenburg 2 (OT-SO)- The second Battle of Sweden was even closer than the first one that went into overtime 15 days earlier with Brendan Gallagher winning it for Stockholm. This time, Stockholm and Gothenburg battled through regulation and overtime tied and then went back and forth for 7 rounds of shooters before Zach Bogosian scored and goalie Braden Holtby stopped Matt Calvert to give Stockholm the win.  Bogosian was a worthy choice for first star of the game on Sunday. Before winning the game in the shootout, Bogosian opened the scoring in the game with his first of the season on a powerplay and about a minute later he had the only assist on a Ryan Johansen goal that made it 2-0. He also recorded 5 hits and blocked two shots. Gothenburg was able to get on the scoreboard in the second period when Marc-Eduoard Vlasic shot one that deflected off Stockholm’s Cam Fowler and past Holtby.  Kevin Dallman made a nice pass to Jordan Eberle and the winger cashed in on his 9th of the season to tie the game in the third period while Gallagher was in the penalty box for slashing.

Berlin 3, Helsinki 2 (OT-SO) – In another close game that went to a shootout, the Smurfs emerged with the extra point in the standings. Helsinki scored first despite being outshot in the first period and they seemed to grow stronger as the game went on, outshooting Berlin 14-9 in the final period and then 3-0 in overtime. Nerius Alisauskas and Jack Johnson, both defensemen, scored Helsinki’s goals, while forwards David Krejci and Loui Eriksson scored for Berlin. The eventual game-winning shot in the shootout came off the stick of Alexander Edler, whose defensive work earlier was outstanding. Edler blocked 8 Helsinki shots and had 4 hits in the game. Goalies Chad Johnson of Helsinki and Jimmy Howard of Berlin made 29 and 31 saves, respectively in a game that featured lots of physicality. Not surprisingly, Helsinki did most of it, out-hitting the Smurfs at a nearly 2-to-1 rate (38-20). The game also featured a pair of fights. Dion Phaneuf of Berlin took on two tough lightweights in Brad Marchand in the first period and then Steve Downie a period later.

Paris 3, Zurich 1 – Paris improved their home record to 11-1 with a convincing triumph over the Lions. The Rouge Eiffels outshot Zurich 41-20. Three EURO teams have  lost just once at home this season. Paris’ lone defeat in France came at the hands of the Minsk Hussars (3-1); while Minsk’s only home loss was to Moscow (3-1) and Belfast’s lone loss in Northern Ireland occurred just Saturday against Bratislava, also by a 3-1 score. On Sunday, Zurich used a Jakub Voracek powerplay goals to assume the lead in the first period, but Paris blasted through the Zurich defense in the second to score three times. Kris Letang, David Bolland and Corey Perry scored the goals, while Letang, Bolland and Lauri Korpikoski all had 2 points in the period for Paris. The third period was scoreless, with Paris dominating in possession and shots. Tuukka Rask made 19 saves to earn the win in goal for Paris, while Cam Ward stopped 38 shots in a losing cause. Unexpectedly, Zurich has dropped to the very bottom of the Southern Conference standings. Still, they are only 4 points behind 8th-place Munich with plenty of time to go  in the season. Paris remains in first place by a comfortable margin. Eleven points separate the Rouge Eiffels from the second-best team in the conference, with all 11 of the other teams bunched with 11 points of each other.