Bratislava 1, Geneva 0 – If the season had ended Monday, Frederik Andersen of Geneva and Corey Crawford of Bratislava would both be carrying around trophies today – Andersen for having the league’s best save percentage (93.3 percent) and Crawford for lowest goals against average (1.91 per game). One would think a game involving those two at either end of the rink would be a low scoring affair. They did in fact meet Monday in Bratislava, and yes, it was low scoring. Veteran Erik Cole, who played for Geneva last season, snuck a dribbler around Andersen late in the first period when the Generals were trying to kill off a penalty and that was the first and last puck to cross a goal line. Things got especially tense for Crawford early in the second period when the Eagles were forced to kill off 1:49 of a 5-on-3 advantage. Bratislava ended up out-shooting the Generals 33-20, with Milan Gulas, Bratislava’s surprise leading scorer, managing a game-high 7 shots on Andersen. Gulas, a 28-year-old Czech, has 23 points in 24 games, putting him 6 points ahead of the team’s next best scorer, Jonathan Toews, despite playing 10 fewer minutes per game than the captain.

Stockholm 3, Dublin 2 (OT) – Eric Staal scored twice in regulation time and Jeff Carter ended the game with a snipe in overtime to put the Eagles in 7th place overall and a win behind Belfast in the Northern Conference. The game was a close one, with Dublin out-shooting visiting Stockholm 37-32 and 4-2 in overtime. Braden Holtby made many key saves throughout the game for Stockholm. Two players from each team recorded multi-point nights – Bobby Ryan had 3 assists and Staal 2 goals for Stockholm, while Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg had 2 points apiece for Dublin. Renat Mamashev of the Fighting Irish was the best defensive player in the game, blocking 5 shots and dishing out 3 hits. The 28-year-old, Moscow-born Mamashev has 3 times more takeaways than giveaways so far this season for the Irish.

Berlin 4, Helsinki 1 – The Smurfs welcomed Helsinki to Berlin with a furious first period that had the visitors back-pedaling right from the start. Loui Eriksson, Patric Hornquist and Logan Couture scored goals for Berlin before the period was done and defenseman Nicklas Hjalmarsson scored to make it a 4-0 lead about midway through the game. Helsinki’s Brayden Schenn scored later in the second to ruin young Niklas Svedberg’s shutout bid, but Berlin easily held on to win. Svedberg, a 25-year-old Swede, already has one shutout to his credit and he has only played in 4 games so far. He has an impressive 92.0 save percentage and 1.75 goals against average, but don’t expect Coach Adam Oates to move him to the top of the depth chart ahead of last year’s Best Goalie Trophy winner Jimmy Howard.

Belfast 3, Athens 2 (OT) – The Belfast Giants won at home, but they had to come from behind and scratch out clutch goals to do it. After a scoreless first period that Belfast seemed to control, Athens took control in the second, out-shooting Belfast 10-9 and out-scoring them 2-1. Scott Hartnell zipped in a shot on the powerplay to begin and the period and Tomas Vincour scored his 4th of the season to put the Greeks up 2-1 after Belfast’s Nathan MacKinnon had tied it. With just over 13 minutes left in the game Matt Duchene scored on a wrap-around for Belfast to force overtime. In the extra session, the two teams played cautiously at first, but on the first shot of overtime, Nazem Kadri scored to end it in a Belfast win.

Lisbon 6, Prague 5 (OT) – Marian Hossa scored his 7th goal of the season to win it in overtime for surging Lisbon, which has now won 7 straight games. Prague nearly ended the win streak. Lisbon only led the game for a 1:24 stretch of the second period after Steven Stamkos scored his 8th of the season. Young David Pastrnak scored his 9th shortly after to tie the game again. Prague had the lead three separate times, but couldn’t bar the gate. Giulio Scandella stripped Dustin Byfuglien of the puck in the third period and scored an unassisted goal on Hayden Hawkey and it looked like Prague might take it, but as a Lisbon powerplay was winding down, John Tavares silenced the crowd be scoring his 16th goal of the season to tie the game again. Nail Yakupov scored twice in the first period for Prague and he was named the game’s first star.