Minsk 5, London 4 – In a fast and furious game featuring two Northern Conference heavyweights, one team did well in the first half of the game, the other did well in the second half, and Colin Wilson’s 6th goal of the season was the difference. The third-line left wing, took a pass from center Tony Martensson and slithered the puck through Martin Jones to give Minsk a commanding 5-0 lead early in the second period. Jones, who allowed 5 goals on 13 shots, was pulled from the game and replaced by backup Michal Neuivirth. The move seemed to spark London. Neuvirth made 21 saves without giving up a goal and the Dons nearly came back to tie the contest. After scoring four straight times, London’s momentum was killed when Jeff Skinner was called for holding with 4:02 to play. Nicklas Backstrom, Minsk’s top center, was the star of the game. He scored three goals in an 11-minute span of the first period and he now leads the league in both goals (21) and points (41). Defensemen Ryan McDonagh and Michael Del Zotto had two points each for the Hussars, as did Backstrom’s wing, Patrick Kane. London’s Skinner finished with a goal, 2 assists and 4 blocked shots. Taylor Hall also had 3 points for London. Minsk is now the top team in the league with a record of 21-3.

Berlin 3, Stockholm 2 – The Stockholm Eagles controlled much of the game but couldn’t hold off the Smurfs for the entire 60 minutes. Stockholm started smartly and had a 2-0 first-period lead thanks to goals by Olli Maatta and Brendan Gallagher. Loui Eriksson took 8 shots in the game and he scored in the second period to put the Smurfs within range, but Stockholm still led going into the final 6 minutes of the game. Logan Couture, who ended with 3 points in the game, tied the game with a slapshot with 5:46 to play and Berlin won it in the final minute with Gallagher in the box for hooking. Patric Hornquist scored the winner with 45 seconds to play. Berlin’s discipline contributed to the victory. While Stockholm was whistled for five penalties, Berlin made just one trip to the box.

Bern 2, Milan 1 (OT) – Rookie Mark Stone won the game on the first shot of overtime, snapping the puck past his former Ottawa Senators teammate Andrew Hammond. Hammond and Bern’s Mike Smith were putting on a goalie clinic for much of the game. Andrei Kostitsyn scored on a Bern powerplay in the first period and Mathis Olimb scored for Milan in the second, but those were the only goals in regulation time. Bern outshot Milan 32-23, which is notable because Bern doesn’t outshoot too many teams. Only Oslo has averaged fewer shots per game than the Bears’ 26.7 shots per game average. Milan is in the middle of the pack in that category with 28.75 shots per game.

 Munich 2, Geneva 1 – The Dire Wolf lulled Geneva to sleep and then pounced on them in the final minutes of the game to leave Switzerland with 2 points in hand. Munich is now in fifth place in the division, one point behind Geneva. Munich’s Cory Schneider and Geneva’s Frederik Andersen were locked in a scoreless battle into the third period when Geneva’s Sergei Mozyakin converted a Sergei Kostitsyn pass to beat Schneider for the game’s first goal with 11:17 to play. About 6 minutes went by and a seeming harmless shot by Munich’s Sean Monahan eluded Andersen and tied the game. The Dire Wolf seemed to shift into a higher gear, kept pressuring Andersen and then went ahead when Thomas Fleischmann one-timed a Henrik Sedin pass. Geneva seemed stunned and couldn’t recover, despite pulling their goalie near the end.

Bratislava 3, Lisbon 1 – Bratislava stopped Lisbon’s win streak in an unlikely place: Portugal. Since the Frankfurt Inferno moved to Lisbon under General Manager Bryan Camara, the team has been very difficult to beat at home. When Bratislava snapped the 7-game win streak on Wednesday, the loss brought Lisbon’s home record to 10-2-1. Coach Brent Sutter’s Eagles managed to shut down the league’s top powerplay (Lisbon was 0 for 6 on Wednesday) and they even scored two shorthanded goals in the process. Lisbon, the EURO’s second best offensive team, was held to one goal, a John Tavares deke that beat Corey Crawford, who has stolen the starting job from Marc-Andre Fleury this year in Bratislava. Crawford made 35 saves in the game and was named the number one star.

Player suspended: The league came down hard on Shawn Matthias of Bratislava after he came down hard on Lisbon forward Clarke MacArthur during Wednesday’s game in Lisbon. Matthias charged toward MacArthur who was stopped facing the boards with the puck at his skates, blasting the Lisbon player between the 1 and the 6 on his jersey and sending him crashing into the boards. MacArthur limped through the rest of the game but is questionable for his next game or two with a possible hip injury. Sepp Blatter, the leagues’ director of player safety and discipline, suspended Matthias for two games. The winger has been replaced in the lineup by Matt Frattin.

Prague 6, Oslo 2 – Martin Ruzicka and Mark Scheifele each scored two goals for the Wolf Pack as they crushed Oslo in Norway. Second-line center Cory Conacher is having a good season for Prague. He scored 3 points on Wednesday to give him 11 in 25 games. The 26-year-old is playing at a plus 7 rate this season and has 18 takeaways vs. only 8 giveaways. His right wing David Pastrnak had two points in the game, as did teammate Alex Galchenyuk. Oslo’s goals were scored by Elias Lindholm and Tyler Seguin.