Dublin 7, Helsinki 3 – It was a really good day for Matthew Carle, Milan Michalek and their Dublin teammates and a really bad day for Henrik Lundquist. The Swedish goalie playing for the Jokerit yielded 7 goals, two of them by Michalek that came 25 seconds apart. Carle channeled his inner Paul Coffey and tallied 4 assists in the game. Ryan Kesler also scored two goals for the Fighting Irish and his second was shorthanded and made the score 4-2 about four minutes into the final period. How bad was it for the Jokerit? They didn’t even out-hit their opponents (it was 22-22) and that rarely happens.
Paris 5, Milan 2 – In a penalty-filled game, the choppy tempo benefited the visiting Rouge Eiffels. Paris seemed to get a lift after they fended off a 5-on-3 situation at the end of the first period. The second period went Paris’ way, as they out-shot the Guerriero 10-5 and outscored them 4-0. Travis Hamonic scored two goals in 63 seconds, with Lauri Korpikoski and recent free agent pickup Michael Ryder both assisting both times. Niklas Danielsson picked up a goal and an assist for Milan and was named the third star. Milan scored two powerplay goals in 8 opportunities, while Paris was 1 of 6.
Gothenburg forward Olli Palola
Gothenburg 5, Prague 3 – After Nail Yakupov finished off a powerplay collaboration by the Wolf Pack to give Prague a 1-0 lead, young Olli Palola got the comeback rolling for Frolunda. Palola fed Anthony Nigro a pretty pass and he converted to tie the score and about 6 minutes later, Palola drilled a quick slapshot past Prague goalie and fellow Finn Niko Hovinen to put Gothenburg ahead to stay. Alec Martinez and Adam Henrique also had multi-point games for Gburg, while Andrey Bykov, Cory Conacher and David Pastrnak did the same for Prague.
Stockholm 4, Bratislava 1 – Stockholm got on top early and wore down Bratislava in the latest Battle of the Eagles. Charlie Coyle’s wrap-around goal midway through the first period put Stockholm on the board first and Derick Brassard made it 2-0 a little while later, beating Corey Crawford between the post and his right shoulder. Brassard also assisted on the last goal of the game, which was scored by Swedish defenseman John Klingberg. Brassard was smart to get the puck to Klingberg because the 22-year-old rookie is one of the hottest players in the league. Of all players who have taken at least 10 shots on goal this season, he has the highest shooting percentage (29.7; which is 11 goals on 37 shots). Bryan Little picked up 2 assists for Stockholm.
Edinburgh goalie Luka Gracnar
Edinburgh 2, St. Petersburg 0 – Luka Gracnar stopped 31 Red Star shots, was named the game’s first star, and he earned his second shutout of the season. Gracnar is seventh in the league in save percentage and second to Alexander Salak in goals against average. Gracnar’s busiest period of work was the first, when he made 13 saves. In that period, Martin Thornberg drifted a soft wrister toward the St. Petersburg net that bounced once and got past Jacob Markstrom for the game’s first goal. In the third period, while Edinburgh was killing off one of the game’s five holding penalties, Carl Soderberg got a breakaway and scored on it to build the score to 2-0. Luke Schenn had 4 hits and 3 blocked shots for Edinburgh. The best Red Star was Jonathan Huberdeau, who had 5 shots on goal and won 17 of 29 faceoffs.
Munich 4, Zurich 2 – Craig Smith and Talgat Zhailauov worked well together in the third period, combing for two goals to decide the game. Cory Schneider held off the Lions and was named the first star with 32 saves, while Munich teammate John Moore collected 2 assists and was named the second star. Jakub Voracek had a goal, an assist and 6 shots for Zurich. Munich has risen to 11th place overall and they sit in 4th place in the Southern Conference, just 2 points behind Schloder Division rival Berlin.
