Thursday games

Stockholm 2, Gothenberg 1 (OT) – Bobby Ryan was the hero in this battle between the league’s two Swedish teams. The 29-year-old who held the league record for most goals in a season (56) until Steven Stamkos of Lisbon scored 59 last season, scored his 15th of this season to give Stockholm a 1-0 lead in the second period. He also scored the winning goal in overtime. Kevin Dallman earned Gothenburg a point in the standings because his 3rd goal of the season tied the score in the second period and was responsible for extending the game into OT. Stockholm deserved the win, out-shooting Gburg 38-17. Anders Lindback stopped 36 shots for Frolunda and was named the game’s second star. The two Swedish teams have met four times this season and Stockholm has won every time, although three of the games have gone into overtime.

Helsinki 4, Oslo 2 – After an even, 2-2 first period, Helsinki took control of the game, outshooting Oslo 37-12 over the final two periods and adding the only other two goals of the game. Oslo’s Semyon Varlamov made 43 saves to keep the game relatively close, but his team was out-worked and out-hit (35-14). Paul Stastny and Pavel Datsyuk scored two goals apiece for the Jokerit.

Berlin 5, Edinburgh 4 – The Smurfs trailed 4-2 deep into the second period, but they were able to score the final three goals of the game and take two points in regulation time. Defenseman Dion Phaneuf had assists on both the tying goal by Ryan Callahan and the winning goal by Logan Couture. The Capitals’ Rickard Wallin and Brandon Dubinsky were a force together, combining for three goals. Both have been members of the Edinburgh team for their whole careers but this year they are playing together for the first time after Wallin was promoted to Dubinsky’s line. Dubinsky had a career season last year when he scored 30 goals and 69 points to top his previous-best marks (13 goals and 43 points) by a lot. Currently he is on pace for about 48 points, while Wallin, 30, should top his career-best point total (48) if he can keep up his current pace.

Milan 2, Geneva 1 – After two scoreless periods, the third period saw three goals scored. Mark Letestu’s tallying, his 10th of the year, was the eventual game-winner. Goalie Andrew Hammond of the Guerriero made several good saves to be named the top star of the game. Ondrej Pavelec was almost as good in the Geneva goal. Milan’s Niklas Danielsson was the best skater in the game, with a goal, 5 shots and 3 blocked shots. Geneva could really use a win to break out of a bad streak (6 straight losses) but they will have to travel to Paris and London for their next two games.

Bratislava 5, Paris 4 – For only the second time this season, Paris lost at home. Bratislava scored two powerplay goals in the game and Erik Cole’s PP tally with 7 minutes remaining was a big one because it made the score 5-3. Evgeny Malkin scored twice for Paris as he and David Bolland (1 assist) each had 6 shots on goal for the Rouge Eiffels. Eagle captain Jonathan Toews fired 8 shots on the Paris goal and ended with a goal and an assist.

Friday games

Munich 8, Zurich 1 – The Zurich Lions had to feel they were playing in the  Twilight Zone Friday. They outshot the Dire Wolf 35-30 but were handed one of the most lopsided losses in league history. It seemed whatever Munich threw toward Jeff Zatkoff and Cam Ward went into the Zurich net. Cory Schneider, meanwhile, was close to perfect at the other end. Sean Monahan and Craig Smith scored two goals apiece for Munich and teammate Radko Gudas was plus 5.  Conversely, Zurich skaters like Drew Stafford and Tomas Tatar had  awful results. Both men were minus 4 and neither managed to get a shot on goal in 19 minutes of ice time. Munich is the league’s hottest team. The Dire Wolf have won their last 7 and 12 of their last 14 to soar  to third place in the Southern Conference. Zurich is only in 9th place in the conference but they had won 3 straight coming into the game.

London 4, Dublin 2 – The Dons got a big goal from Teddy Purcell in the third period and held on to win in Ireland. The game was close from start to finish and Dublin led at one point 2-1 after James Van Riemsdyk put in a powerplay goal. Mark Arcobello scored two points for the Dons and was an important performer. London defenseman Jake Muzzin has been blocking a lot of shots lately and he helped goalie Martin Jones again with 3 more blocks Friday. Muzzin blocked 50 shots in 70 games last season and he has already blocked 52 in just 35 games this season. Only 6 EURO players have blocked more shots than Muzzin has this year.

Minsk 3, Belfast 0 – The Hussars scored a goal in each period and the Giants didn’t score once on Carey Price. The most telling period was the second when Minsk outshot visiting Belfast 20-5. Thomas Powell scored in that period, his 9th of the year, and Aaron Ekblad picked up an assist to go with the goal he scored in the first period. The Hussars’ top line got on the scoreboard in the third period when Milan Lucic scored his 18th of the season.

Bern 5, Lisbon 3 – Controlling Lisbon’s top line of John Tavares, Steven Stamkos and Marian Hossa was no easy task for the Bern Bears – in fact the line scored 3 times with Stamkos scoring two of them – but Bern did so in the third period and won the game. That period started 3-3 and Bern puled ahead on goals by Brian Flynn and Joe Thornton. The goal by Thornton was Jumbo Joe’s second of the game and he was one of four Bears who scored 2 points in the game. Rafeal Diaz led the Bern team in hits with 3 and he blocked two shots.

Athens 7, St. Petersburg 2 – The Greeks hammered the Red Stars and five Athens players had multi-point games. T.J. Oshie was the best of them, scoring 2 goals and 2 assists. Vadim Shipachyov was next in line with 3 points, while former Spartak players Brandon Sutter, Andrew Ladd and Anze Kopitar all scored 2 points. Viktor Stalberg and Jonathan Huberdeau were in on both Petrograd goals, collecting a goal and an assist each. Red Star defenseman Brenden Dillon tried to make a statement during the drubbing by throwing his weight around the rink and registering 4 hits, but he was also called for for three minor penalties.

Moscow 3, Copenhagen 0 – Alexander Salak stopped all 38 Copenhagen shots and sent 17,731 Trident fans home feeling really empty-handed. Copenhagen seemingly did everything right but lost nonetheless. They came out hitting and out-hit Spartak 30-19 with Stephen Weiss and Ilya Nikulin registering 5 hits each. But they were disciplined while being aggressive and didn’t commit a single infraction. Still, Patrick Maroon scored his 5th of the year 6:11 into the game to put Moscow up and with just 11 seconds left in that period, Blake Wheeler stunned the crowd to make it 2-0. Dustin Brown also scored for Spartak.