Zurich 3, Geneva 2 – This one-goal game officially eliminated one Swiss team from the playoffs while helping another Swiss team get closer to locking up its playoff berth. Prague is currently in 9th place in the Southern Conference, and to disappoint either Zurich or Lisbon, Sparta will have to win at least three of their remaining four games. Should they win two of those games and lose the other two in overtime, they will be eliminated because they won’t be able to match Zurich’s or Lisbon’s win totals and that’s the first tie breaker. If streaky Prague should happen to win all four of its games – including one against Minsk – they would have 84 points and 39 wins, meaning the other two teams would have to collect one more win to make the playoffs.If Prague and Zurich end up tied in points and tied at 39 wins, then the next tie-breaker is goal differential and right now Zurich has a slim one-goal lead over Sparta. On Sunday, Patrick Sharp’s 19th goal of the season was the eventual game-winner. That tally occurred in the second period and it gave the Lions a 3-0 lead in Geneva. The Generals tried to come back, getting third-period goals from Matt Read and Dany Heatley, but Lion goalie Cam Ward stopped the other 4 shots Geneva got on goal in that period. Ryan Strome of Zurich had 2 assists and 6 shots on goal.
Belfast 6, Milan 4 – It was like the Giants opened the game with a big flash-bang grenade. They stunned Milan and silenced their fans be scoring 6 times in the opening period – Evander Kane netting their first and last ones. Mikko Lehtonen also scored twice in the period. Then the Giants went into a conservative, protection mode and limited the Guerriero to four goals over the final two periods. Jonathan Quick stopped 34 Milan shots in the game.Several Guerriero players had impressive stats lines in the loss. Marcus Kruger won 12 of 16 faceoffs and he scored a goal. T. J. Brennan had 5 hits and 4 blocked shots, and Jaden Schwartz, Danny Dekeyser and Niklas Danielsson had 2 points each.
Paris 4, Copenhagen 3 (OT – SO) – Damien Brunner’s goal late in the game tied it for Copenhagen and forced overtime in Paris, with the Rouge Eiffels winning in a four-round shootout. Alex Pietrangelo scored the deciding shootout goal. Evgeny Malkin scored a goal – his 47th – and earned an assist to give him 108 points, good enough for second in the league in scoring behind Nicklas Backstrom of Minsk. Roberto Luongo made 34 saves for the Tridents, who moved a point ahead of Oslo into 23rd place.
Saturday games:
Munich 4, Athens 2 – The Dire Wolf looked good, outshooting the Greeks 39-23. The two teams are tied in the Southern Conference with 86 points each as they jockey for playoff positions. Athens has two games in hand over Munich as they hope to move from fifth place into fourth and ahead of Bratislava. The loser of that 3-team race would have to play either Madrid or Berlin in the first round.
Zurich 5, Copenhagen 3 – The Lions were outshot but emerged with a road win they really needed. Eleven different players contributed with points for Zurich, while Drew Shore of the Tridents led all in scoring with 3 points.
Minsk 3, St. Petersburg 0 – The Hussars continued to be dominant, outshooting the Red Stars 40-10, making it an easy shutout for Carey Price. He leads the league in shutouts with with 7 and is tied for fifth all-time in that stat category. Maxim Chudinov earned an assist on every Hussar goal.
Madrid 3, Stockholm 2 – First-period penalty trouble was costly for the Eagles but they pulled their way to a comeback win. Eric Staal and Keith Yandle were called for two minors each in the first 20 minutes and they were sitting next to each other in the penalty box when Patrik Berglund scored his 20th goal of the season while Madrid enjoyed their second two-man advantage of the period. But Zach Bogosian scored in the second period, Bobby Ryan did the same in the third, and goalie Braden Holtby was perfect over the last 40 minutes for Stockholm.
Bern 2, Moscow 1 (OT-SO) – Jan Laco was outstanding in goal for the Bears, thwarting Spartak on 40 shots in regulation, 4 more in overtime and two out of four times in the shootout. Only Jyri Marttinen was able to get one past him in regulation time. Fortunately for Laco, teammate Dennis Seidenberg scored in the third period and the game went into OT. Laco now has the 7th best save percentage in the league (.909).
Belfast 4, Dublin 3 (OT-SO) – The Giants scored two late third-period goals to tie the contest and send it into overtime, winning in a shootout. Evander Kane scored the game-tying goal in regulation and the winner in the shootout. Dublin’s point officially locked up the 8th and final playoff spot in the Northern Conference, eliminating Edinburgh in the process.
