Gothenburg 4, Minsk 3 – Pekka Rinne looked like an octopus on Thursday, thwarting the Hussars time and time again and finishing with 56 saves as Gothenburg knotted the series at one game apiece. The series shifts to Sweden for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday. While Rinne was being great, Carey Price didn’t look very good at the other end of the rink. He faced 16 shots and allowed 4 goals. Minsk fans are no doubt confident Price will return to his trophy-caliber form soon. Frolunda jumped in front quickly in Minsk on Thursday. Kevin Dallman and Petr Vrana scored early with Adam Henrique assisting on both goals. But Gustav Nyquist and Jordan Staal scored before the first period was over to tie it. In the second period, the scoring continued. Carl Hagelin of Gothenburg and Thomas Powell of Minsk traded tallies before an unlikely scorer put Gothenburg ahead to stay. Benn Ferriero, who played in a total of 15 games over the last two seasons scored his first playoff goal in six games this season. He took the puck into the Minsk zone and while Hussar defenseman Janne Niskala was angling him to the boards, Ferriero shot a wrist shot that Price didn’t seem ready for. The fluke goal stood up as the winner because Rinne was superb from that point on. He stopped all 22 of the shots Minsk got off in a third period that they absolutely dominated. Gothenburg is still without injured Mikko Koivu, although is appears center Mikael Backlund is healthy enough to resume playing for Frolunda. He saw action in 80 regular season games before any injury sidelined him until now.

Belfast 5, Moscow 4 – Evander Kane led Belfast to a win Thursday as the Giants went on to a 2-0 lead  in their second-round series. Belfast’s Mikko Lehtonen scored his first goal of the playoffs in the second period to break a 1-1 tie and then Kane got going. He scored twice in a 3:03 span to put his team up by three goals, but Moscow came back with a goal burst of their own. Brandon Pirri and Nick Leddy assisted on two Spartak goals, their third and fourth, and Leddy had already scored a goal in the game. He was voted the game’s first star ahead of Kane. When the third period began the score was 4-4 and the shots were close – 31-29 in favor of Moscow. Despite allowing Spartak to enjoy a two-man advantage for a minute and a half in the third period, Belfast held a huge shots advantage in the period (15-4 by the end) and Kane struck again to complete his hat trick with just 3:41 remaining. Claude Giroux assisted on all three Kane goals. The bad news for Belfast is that Matt Moulson, who appeared in all but two games for them this year, injured a shoulder and won’t make the trip to Russia for Game 3. Belfast seems to have the offense chugging along, as they have scored 10 goals in the two games so far.