Zurich 7, Oslo 4 – The Lions are climbing back into the playoff picture after a disappointing start to the season and they prevailed Tuesday in a game with Oslo that featured 11 goals. Jakub Voracek scored twice to lead a four-goal explosion by Zurich in the first period and he was one of five Lions with multi-point games. All-Star Tyler Seguin scored a hat trick and added an assist for Oslo, while teammate Zach Parise had 3 assists. With the win, Zurich is now just 2 points behind Geneva and Milan in a battle for the final playoff berth in the Southern Conference. Zurich Coach Peter Laviolette and GM Dennis Sullo have juggled the roster a lot this season and the moves seemed to have sent the Lions off in the right direction. Veterans Jussi Jokinen, Jori Lehtera, Braydon Coburn and Dwight King have all been waived and are currently playing on the farm team in Venice, Italy, while youngsters like Dmitrij Jaskin and Max Noreau have received prime ice time. Zurich has won 6 of their last 10 games.
Munich 3, Madrid 2 (OT-SO) – Backup goalies Robert Kristan of Munich and Darcy Kuemper of Madrid found themselves locked in a tight battle that went all the way to T. J. Brodie’s wrist shot in the fifth round of the shootout. The Dire Wolf were nursing a 2-0 lead after goals by Gareth Roberts and Josh Bailey, but Madrid salvaged a point in the standings with late third-period goals by star forwards Gabriel Landeskog and Derek Stepan. Penalty killing was good for both teams as neither powerplay connected in a total of 12 chances.
Bratislava 5, Geneva 3 – Bratislava had home-ice advantage and outshot the Generals 46-17. Milan Gilas, Tyler Toffoli and Tyler Ennis all had two points in the game for Bratislava and the team’s powerplay was 3 for 5. Sergei Kostitsyn, David Desharnais and Darren Helm scored goals for Geneva. The Eagles went with Connor Hellebuyck in goal and it was his second career start. The rookie looks like he could be replacing veteran Corey Crawford as the team’s backup goalie. Bratislava is now in fourth place in the Southern Conference, just a point behind the three co-leaders.
Moscow 6, London 0 – The home team scored twice in each period and nearly doubled London’s shot total. Viktor Fasth made 22 saves to record the shutout, his third ever and first since Season 4 when he played for Stockholm. Nick Leddy and Mark Fayne were each plus 4 for the Dynamo, while Max Pacioretty and Kris Versteeg each finished with an unassisted goal and an assist. Moscow is currently in fourth place in the Northern Conference; London is in ninth, four points out of the playoffs.
Gothenburg 4, St. Petersburg 3 – The Krasnyye Zvezdy’s road woes continued Tuesday, as they dropped a one-goal game they played well enough to win. No team has earned fewer points on the road than St. Petersburg’s 8 (3-18-2 away record) this season. Defenseman Karl Alzner scored his fifth goal of the season to put St. Pete up 1-0, but Frolunda was able to string together three straight goals to make the going tough for the Red Stars. The third period started with Gothenburg leading by a goal and each team tallied a powerplay goal in the final frame. Frolunda gave St. Petersburg every opportunity to tie the game late because they took three penalties in the final three minutes. Goalie Pekka Rinne held the fort to give the home team the win in regulation time. The winning goal ended up being Carl Hagelin’s shot on a powerplay in the third period. He leads his team with 25 goals and is tied for sixth in the league in goals. He is also on pace to top his career-best goal total of 33.
