Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 13, 2012

After missing 3 games with an undisclosed injury Nik Antropov returned to the Barys Astana lineup on Saturday night. Joining him in action around the KHL were Alexei Ponikarovsky with HC Donbass Donetsk and Mark Flood with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. All three players would end up on the victorious side of things.

• Antropov returned to action, and I may never know why he missed that time. We can pretend that his return was the main reason that his team won today, as Barys Astana easily handled Spartak Moscow, with the home team winning 5-1. Antropov would take a second period slashing penalty, but was later on the ice for his team's fourth goal of the night, giving him a +1 rating. He also managed 3 shots on goal in 18:30 of ice time.

• Mark Flood and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl went to the glorious mining city of Magnitogorsk to take on the Metallurg squad featuring Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar and Cal O`Reilly. Metallurg would take a 2-0 lead into the 3rd period, but Yaroslavl would fight back to even the score and send it to overtime. The extra frame solved nothing so it was off to shootout, where Semyon Varlomov turned aside all 4 shots he faced before Daniil Apalkov won ti for Yaroslavl. Flood finished with a -1 rating and 1 shot on goal in 22:57.

• Alexei Ponikarovsky and his HC Donbass Donetsk squad would travel to Vityaz Chekhov on Saturday. Donbass would grab the lead early in the 2nd period via a 5 on 3 powerplay. That lead would hold out throughout the game, including a situation late in the game in which Ponkiarovsky took a penalty while his team was already killing another and resulted in Donbass being down 5 men to 3 for 20 seconds, but they managed to kill off the penalties and hold on for the 1-0 shutout win. Ponikarovsky finished with 4 PIMs in 17:10 worth of ice time.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 12, 2012

No games of note out of the KHL today, but the DEL and Czech Extraliga both had their Jets representatives in action, as Ondrej Pavelec got the start for Bílí Tygři Liberec and Brett Festerling played for the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers of Nürnberg.

• Pavelec would surprise me and pick up the win, pushing his record to 1-4-2 on the year. He had 20 saves out of a possible 21 in a 3-1 Bílí Tygři Liberec victory over HC Energie Karlovy Vary. His numbers are still abysmal, but one has to hope this is the start of a turn around of form for the Jets' starter, as he must prove his worth somehow. With no NHL to suffice, the Czech Extraliga will have to suffice as an adequate battlefield.
• Brett Festerling and the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers would square off against EHC Munich Red Bull in what would end up as a 3-1 loss for the home side from Nürnberg. Festerling would end up in the penalty box and had to watch as Munich scored on the resulting power play. Festerling would finish with 2 PIM, 2 shots and a -1 rating on the game.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 11, 2012

Two days ago it was reported that Tim Stapleton of Dinamo Minsk would be missing some time (7-10 days to be exact) with a knee injury. Well, I guess they forgot to tell the Steam Punk that because he played today...with a vengeance!

Also playing were Evander Kane (with him), Alexei Ponikarovsky (against him) and Arturs Kulda (somewhere in Russia).

• Timmy Staples returned to action as his Dinamo Misnk squad travelled to Ukraine to take on HC Donbass Donetsk. Interestingly enough, Evander Kane would actually miss this game due to illness. But does not look to be out of action for very long. Ponikarovsky would play for Donbass, and would open the scoring in this contest 9:29 into the first period, his second of the year. Minsk responded at 13:10 on a power play goal, on which Stapleton picked up the secondary assist on a Teemu Laine goal. Stapleton would pick up a primary assist a couple of minutes later when Andrei Mikhalyov would notch his first. Minsk would make the score 5-1 in the second period when Stapleton would once again pick up the secondary assist on a Laine power play goal. Cory Murphy got the primary assist on both Laine goals to add consistency to the score sheet. Donbass would mount a comeback in the third period, netting 3 goals before eventually losing 5-4. Ponikarovsky would pick up an assist on Donbass' second of the night, giving him 2 points on the game and 4 on the season. He finished with 4 shots on goal in 16:19.
  Stapleton would finish with 3 assists, 0 shots on goal and 14:31 worth of ice time.
• Sibir Novosibirsk would host Metallurg Novokuznetsk in an 8 goal affair. Arturs Kulda's biggest contribution was being on the ice for 2 Alexander Bumagin goals a couple of minutes apart in the second period., Metallurg Nk would defeat Sibir by a 5-3 margin. Kulda finished with a -1 rating, 2 PIM (high stick) and 4 shots on goal in 24:19.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 10, 2012

Nik Antropov remains out of the lineup, and I am still uncertain as to what is the reasoning behind this. It isn't performance based, I wouldn't think, as 3 points in 5 games isn't anything to frown at. So I'll keep my ear to the ground for this one and update when i hear something.

• As a result of Antro's injury, the only game to be discussed on the day featured Mark Flood with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl taking on Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk. My boy Vitaly Kolesnik would end up on the losing side of this one as Lokomitiv would fall by a 3-2 margin. Kolesnik now boasts a record of 6-3-2 with a .938 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.98. I will continue to say his name until the Jets sign him. That is how strongly I feel currently about the prowess of current starting goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.
  Flood finished with a -1 rating in 15:53 worth of ice time.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 9, 2012

Two games out of Europe today featured Alexei Ponikarovsky playing for HC Donbass Donetsk ,and Evander Kane and Tim Stapleton playing for Dinamo Minsk.

• Donbass would host Severstal Cherepovetsin a game that was very much one sided. It easily could have been 5-0 Donbass after the first frame, but numerous misses by Donbass and saves by Severstal goalie Vasily Koshechkin kept it scoreless after 1 frame. The first goal of the game would come half way through the second when Ponikarovsky came down the right wing, and before getting checked managed to nudge the puck ahead to Ruslan Fedotenko who came in on goal and was denied by Koshechkin, but Tuomas Kiiskinen would net the rebound. Donbass would net 3 more goals before Severtal would end Erik Ersberg's attempt at a shutout with a little more than 2 minutes left on the clock.
  Ponikarovsky would end up with the 1 assist, a +1 rating and 2 shots on goal in 16:00 of ice time.
• The representatives from Latvia and Belarus played a very testy affair, in which Evander Kane ended up on the receiving end of a lot of abuse, as the highlights will show him getting dumped repeatedly. He and Raitis Ivanans won't be exchanging Christmas presents, that's for sure.
  Alexandre Giroux would show off his prowess of scoring that makes him a hot commodity in the AHL, scoring the first goal of the game for Riga.
  Kane would finish the night with 2 PIMs, a -1 rating and 1 shot on goal in 14:33 of ice time.
  Stapleton would suffer a knee injury in the game, and team staff are expecting to be out of the lineup for 7-10 days. He would end up with a -1 rating in 4:38 of ice time. He will miss Dinamo's Thursday game against Donbass, and likely next Wednesday's game against Vityaz.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 8, 2012

One game from Sunday and 2 from Monday as we catch up with Ondrej Pavelec, Mark Flood and Arturs Kulda in game action.

• It seems I forgot to update the exploits of Ondrej Pavelec yesterday. Nothing changed. He played, allowed 4 goals on 34 shots and got the loss. He also got pulled with 7 minutes left. His backup is worse, so his job security is still ok. Bílí Tygři Liberec would lose 6-2 to HC ČSOB Pojišťovna Pardubice on the day.
• Nik Antropov would sit out a second game as his Barys Astana Tigers as they visited Mark Flood's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, and Flood would have his biggest game of the season, netting what would end up being the game winning goal in a 4-2 Lokomotiv win. He also got 5 minutes for fisticuffs in the third period. He finished with 7 PIM and was 1 assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick with +1 and 3 shots in 15:23 of ice time. Late discipline issues would let Barys Astana back into the match, as 2 late 10 goals, including one in the last second by Nigel Dawes, would make this game look closer than it was.
• Arturs Kulda and Sibir Novosibirsk hosted Traktor Chelyabinsk in a low scoring affair. Maybe it was low scoring because Arturs Kulda is a defensive beast for Sibir. 25:37 of ice time led all skaters on the ice. He also managed 1 shot on goal in a 2-1 Sibir win.

Winnipeg Jets in Europe - October 8-14 Edition

Tracking the 14 games between October 8th and 14th (and one on the 7th...oops) that feature Winnipeg Jets players.