5 games to follow across 3 leagues in Sunday action, as AIH catches up with games in the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia on an American website about a Canadian team. We're international!
- We kick it off in the Czech Republic, where Ondrej Pavelec continues to be anything but impressive and is just creating more and more questions like “Is it really going to be this bad for the Jets?” and “I sure hope Al Montoya plays as good as his mask looks!” and “What is a Mark Dekanich?”
Pavelec and his Bílí Tygři Liberec squad would fall 5-4 in OT to Oceláři Třinec, as giving up a 5 on 3 powerplay in overtime is a pretty good way to ensure defeat. Allowing 5 goals on 38 shots doesn’t help either. With this result Pavelec “improves” his record to 0-2-2, and has yet to play a game in which he allows fewer than 4 goals.
Players of the game were Radek Bonk (remember him?) for Oceláři Třinec and Petr Nedved (remember him?) for Bílí Tygři Liberec HC. - Over to Germany, where Brett Festerling and Nürnberg team Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers hosted the Straubing tigers in a game with a thrilling finish. With Nürnberg up 2-1 late in the third, Straubing would tie it up via a goal by Tyler Beechey with 2:27 to play. The game seemed destined for OT until with just 33 seconds to play Connor James would net the winner for Nürnberg who take this one 3-2. Festerling would finish with 2 shots and a +1 rating on the night, as he remains (statistically) pointless.
- The tour continues in Russia, where Mark Flood and his Lokomtiv Yaroslavl sqaud visited Vityaz Chekhov. Once again, Flood would go with scoring in this match, as he has yet to do so this season. However, Vitaly Kolesnik would pick up his second shutout in as many games on the road and Lokomotiv would prevail by a 2-0 margin thanks to 2 third period goals. Kolesnik is now 6-2-2 on the year with a save percentage of 94.1% and a GAA of 1.87. He is quickly becoming my favorite to replace Pavelec.
Flood finished with a +1 rating and 4 shots in 18:26 of ice time. - As we head over to Ukraine we find HC Donbass, Aelexei Ponikarovsky’s club, taking on Spartak Moscow. This game would go scoreless through regulation, and overtime. In fact it would take 14 shots in the shootout before a victor was determined, as Spartak eventually prevailed. Erik Ersberg earned the shutout for Donbass, while Sergei Borisov earned the shutout for Spartak. Ponikarovsky would play 19:31 and manage one shot on goal. He was not called upon in the shootout.
- In Belarus I find out that Pekka Rinne has joned up with Dinamo Minsk, making this team that much more formidable, with Evander Kane and Tim Stapleton signed on already. Rinne would make his first start of the year and pick up a 3-2 win over Atlant Moscow Region. The visiting team from Russia would jump out to a 2-0 lead, but Minsk would come back and little Steam Punk with pick up a secondary assist on the game winner in the second period. Stapleton would play 20:53 and would add a +1 and shot on goal to go with that assist. He currently sits at 15th in points in the KHL.
