News

The main attraction today was supposed to be a Karjala Cup rematch of netminders Stefan Liv and Fredrik Norrena. But what was supposed to be a demonstration of technical goaltending mastery unexpectedly turned ugly in a brawl marred 4-4 tie between Linkopings and HV-71. Shockingly, Norrena was given a major for fighting and a game misconduct for his involvement in a wild multi-player donnybrook that saw 103 minutes in penalties handed out at 3:47 in overtime on the heels of a tustle involving defenseman Andreas Holmqvist and Jens Karlsson just 7 seconds earlier.

Norrena took a no decision as a consequence of his extracurriculars and will now await disciplinary action likely involving a multi-game suspension in the Elitserien. Fighting is rare enough in Sweden, fighting as a goaltender is unheard of and a goaltender going after a skater is an incredible happening on any continent.

Andy Rogers returned to the Prince George lineup after missing a game, and Mark Tobin missed his first game of the season for Rimouski in another Oceanic loss. No information has been made available as of yet as to why Tobin was scratched. As of the middle of the third period, Rogers had not recorded a point for the Cougars, who were losing 4-0 to Lethbridge. Rimouski lost 8-6 to Victoriaville.

Stan Lascek was in action for Chicoutimi tonight and extended his lead over Maxime Boisclair for the QMJHL scoring title to four points with a goal and two assists. The Sagueneens beat Baie-Comeau 6-3.

Because the most important young prospects in the Lightning's system in Europe are generally found in Finland, Russia and Sweden, Bolt Prospects doesn't run daily reports from some of the other leagues on the continent. This post is to update the progress of prospects in the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland:

Jean-Francois Soucy has been suspended for one game, which will be served Friday. The LW/C was given an instigator penalty in the final 5 minutes of Phoenix's last game, an automatic suspension by league rules. The exhiled former Springfield Falcon has 0 goals and 6 assists in 11 games this season with a -3 rating and a team leading 56 penalty minutes. Phoenix (3-6-2) currently sits in last place of the Western Division of the ECHL's National Conference.

Anton But assisted on a third period goal today in Lokomotiv's 3-3 tie with Tver.

Meanwhile, for Togliatti, Vasily Koshechkin allowed two third period goals to fall to 7-3-1 on the season losing to Novosibirsk 2-0.

In Moscow, where Dynamo fell to CSKA 6-3, Dimitry Kazionov did not dress for his new club. Albert Vishnyakov was scoreless in the tilt.