Even though we still hope there will be some CBA progress, time has not stopped for the players over in Europe, and with the end of their brief November break, the scores and stats are pouring back in.
After scoring a big goal for Russia in the Karjala Cup, AA returned to Lokomotiv and picked up goals in their wins over Slovan Bratislava and CSKA Moscow, but was held scoreless against Lev Praha. He also had some strong games in the faceoff circle, raising his overall FO % to 51.7 for the season.
After a light workload for the national team, Bob came back and started all three of SKA’s matches for two wins and one shootout loss. Bob saw 104 total shots over the three games, stopping 98 of them, and had an overall SV% of 94% and a 1.92 GAA. This includes an insane game against Dinamo Minsk in which Bob shut down 43 of 44 shots with a 97.7 SV.
Niki6 didn’t play in the Karjala cup, but seems to have taken full advantage of the break. Rested and recharged, he had two assists in Avangard’s 3-2 OT win over Magnitogorsk, including the primary assist on the GWG, then played 30 minutes in a 4-3 SO loss to Traktor before wrapping up the weekend with 25 minutes and +1 rating in a 3-0 victory over Avtomobilist.
Vinny had an assist in HC Ceske Budejovice’s first game following the break, a 2-1 shootout loss to Pirati. (In the “weird connections” department, the SO winning goal was credited to Jason Chimera. Guess he finally learned to shoot at the ocean.) In their next game vs. Kladno, Vinny had a pair of goals, including the 3-2 OT winner, and finished the week with another assist in a 3-2 win over HC Trinec on Sunday.