STOCKHOLM -- Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson was asked Sunday morning if the week-long trip to Sweden for Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008 was all that he expected.

"I think it's been a good week for us," Alfredsson said in typical understated fashion. "We've had some good practices and spent a lot of time with the guys, which we don't usually do at home. It's been a good week, and if we win tonight, it'll be a great week."

Consider it a great week, then, as the Senators -- behind two power-play goals from Dany Heatley and two assists from Alfredsson -- took a 3-1 decision Sunday to split the two-game series against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Globe Arena.

PRAGUE -- It didn't take long for the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning to pack their bags and head for the airport Sunday night.

After all, the rest of the NHL is waiting for them back in North America.

As the players got settled on their charter flights, reporters were pecking away at their keyboards and the O2 Arena ice crew was shaving down the NHL ice to prepare for another event coming Tuesday.

The now-annual global event, which this year was called the Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008, was over. Czech fans that had waited a lifetime to see an NHL game were treated to two dandies, each 2-1 victories for the Rangers.

STOCKHOLM – The Sens Army has invaded this city this week.

Fortunately, "Sens Army Operation Sweden" – the operational name for this mission – was a peaceful occupation as almost 60 die-hard Ottawa fans have spent the week cheering on their team – and making the city their own; soldiers spreading the gospel of Ottawa hockey and Canadian culture to everyone they engage.

These foot soldiers weren't hard to miss this weekend at the Globe Arena, site of the Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008 series that saw the Ottawa Senators play the Pittsburgh Penguins in a pair of games. No, they didn't wear camouflage. Rather, they were decked out in red Senators jerseys, each emblazoned with the No. 08 on the back and SWEDEN across the nameplate.

Pittsburgh won the opener, 4-3 in overtime to give the Sens’ army one of the only setbacks of the trip. Sunday, Ottawa answered with a 3-1 victory to bolster the already sky-high morale of the troops, who will remain on the ground until Oct. 8.

At that time they will withdraw – not retreat – back to Ottawa with another successful mission under their belt.

STOCKHOLM – Talk about a stunning debut!

Only a fairytale night by Sweden's Daniel Alfredsson before the countrymen that adore him could knock Alex Auld from the headlines Sunday night.

The Ottawa goalie, making his first start for his new club after signing a free-agent deal during the summer, stopped the first 30 shots he faced from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the finale of the Bridgestone NHL Premiere series here.

He was just 1.2 seconds from a shutout when rookie defenseman Alex Goligoski ripped a Sidney Crosby feed past Auld and into the net, just beating the buzzer.

Auld tried to dismiss talk about the heartbreaking loss of the shutout on the game's final play, but he abandoned that tact rather quickly.

"Obviously it would have been nice (to get the shutout)," he said. "I'm not going to play it that cool."

But, he did play it that cool on the ice Sunday, spelling an ineffective Martin Gerber, who had some issues in Saturday night's 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins. Auld, on this night, had no issues.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – The Tampa Bay Lightning left Prague on Sunday night taking the glass-half-full approach despite losing both games of the Bridgestone NHL Premiere Prague.

“The one bright side is it was 2-1 both games and we definitely weren’t playing our best and they threw all they had at us,” rookie center Steven Stamkos told NHL.com. “That shows the potential we have here. There are no excuses for that kind of effort, but once we get back to Tampa and get settled a bit, I think we’ll be good to go.”

While Lightning coach Barry Melrose was furious with his star players, he praised his entire defense.

“Mike Lundin came in and was great. Vladimir Mihalik played another strong game,” Melrose said.

“Jamie Heward, the first cut in camp. We bring him back and he’s playing 20 minutes and he’s better than some guys that are making millions of dollars because he competes and he keeps it simple. We just have to get our great players playing as hard as our lesser players and we’ll be fine.”

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – Do you feel like a Ranger now? That question, posed to Markus Naslund and Wade Redden by NHL.com, may seem ridiculous considering the jersey they’re wearing and the city they now represent. However, considering the contributions the two veterans made in Prague, is it so wrong to wonder if they finally feel comfortable as New York Rangers?

Before this season, Markus Naslund had played his last 884 NHL games with the Vancouver Canucks and Redden had played all of his 838 games with the Ottawa Senators. Changing sweaters and addresses so quickly isn’t such an easy thing to do.

“Yeah, I do, I do,” Naslund said with a smile. “It’s happened quicker than I expected. I’m very happy to be a Ranger. It actually felt pretty natural how it all developed.”

Naslund and Redden combined for two goals and two assists this weekend in the Bridgestone NHL Premiere Prague and the Rangers won both games, each 2-1. Redden played more than 20 minutes in each game alongside defensive partner Michal Rozsival. Naslund, who was named an alternate captain Friday night by coach Tom Renney, averaged about 18 and a half minutes of ice time while playing with captain Chris Drury and fellow alternate Scott Gomez in both 5-on-5 and power-play situations.

STOCKHOLM – Nights don't come much more perfect than the one Sunday night at the Globe Arena
    
Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa's Swedish captain, set up two goals by Dany Heatley to pace Ottawa to a 3-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second half of this unique home-and-home in Sweden's capital.
    
At the game's conclusion, he was named the game's second star, delighting the capacity crowd of 13,699 that crammed into the Globe to see Alfredsson place his second – and likely last – NHL game in Sweden.
    
During the game's last minute, with Ottawa holding a commanding 3-0 lead, the crowd was in full throat, chanting Alfredsson's name over and over.

STOCKHOLM – The World Cup of Hockey could be making a comeback in the not-too-distant future.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Paul Kelly, the executive director of the NHL Players' Association, met the media before Sunday's Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008 game between Ottawa and Pittsburgh at the Globe Arena.

During those comments, to a mostly European collection of journalists, Bettman said the League is actively looking to reinstate the World Cup of Hockey, which was last played in 2005.

"I don't want to have a World Cup press conference today, but we are in discussions about picking a year, starting it and going on a regular cycle so we can have World Cups every four years," Bettman said. "We think that works very well for us because it's out of the season and we can control what goes on around us."

Traditionally, the World Cup has been played in September, just before training camps open. Bettman also hinted strongly that the event could make a return in 2011, the first year on the international sports calendar where the World Cup of Hockey would not compete against another major international sporting event like the Olympics or soccer's World Cup.

Kelly says that the NHLPA is also excited about the return of the World Cup of Hockey and wants to make it a fixture every four years going forward.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic – For his first weekend in the National Hockey League, Steven Stamkos barely gave himself a passing grade.

“It’s a little bit below average,” Stamkos told NHL.com. “Obviously you want to win the games you play in and you want to help produce offensively. I wasn’t able to do that and the team wasn’t able to win.”

No, the Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t able to win against the New York Rangers. They lost both games of the Bridgestone NHL Premiere Prague by a 2-1 margin.

However, Stamkos is definitely being too hard on himself. The League’s No. 1 draft pick this past June looked and acted the part of a future NHL star. It doesn’t appear that he’s heading back to the Sarnia Sting of the OHL anytime soon.

STOCKHOLM – After Martin Gerber of the Senators allowed four goals in Saturday's season-opening 4-3 overtime loss to Pittsburgh here in the first game of the Bridgestone NHL Premiere 2008 series, Ottawa coach Craig Hartsburg decided to go in a different direction in Sunday's game.
    
Therefore, Alex Auld was between the pipes Sunday as the Senators took the ice to close out this two-game European set that opened the 2008-09 season.
    
Hartsburg said he had planned all along to alternate his goalies in these games, but he wanted to have the right to re-evaluate that decision if Gerber turned in a strong game Saturday.
    
Suffice it to say, though, that Gerber could not deliver. He allowed a goal on Pittsburgh's first shot and also have up a long-range goal to defenseman Rob Scuderi, who had not scored a goal in 120 games.
    
"It's best for both (goalies) and it's best for the team," Hartsburg said.