New Leader

Highlights of the day

New Leader
Dynamo Moscow’s victory over Atlant propels them to the top of the KHL championship table. The win was doubly precious as it came via a late fightback by the Muscovites, who were still trailing 0-1 at the end of the second period. Apart from Dynamo, only five other clubs this season have mounted such a successful late comeback, and not a single team has yet managed it twice.

Two goals in 46 seconds
Petr Cajanek’s and Maxim Afinogenov’s goals for SKA against Spartak today came only 46 seconds apart. Impressive as it may seem, this was only the 11th fastest double strike by a KHL team this season. The fastest pairs of goals so far have come from Dynamo Moscow, Avtomobilist and Neftekhimik, who all scored twice in 23 seconds.

Not hockey
159 minutes of penalties were handed out in today’s game between Lokomotiv and Vityaz. The men from Chekhov have now featured in the two dirtiest games so far this season, after just a week ago Alexei Yarushkin’s team shared 174 minutes of penalty time with Avangard. The total could have been even higher if, as before, brawling was still punished by expulsion for the rest of the game. And so it is no surprise to anyone that when one looks at the list of the most ill-disciplined players of the tournament, the top four places are now all occupied by Vityaz players.

Figure of the day

Four players from Vityaz have so far between them amassed a total of 253 minutes of penalties, the equivalent of at least one of them being absent from the ice for every one of the team’s games. The leader of the bad boys’ league is Chris Simon with 79 minutes, while only 9 minutes behind him is Brandon Sugden; but he collected all his penalties in just two games.

Key players

Rastislav Stana (Severstal). Only his second appearance of the championship, but also his second victory – and helped by his 37 saves.

Dominik Granak (Dynamo Moscow). Played for over 20 minutes, finished at a +1 and added an assist to his figures.

Alexander Guskov (Lokomotiv). Spent more than 27 minutes on the ice, scored a goal and earned a +1.

Maxim Afinogenov (SKA). Scored his second goal of the season, and once again his goal won the game for his team.

Pavol Demitra (Lokomotiv). Four points to his account: one goal, three assists.

Ruslan Zaynullin (Dynamo Moscow). Spent a little over 12 minutes on the ice, but in that time managed to score one goal and set up another.

Quotes of the day

“Of course, we were nowhere in the first period. The shot count was thirteen to three against us,” - Severstal head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov.

“The breaks in the schedule disrupt training. The players get a lot of days off and you don’t know how to prepare them,” - Dynamo Moscow head coach Oleg Znarok.

Alexei Shevchenko, special to khl.ru

news list