The late show. December 28 round-up

Sunday’s two big games in the KHL were both settled by last-minute winners. First Ak Bars won the big battle in the Eastern Conference, downing Metallurg Magnitogorsk thanks to a Vladimir Denisov goal on 59:23. Then Dynamo Moscow maintained its hoodoo over SKA thanks to a Maxim Karpov strike on 59:32, sealing a 2-1 victory in St. Petersburg. Dynamo’s smash’n’grab raid  Dynamo Moscow made it four wins out of four against SKA this season in a characteristically hard-fought game between these two old rivals. The decisive action came in the last 30 seconds: SKA, pouring forward in search of a winner, lost possession close to Dynamo’s net. Alexei Tsvetkov led a three-on-one breakout and fed Maxim Karpov for the game-winner with just 28 seconds left to play. To make defeat harder to swallow for SKA, the home side outshot Dynamo 17-4 in the final period, tying the game early on but failing to apply the knock-out blow and ultimately being caught by the sucker punch. ...