Hudler yet again

Dynamo Moscow 6
Amur Khabarovsk 2
Resurgent Dynamo recorded their fourth straight win – but had to come from behind to sink struggling Amur at Luzhniki. Alexander Younkov twice put the visitors in front, but a penalty shot from Mattias Weinhandl and a powerplay goal for Karel Rachunek cancelled out his efforts.

Then Weinhandl turned provider, creating the third and fifth goals for Vitaly Yachmenev and Linus Omark respectively. In between Yachmenev got his second – ending an 11-match dry spell - and an unassisted strike from Omark completed the scoring on 51:04. The game was settled, but there was still time for a punch-up between Denis Tolpeko and Yakov Seleznev which saw both ejected from the ice.

Ak Bars Kazan 4
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1
Two goals from Alexei Morozov helped the defending champions sweep past league new boys Avto. The captain of Russia’s national team followed up his match-winning heroics on Tuesday with a second-period brace to put Ak Bars into a 3-1 lead by 31:24. He also had a hand in Danis Zaripov’s opener on 5:30, with Zaripov returning the favor after Avto equalized early on the second period through Artur Sarvarov. Ilya Nikulin added to his two assists by scoring the fourth on 44:46.

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 0
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4
Neftekhimik’s free-scoring form came to an abrupt halt as high-flying Metallurg produced a steely defensive display to shut out their hosts. Goaltender Ilya Proskuryatov’s perfect game provided the platform for the table-topping side to romp to victory with goals from Stanislav Chistov (9:41), Vladislav Bulyin (32:14), Igor Radulov (45:24) and Denis Khlystov (58:45).

Dinamo Minsk 2
Metallurg Novokuznetsk 4
A change of coach did Dinamo no favors as the fans chanted the name of recently sacked trainer Glen Hanlon during a disappointing defeat to Metallurg. The rein of Alexander Andriyevsky got off to a good start when Andrei Mikhalev fired the hosts in front on 13:09, but soon unraveled when the Siberian side leveled through Albert Vishnyakov on 18:37. A poor second period for the Belarusians had the fans calling for their old coach back as Fedor Polischuk (26:02) and Richard Kapus (36:44) put the away team in control. The sides traded goals in the final period, with Andrei Stas notching for Minsk and Evgeny Orlov completing Metallurg’s second win of the week.

Elsewhere Lada Togliatti withstood a final period revival to beat Traktor Chelyabinsk 3-2. Andrei Mikhnov, Eric Veyssmann and Roman Kukumberg put Lada on the road to success, despite Evgeny Galkin and Andrei Popov’s late efforts for Traktor.

Meanwhile Dinamo Riga’s miserable home form continued with a 3-5 reverse at the hands of Sibir Novosibirsk. A close game was settled in the final period as the visitors opened up a two-goal advantage through Alexander Kutuzov and a third goal in three games from Yegor Milovzorov in the final second. Earlier Dinamo led twice through Alexanders Nizivijs and Mike Iggulden, but Sibir hit back thanks to Vladimir Tarasenko and a penalty shot from top scorer Mikhail Anisin. Alexei Akifyev gave Sibir their first lead before the second interval, only for Guntis Galvins to make it 3-3 early in the third.

Matchday keynotes

Mr. Danger
Danis Zaripov’s goal against Avtomobilist means that every KHL team has now suffered from this prolific scorer at least once. It was forward’s first goal in ten games, though.

First goals
Andrei Mikhnov scored his first goal of the season after 10 games without goals, while his Slovak team-mate Erik Veyssmann found the net in his first appearance for the Togliatti outfit.

Artur Sarvarov scored his first ever goal in the KHL.

Points race
Jiri Hudler (Dynamo Moscow, pictured) has scored points in seven consecutive games and is one game shy of his team-mate Mattias Weinhandl's record. This season’s record was set by Gennady Churilov (Lokomotiv), who scored points in nine games in a row.

Day’s records
Ilya Proskuryakov kept his fourth clean sheet of the season saving 29 shots.

Andrei Pervyshin (Ak Bars) spent 25 min 18 sec on ice.

Pervyshin and Johan Harju (Dynamo Moscow) had six shots on goal each. Neither of them scored, though.

Dinamo Riga had 42 shots on Sibir’s goal.

Jeff Platt (Dinamo Minsk) won 82.6 per cent of his 23 face-offs.

Vitaly Yachmenev scored twice including game winning goal. Previously he could not find the net in 11 consecutive games.

Andy Potts, Alexei Shevchenko