First Century
No goals
Barys’s home defeat to Atlant was the first game this season in which Andrei Khomutov’s team has failed to score. This leaves just five teams in the current championship which have scored in every game: Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Avangard, Dinamo Minsk, Severstal and Neftekhimik.
As for Barys, it is only the sixth occasion in all their time in the KHL that they failed to penetrate the opposition’s defense. In the first championship, they were frustrated once by Dinamo Riga and twice by Ak Bars, and the following season were shut out by the two Metallurgs. Barys suffered three of their six scoreless games on their own ice.
Two is not enough
It is already the third time this season that CSKA lost a game after racing to a 2-0 lead. Things are only worse SKA, who have collapsed to defeat in four out of six games in which they had scored the first two goals.
For Traktor, in the current campaign they have now twice shrugged off a 0-2 deficit and emerged victorious, as have Barys, Dinamo Minsk and CSKA, but the leader on this score is Ak Bars, who have allowed the first two goals in seven games but bounced back to win three of them.
Figure of the day
100 goals already for Salavat Yulaev this season, with today’s strike from Jakub Klepis taking the team’s tally to three figures.
Just as in the previous two championships, the men from Ufa are the first to reach a century of goals, and they are a day faster each year. In the first championship, they reached the magic number on the 21st of November, and did it the following year on the 20th.
Key players
Konstantin Barulin (Atlant). Saved all 27 shots, keeping a clean sheet for the fourth time this season.
Miroslav Blatak (Salavat Yulaev). Made two assists and earned a +1.
Anton Belov (Avangard). Spent over 28 minutes on the ice and merited a +2.
Evgeny Lapenkov (Spartak). Struck two goals, including the game-winner.
Janis Sprukts (Dinamo Riga). Scored two goals and turned creator for two more.
Bogdan Potekhin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk). The most active attacker in any of today’s games, firing 7 shots at the target, despite being out on the ice for just a little over 8 minutes.
Quotes of the day
“It’s hard to play when a quarter of your forwards, one in each line, are injured. So all four lines were new, and so of course team play suffers,” Barys head coach Andrei Khomutov.
“Tactically, our guys played really well in the neutral zone; the hosts’ first line, the guys who do the damage, was practically shut down,” Atlant head coach Milos Riha.
“There’s a bit of tension creeping into the team. There’s a lot of responsibility, and it inhibits their play,” Traktor head coach Valery Belousov.
“We got the win in the end, but then again we were allowing some unbelievable goals,” Salavat Yulaev head coach Vyacheslav Bykov.
Alexei Shevchenko, special to khl.ru
