CSKA’s new signing, Alexei Yashin, is still waiting for his debut and in his absence his new club was left wondering how it failed to beat Spartak in Friday’s Moscow derby. The Army men outshot their hosts throughout, but fell behind to Yegor Mikhailov on 10:10. That looked like it would be the only goal until Sergei Shirokov fired CSKA level in dramatic style on 58:13. In overtime Spartak finally started to press forward again, and Rastislav Stana made two great saves to force a shoot-out, but Oleg Gubin and Mikhail Zhukov had the keeper’s measure in the shoot-out to give Spartak the win.
Salavat Yulaev struggle
Defending champion Salavat Yulaev also had to go all the way to beat Sibir in Ufa. The visitors had led until 59:04 before Viktor Kozlov got a last-gasp leveler. Then it was down to the wiles of veteran forward Sergei Zinovyev to get the only goal of the shoot-out. Earlier Sibir had gone in front on 15:13 through Jori Lehtera. Jakub Klepis equalized in the second period but Georgijs Pujacs strike on 34:33 was close to giving the Novosibirsk side victory.
Pride of Lions
League new boys Lev Poprad got a first home win of the season to knock Dynamo Moscow off the top of the table. Juraj Mikus was the hero of the 4-1 success - he opened the scoring on 27:53 and within a minute Rastislav Spirko doubled Lev’s advantage. The visitors struck back with a powerplay goal from Sergei Soin on 31:39 but Mikus got his second on 52:54 and Martin Chabada completed the rout on 56:57.
Avangard on top
Avangard Omsk went top of the Eastern Conference with a 5-3 win at Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. In a high-scoring game the visitors were always on top after Anssi Salmela opened the scoring on 04:28. An equalizer from Nikolai Bushuyev merely postponed the inevitable for Avto as Avangard took control after the first interval with two goals in 30 seconds from Kirill Lyamin and Roman Cervenka. Denis Abdullin’s powerplay effort kept the hosts in contention, but Anton Kuryanov and Andrei Pervyshin extended Avangard’s advantage before Andrei Rychagov got a late consolation.
Around the league
Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk won 1-0 at Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod thanks to Tomas Starosta’s goal on 51:45. Goaltender Mikhail Biryukov made 32 saves in the game.
Dastin Boyd was the hero in Astana as Barys beat Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3-2. He got the winning goal on 51:18 - the first time his team went ahead in the game. Alexei Mikhnov and Renat Mamashev scored for Magnitka; Fyodor Polishchuk and Roman Starchenko were on target for Barys.
