Champion crushed
Salavat Yulaev Ufa went down to a 7-3 defeat at Dynamo Moscow - with one of last season’s Gagarin Cup winners getting among the goals. Vyacheslav Kozlov, who played in all of Salavat’s play-off games last season, struck twice for Dynamo and added an assist along the way.
Despite the comfortable final scoreline, the game was pretty even until the final period: both sides had spells in front early on and it was poised at 3-2 after 40 minutes. But two quick goals from Sergei Konkov and that man Kozlov put Dynamo 5-2 clear by 43:08 and there was no way back for the visitors. Alexander Radulov returned to action for Salavat, but had a mixed evening. He scored once, but also gave away a last-minute penalty shot which enabled Sergei Soin to complete the scoring.
Makarov on the mark
Dmitry Makarov hit a second-period hattrick to give Torpedo a 5-3 win over Ak Bars Kazan in Nizhny Novgorod. It had been 1-1 after 20 minutes, but Makarov struck three times in the second stanza, keeping Torpedo in front despite the efforts of Alexei Morozov and Evgeny Bodrov.
