It was a good day for travelers in the KHL, with three out of four games finishing in favor of the visitors.
Goalies on the attack
Traktor Chelyabinsk’s win over struggling Vityaz was little surprise - but the characteristically aggressive tactics of Vityaz resulted in a brawl in the last minute which saw even the two goaltenders - Traktor’s Michael Garnett and the hosts’ Matt Dalton - drawn into the melee. Traktor won 5-1, with four goals in the final period. Anton Glinkin got two of them; Anton Burdasov had 1+2.
Spartak sorrow
For Spartak, Saturday’s 2-4 home defeat to Barys Astana was the eighth time in nine encounters the Red-and-Whites had been beaten in Moscow. The hosts did at least show some fight after going 3-0 down in the second period, but two quick goals from Oleg Piganovich (46:56) and Oleg Gubin (47:32) could not save them. Lukas Kaspar scored twice for Barys.
Shoot-out success
There was another thwarted fightback in Cherepovets, where Avtomobilist let slip a 2-0 lead before winning in a shootout. Denis Abdullin decided the game despite Evgeny Kovyrshin tying the scores at 2-2 on 58:55.
Bucking the trend
It was left to Lev Poprad to fly the flag for home teams, with the Slovaks edging out Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2-0. Tomas Netik opened the scoring on 17:56 and wrapped it up four seconds from time, goaltender Jan Laco made 32 stops.
