Atlant on cloud nine
Changing coach seems to have inspired Atlant Moscow Region, with the club rattling up its nineth win in a row. And, for the third time in that winning run, Vityaz Chekhov was the victim of the Mytishchi revival, going down 2-1 in a hard-fought game. Not that the hosts had it easy this time - Vityaz opened the scoring on 14:30 through Nikita Tochitsky and held that advantage until Timofei Shishkanov’s equalizer on 29:36. Visiting goalie Danila Alistratov had a busy time in the second period, facing 23 shots, but he was not beaten again until the closing stages. Konstantin Rudenko’s goal on 55:44 ultimately proved decisive.
Yugra snaps Traktor’s winning run
High-flying Traktor Chelyabinsk suffered an unexpected home defeat, going down 6-2 to Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk. Traktor, which tops the KHL table, saw a six-game winning streak snapped, despite taking an early lead through Alexander Ryazantsev on a 5 vs 3 powerplay. But Yugra had been the last team to taste victory over the Chelyabinsk squad, and battled back to lead at the first interval thanks to a pair of goals from Ivan Khlyntsev. Tomas Starosta extended that advantage in the second period, and by the time Traktor finally pulled one back through Raymond Giroux it was already too late to retrieve the game.
