After 10 consecutive defeats, Ugra finally tasted victory with an overtime success at CSKA. Marek Troncinsky was the hero for the Khanty-Mansiysk team, scoring the decider to add to his first period goal.
Early on, though, it seemed set to be Alexander Radulov’s day. The forward put up three assists in the opening session, as Alexander Frolov opened his CSKA account and Igor Grigorenko and Alexei Morozov also found the target.
However, Ugra showed great resilience in a narrow loss in Riga last time out, and stayed in touch with the Army Men during that first session. A scoreless second period saw the visitor wrest the momentum away from the Moscow team, and 65 seconds into the last Radek Smolenak tied it up at 3-3. That led to overtime, where Troncinsky’s goal gave Oleg Davydov his first victory as acting head coach. It was also CSKA’s first defeat after the 60-minute mark, and Ugra’s first extra time win.
Both sides had 29 shots on goal, but after Semyon Kokuyov beat Barry Brust with a penalty shot on nine minutes, it was the home team which proved more clinical. True, Ryan Vesce tied it up in the 13th minute, but parity lasted just 35 seconds before Jan Bulis put Traktor back in front. In the latter stages Andrei Kostitsyn and two for Petri Kontiola completed the scoring.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk withstood a late fight back to beat Spartak 3-2. The home side took control with three unanswered goals in the second, but Viktor Antipin ended up with the game-winner after Deron Quint and Rastislav Spirko reduced the deficit in the final 10 minutes.
Slovan came from a goal down to win 3-1 at home to Avangard. Milan Bartovic and Peter Olvecky scored late in the second period to turn the game around.
Jonas Enlund scored twice to help Sibir to a 3-1 win over Torpedo. The Swede also got an assist on Dmitry Kugryshev’s equalizer after Denis Parshin had given Torpedo an early lead.
Donbass laid siege to Neftekhimik’s goal, but could not find a way past Matt Dalton. The goalie made 43 saves in his team’s 2-0 win; Martin Cibak and Roman Lyuduchin got the goals.
A third-period goal from Airat Ziazov, first in 22-years-old forward’s KHL carrer, gave Vityaz a 1-0 win at Admiral. Ivan Lisutin made 34 saves for the Moscow Region team.
Salavat Yulaev had a confidence-boosting 5-2 win over Dinamo Minsk, ending a five-game losing streak. The Belarusians, rooted to the foot of the Western Conference, twice led but folded after a three-goal burst in two final-period minutes. Denis Khlystov claimed the game-winner.
