Dynamo Moscow did just enough to outlast third-placed Lev and sneak a 2-1 comeback win at Luzhniki. The home team, still smarting from Friday’s defeat to Dinamo Riga, conceded early when Justin Azevedo scored on Alexander Lazushin.
But Alexei Tsvetkov tied it up late in the second period, and Leo Komarov’s power play goal proved sufficient to give Dynamo the verdict as Lev’s push to tie the game was undone by penalty troubles.
Following four defeats Barys was relieved to prevail here after a 4-4 tie, but after leading three times in regulation the Kazakh team may be disappointed not to have claimed all three points. In the event Konstantin Rudenko’s second of the night, 44 seconds into overtime, finally settled the affair. Earlier Brandon Bochenski also scored twice for Barys, while Dmitry Kalinin’s 50th-minute equalizer forced the game into extras.
Avangard now faces a difficult path to a play-off place: it has just four games left, all of them on the road. The pressure is on if Milos Riha’s team is to bring play-off hockey to Arena Omsk this year.
Ugra clawed back a 0-2 deficit in the final period, with Radek Smolenak and Ilari Melart cancelling out earlier markers from Alexei Simakov and Fyodor Malykhin. Then in the shoot-out Nikita Gusev got the decisive goal.
Victory rekindles Ugra’s hopes of a post-season campaign – something which seemed unlikely after a poor run of form back in the fall.
A flawless shoot-out show saw Slovan win 2-1 at Vityaz in the meeting of two Western Conference outsiders. Earlier Martin Bakos put Slovan in front before Ivan Ivanov tied it up in the 46th minute.
