Down to the wire. March 1 round-up

The play-off race in the Eastern Conference is set to be resolved on the final day of the regular season following Admiral’s tight 3-1 victory at home to Sibir.

Alexei Kopeikin put Sibir in front in the first period, but once against Felix Schutz tied the game up early in the second. Then Ilya Zubov converted Igor Bortnikov’s pass to give Admiral the lead in the 26th minute. There was no further scoring until the dying seconds when Logan Pyett found the empty net to put the result beyond doubt.

The win puts the Vladivostok team into eighth, one point ahead of Traktor, but having played a game more. Traktor can overtake tomorrow against Torpedo, then both teams are in action on Tuesday when Admiral hosts Amur and Traktor entertains Ak Bars.

Amur, meanwhile, suffered a 7-2 defeat at home to Metallurg Novokuznetsk. Metallurg was seldom troubled as it cruised to victory; Evgeny Lapenkov, Semyon Valuisky and Damir Zhafyarov led the scoring with 1+1.