Krajicek stars as Dinamo downs Avangard. December 12 round-up

Dinamo Minsk enjoyed an emphatic 6-2 success over Avangard, ending a five-game winning sequence that had lifted the visitor to the top of the Eastern Conference.

Although the host went into the game on the back of a four-game streak of its own, few would have expected such a decisive victory for the Belarusians, especially after Artyom Volkov put Avangard up in the third minute.

But Ryan Vesce tied the game moments later and Alexander Kulakov gave Dinamo a lead at the first intermission.

The middle session belong to Lukas Krajicek as his goal and two assists took the game beyond Avangard. First he set up Jonathan Cheechoo for a shorthanded goal, then he assisted on Dmitry Meleshko’s power play strike before scoring himself in the 40th minute. Fittingly Krajicek was involved in the final marker of the night, setting up Matt Ellison for an empty-netter – also short-handed – with five minutes to play.

Dynamo shatters Sochi’s winning run
HC Sochi’s 10-game winning streak came to an abrupt end with a 6-1 thrashing at home to Dynamo Moscow.

The teams’ two previous encounters this season had ended in narrow wins for the Muscovites, but there was no doubting the outcome of Friday’s game even before it reached the halfway mark.

Dynamo opened the scoring in the seventh minute through Konstantin Volkov, but despite holding the initiative early on it wasn’t until early in the second that the Blue-and-Whites really took control. Denis Mosalyov and Martins Karsums scored in quick succession and Andrei Kostitsyn’s response was swiftly neutered by a Maxim Pestushko strike.

Sergei Soin made it 5-1 late in the third and Karsums got his second of the night to complete the scoring.

Bizarre day for Salavat Yulaev
Salavat Yulaev became the talk of the KHL after a strange mix-up over the future of head coach Vladimir Yurzinov – but ended the day with Yurzinov confirmed in his position.

The coach had returned to Ufa following Wednesday’s 6-1 loss at Atlant, and on Friday an announcement appeared on the club website to say that his employment had been terminated. Within hours, though, an update stated that Yuzinov was still in charge and the earlier statement had been posted in error.

After what was surely the briefest period of unemployment for any coach in the KHL, Yurzinov’s team responded by playing out the longest game of the day after its clash with Slovan went the distance before Tomas Netik won it for the Slovaks in a shoot-out.

The teams tied 2-2 in regulation; Ilkka Heikinen and Denis Tolpeko twice put Salavat ahead, Vaclav Nedorost and Rok Ticar twice tied it up for Slovan.

Around the league
Sibir recovered from 0-2 down at home to Neftekhimik to post an emphatic 7-2 victory. Jonas Enlund and David Ullstrom led the scoring with two goals each as the host recovered from shipping two goals in the first seven minutes.

Lokomotiv ended its losing run and added to Torpedo’s woe with a 2-1 win in Nizhny Novgorod. Danill Apalkov and Sergei Plotnikov scored to extend the home team’s sorry streak to five games.

Traktor wasted little time in seizing control of its game at Amur, opening up a 3-0 first period lead. Andrei Popov got two of them, Vitaly Atyushov had the third on a power play as Traktor eventually won 4-2.

Vityaz left it late to beat Severstal 4-2. After Dmitry Kagarlitsky brought the home team level at 2-2 on 56 minutes, Robert Kousal and Anton Korolyov scored in the closing minutes to secure the win.

Two goals from Roman Starchenko helped Barys to a tight 4-3 win over Atlant. Andrei Taratukhin scored two for the home team, but still ended on the losing side.

Metallurg Novokuznetsk ended its losing streak with a 5-3 success over Lada – but victory wasn’t entirely straightforward. The home team saw a 2-0 lead turn into a 2-3 deficit but recovered to regain the lead late in the second through Anton Kapotov and Alexei Kosourov. Dmitry Maltsev’s empty-netter completed the scoring.

Ugra picked up a 2-1 win at Admiral thanks to Nikita Gusev’s second-period goal off an assist from goalie Barry Brust. Earlier Denis Gorbunov’s opener was cancelled out by Richard Gynge at the start of the first period.