Magnitka downs Avangard again. September 5 round-up

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (SO)
Avangard Omsk 2

The day’s big clash in the Eastern Conference saw Metallurg Magnitogorsk look to draw level with early pacesetter Avangard when the two faced off in the Urals. And, just like in their first game on 27th of August, there was little between the teams in a 2-2 tie that went to a shoot-out before Sergei Mozyakin finally handed the home team victory.

Nikolai Lemtyugov opened the scoring for Avangard in the fourth minute with a fine solo effort. Collecting the puck out on the boards he slalomed past two defensemen before beating Vasily Koshechkin on the backhand from close range.

Magnitka tied it up early in the second on the power play. Wojtek Wolski’s shot was saved but the puck got caught in Jonas Ahnelov’s skates and presented a simple chance for Danis Zaripov to equalize. The home team might have gone ahead midway through the period, but Evgeny Timkin failed with a penalty shot after he was fouled by Alexander Perezhogin and Avangard capitalized late on. Vladimir Sobotka put Avangard up once again in the final second of the middle session: with his team on a power play the Czech came in from the boards to fire inside Koshechkin’s near post from the top of the circle.

The third period saw Jan Kovar tie the scores inside 30 seconds, tucking away the rebound after Mozyakin tested Dominik Furch on the wraparound, but the teams remained deadlocked thereafter.

Admiral hits bank to sink Amur

Amur Khabarovsk 2
Admiral Vladivostok 4

Admiral rallied from 0-2 down to win its local derby with Amur in a game that had added spice after so many players swapped Vladivostok for Khabarovsk this summer.

This was the first competitive clash between the Far East neighbors after Amur recruited the club president, head coach and 10 players from Admiral … and the early exchanges suggested that the home team had got the better of those deals. Within just 90 seconds Amur had raced into a 2-0 lead and Admiral was replacing its starting goalie. Konstantin Sokolov and Danil Faizullin got the goals; Ivan Nalimov replaced Igor Bobkov.

Dmitry Lugin got the first of his two goals on the night to give Admiral hope at the end of the first period, then Dmitry Sayustov tied it up in the 26th minute after the video official gave the thumbs-up to his goal. Lugin’s second put Admiral ahead and with Nalimov stopping everything that Amur could throw at him, Artyom Podshendyalov wrapped it up with an empty-netter late on.