Dynamo edges shoot-out win in Far East

Admiral Vladivostok 3 Dynamo Moscow 4 (SO)

The first shoot-out of the KHL season went to Dynamo following a 3-3 tie in Vladivostok. Shoot-out strikes from Daniil Tarasov and Alexander Rybakov proved sufficient as Alexander Lazushin denied Alexander Gorshkov and Dmitry Lugin at the other end.

In regulation, Admiral came from behind three times to frustrate the Moscow team. The latest of those goals came in the 56^th minute when Artyom Zemchyonuk’s slap shot from the point flew past Alexander Lazushin to make it 3-3.

That cancelled out Semyon Kokuyov’s first KHL goal for his new club following his move from Chelyabinsk to Moscow in the summer. Alexei Sopin led a two-on-one break and Kokuyov converted the opportunity to put the Blue-and-Whites up with 15 minutes to play.

Dynamo came into the game on the back of an undefeated pre-season and showed off that confidence to strike early; the game’s first power play yielded a goal for Konstantin Gorovikov in the third minute. It might have been the energy-sapping penalty kill that cost Admiral as two defensemen backed off Gorovikov and allowed plenty of space at the top of the circle to unleash a shot past Ivan Nalimov.

That lead lasted until the start of the second period when Admiral tied it up on a counter attack. Kirill Voronin’s shot was saved but Yegor Yakovlev had no trouble in tapping the loose puck into an empty net. Dynamo got back in front when Daniil Tarasov spun away from Jon Blum in front of the net to shoot past Nalimov, but Admiral tied it up again late in the middle stanza. Once again it was a counter-attacking goal after Dynamo’s Denis Barantsev got caught in possession on the host’s blue line. Alexander Gorshkov was off to the races, taking the puck to Alexander Lazushin’s net and scoring with a wrist shot from the edge of the right-hand circle.

But Gorshkov couldn’t reprise that form in the shoot-out and, for the second season running, Dynamo begins with a victory following a 3-3 tie.

Kraskovsky strike sinks Amur

Amur Khabarovsk 0 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1

Young Pavel Kraskovsky had a memorable start to his season, opening the scoring in Lokomotiv’s win at Amur.

The 19-year-old emerged from the Yaroslavl youth system and established himself in the first team last season, when he chipped in 2+3 points from 40 games, mostly playing in the bottom six. This season, though, he’s starting out on Loko’s second line and reacted to the added responsibility with a power play goal to break the deadlock in the 34^th minute. Kraskovsky snaffled up the rebound after Brandon Kozun’s shot was pushed back out into the danger zone by goalie Alexander Pechursky.

That strike proved enough to give Lokomotiv victory in its first game of the season. Goalie Alexei Murygin, who last year established a new KHL record time without conceding a goal, began the new campaign in similar mood with a shut-out and 22 saves to secure a narrow win on the road for Alexei Kudashov’s team.