Barys Astana 3 SKA St. Petersburg 5

It was a case of two steps forward and one big step back for struggling Barys when SKA came to Kazakhstan.

The Astana team gave its illustrious opponent a fright early on and had the better of the first two periods. But SKA showed its strength in the final stanza, rattling in three unanswered goals to claim the victory.

There was a whirlwind start to the game, with four goals in the first nine minutes, three of them on power plays. Roman Starchenko put Barys 1-0 up only for Slava Voynov to equalize almost immediately. Then Barys’ first line got into gear, with Brandon Bochenski and Nigel Dawes combining twice to create goals for Kevin Dallman and Cam Barker.

Jarno Koskiranta reduced SKA’s deficit with his first goal of the season after 13 minutes, but Barys held onto its lead until the third period. Then it all changed fast. A power play goal from Sergei Plotnikov tied the scores in the 46th minute. Just 40 seconds later Alexander Barabanov put SKA in front for the first time and Nikita Gusev wrapped up the scoring in the 58th minute.

Popov, Kiselevich halt Avtomobilist

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 CSKA Moscow 4

The Army Men marched to a ninth successive victory thanks to two goals from Alexander Popov and three points from Bogdan Kiselevich.

The pair dominated the early exchanges as CSKA opened up a 3-0 lead. Popov got the first goal, Kiselevich scored the second – his first of the season – then weighed in with as assist on Popov’s second, a short-handed strike.

Avto didn’t make it easy for CSKA. Two markers in two minutes midway through the second period made it a one-goal game as Niklas Andersen and Alexei Vasilevsky found Viktor Fasth’s net.

But Kiselevich set up Dmitry Kugryshev for a power play goal early in the third to settle the outcome and take the defenseman’s points tally for the season to 10.

Around the league

Fredrik Pettersson gave Torpedo an overtime victory after a 1-1 tie in Yaroslavl. Max Talbot gave Lokomotiv the lead late in the second period, stuffing the puck in the net from close range. The goal was given after a video review as Ilya Proskuryakov came agonizingly close to keeping it out at his far post. But Sam Lofquist’s second of the season tied it up for Torpedo midway through the final period before Pettersson got the winner on a power play on 60:25.

The game in Khanty-Mansiysk also finished tied in regulation. Arseny Khatsai gave Ugra a shoot-out victory over Severstal when he was the only player to convert his post-game effort. Earlier the teams played out a 1-1 tie with Pavel Chernov putting Severstal in front in the 30th minute and Konstantin Panov replying for Ugra midway through the third period.