Klinkhammer treble downs Sochi. October 23 round-up

Mozyakin orchestrates victory over Kunlun

Kunlun Red Star 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5

Chinese fans got their first sight of record-breaking goalscorer Sergei Mozyakin – and Russia’s all-time scoring champ wasted no time in adding a new venue to his list of happy hunting grounds.

Mozyakin opened the scoring after just 29 seconds, setting the tone for a dominant display from the defending champion.

It didn’t stop there: Mozyakin added a further goal and two assists to overtake Ilya Kovalchuk in this season’s scoring charts. Mozyakin now has 34 points, with 17 goals and 17 assists. Kovalchuk is on 33, and 15 goals.

Jan Kovar was the beneficiary of Mozyakin’s creativity this time, scoring two of his own, while Danis Zaripov had two assists. Vladislav Kolesnik got the other Metallurg goal; Martin Bakos scored his first of the season for Kunlun.

Klinkhammer treble downs Sochi

Dinamo Minsk 5 HC Sochi 2

Dinamo showed signs of overcoming its recent patchy form with an emphatic and confidence-boosting victory over HC Sochi.

The visitor arrived in Belarus on the back of six consecutive wins, including an overtime success over Dinamo in Sochi, but was undone by a Rob Klinkhammer hat-trick.

Klinkhammer scored two – one on the power play, the other shorthanded – as Dinamo powered into a 4-0 lead inside 32 minutes. Matt Ellison and Artur Gavrus were the other goalscorers as Konstantin Barulin suffered a miserable evening and was replaced on 31:52.

Sochi got on the scoresheet in the third period, with Yegor Morozov and Ivan Zakharchuk finding a way past Ben Scrivens, but Klinkhammer got his third of the night in between those two to complete his first ever KHL hat-trick.

Tretiak loses out in goaltending duel

Admiral Vladivostok 0 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1

Whenever there’s a Tretiak on the ice, expectations of quality goaltending are high. And so it proved in Vladivostok where Maxim Tretiak, grandson of the legendary Soviet goalie Vladislav, made only his second career appearance in the KHL.

It was a game where goalies were on top and only Alexander Pankov’s seventh-minute streak got past either netminder. Tretiak made 20 saves, but was outdone by Traktor’s Pavel Francouz, who had 27.

For the young Admiral stopper it was a second defeat in his two games but both here and in a 0-3 reverse at CSKA his team’s problems lay on offense.

Medvescak makes it three in a row

Medvescak Zagreb 3 Lada Togliatti 2

Medvescak made it three wins from three and climbs to within two points of the playoff spots after edging a spirited game at home to Lada.

It took time for either team to settle, but Medvescak forged ahead late in the second period. Tomas Mertl opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal before Alexandre Giroux doubled the lead on the power play in the 38th minute.

But Lada repeated the home team’s feat early in the third with two quick goals of its own. Vasily Streltsov halved the deficit before claiming an assist as Stanislav Bocharev scored the second shorthanded goal of the game.

The recovery was not enough for Lada, though. Brandon McMillan got the winner with 10 minutes left to keep Medvescak upwardly mobile while the Motormen continued to stall.