Ak Bars struts its stuff, Kulyash gets 100th goal. October 20 round-up
Eastern Conference leader Ak Bars showed off its offensive power in a crushing home victory over Traktor, blasting seven goals in 24 minutes to thrash the visitor. Sibir snapped its losing streak thanks to two goals from Andrei Sigaryov, while Avtomobilist defenseman Denis Kulyash got his 100th KHL goal but could not escape defeat at Salavat Yulaev.
Sigaryov double lifts Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (2-0, 0-2, 1-0)
Sibir snapped a four-game losing streak and relieved some of the pressure building up on head coach Pavel Zubov – but only after seeing a two-goal lead evaporate at home to Amur.
The host could not have asked for a better start: just 19 seconds into the game, Andrei Sigaryov put Sibir in front. The first period ended with more celebrations when Nikolai Demidov made it 2-0, 33 seconds before the intermission. For the 21-year-old forward, that was his first KHL goal.
Amur hit back in the middle session, with Alexander Frolov and Vitaly Atyushov scoring to tie the game. But the visitor could not complete the job, and fell to Sigaryov’s second of the night with five minutes left in the game.
Late flourish in Ufa overshadows a Kulyash landmark
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 5 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 (1-1, 2-1, 2-1)
Denis Kulyash scored his 100th KHL goal, but still finished on the losing side in this visit to one of his former clubs.
The defenseman, who only swapped Ufa for Yekaterinburg this month, cancelled out a Teemu Hartikainen strike late in the first period with a long-range effort and moved up to second among the league’s All-Time top goalscoring blue liners. Kulyash was at it again in the second period, getting his second of the night on the power play after Joonas Kemppainen reinstated the home lead just eight seconds into the middle stanza.
Like the first period, the second also had a late goal: this time it went to Salavat Yulaev when Evgeny Korotkov made it 3-2 on 39:47. But Avto hit back once again when Evgeny Chesalin tied it up for a third time, and overtime was looming before the host struck a decisive blow. Igor Makarov got the go-ahead goal 59 seconds before the end; Kemppainen shot into an empty net to wrap it up, and the points went to Salavat Yulaev.
Photo: 20.10.17. KHL Championship 2017/18. Salavat Yulaev (Ufa) - Avtomobilist (Yekaterinburg)
Tkachyov impresses as Traktor breaks down
Ak Bars Kazan 7 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (6-0, 1-0, 0-1)
Vladimir Tkachyov dominated the game as Eastern Conference leader Ak Bars thrashed Traktor in Kazan.
The forward finished with two goals and two assists in his team’s 7-1 victory, and had a hand in all of Ak Bars’ first three goals. First, he had a helper as Vasily Tokranov opened the scoring in the seventh minute. A minute later, Tkachyov got his second assist as Stanislav Galiyev converted the first power play of the night. Then, in the 10th minute, another PP ended with Tkachyov potting his first goal of the game and his 12th of the season.
That was the end of Vasily Demchenko’s evening between the piping for Traktor, but Pavel Francouz didn’t have much more fun as Ak Bars scored three more before the first intermission. Another power play saw Damir Musin make it 4-0, then Mikhail Sidorov and Nikita Yazkov added two in 13 seconds as the visitor threatened to collapse to completed.
Subsequently things improved for Traktor; indeed, they could hardly have got worse. Tkachyov made it 7-0 on 24 minutes, but that was the end of the home scoring as the visitor stayed out of the box for the rest of the game. There was even a late consolation goal for Alexei Kruchinin in the third period, putting a small blot on Timur Bilyalov’s 20-minute taste of action in the Ak Bars net.
Photo: 20.10.17. KHL Championship 2017/18. Ak Bars (Kazan) - Traktor (Chelyabinsk)
