Latvian Railways Cup: Ak Bars wins again, big loss for Minsk. August 22

Ak Bars moved out in front at the Latvian Railways Cup, defeating Lokomotiv to make it three wins from three in Riga. Avtomobilist recovered from two losses to hand Dinamo Minsk a 6-0 drubbing.

First win for Avto

Avtomobilist bounced back after losing its first two games in Riga and handed Dinamo Minsk a 6-0 thrashing. Summer signing Brooks Macek led the way with a hat-trick as he slotted into the first line alongside Nigel Dawes and Dan Sexton. On this evidence, last season’s Eastern Conference leader could be a potent offensive force once again this time around.

While Macek moves onto six goals for the summer, the best return of any KHL player, another newbie, Peter Holland, added two more to his account. Avto fired in six goals from just 22 shots; Dinamo suffered another difficult day at the office.

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 6 Dinamo Minsk 0 (3-0, 1-0, 2-0)

Goals: 1-0 Macek (Sexton, Dawes 0:53); 2-0 Macek (Dawes, Sexton 15:59); 3-0 Setdikov (Mozer 17:29); 4-0 Macek (Dawes, Sexton 23:10); 5-0 Holland (Platt, Berezin 42:57); 6-0 Holland (Platt, Bodrov 49:11 PP)

Goalies: Kovar (Fomin 42:57) – Enroth

Three out of three for Ak Bars

Ak Bars began with two convincing wins here in Riga but faced a sterner test against Lokomotiv. Dmitry Kvartalnov rested Danis Zaripov for this game, while Loko looked to recover from a 2-4 loss against the host in its first game.

However, the Railwaymen could not get back on track here either. It was a good, close game, tied at 2-2 after 40 minutes, but even in the second stanza there were signs that Ak Bars was getting on top of the game. A 13-4 shot count didn’t deliver right away, but in the third period Kvartalnov’s team added two more goals to secure the victory. Defenseman Mikael Wikstrand led the scoring with a goal and an assist.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (1-1, 1-1, 0-2)

Goals: 1-0 Lander (Kronwall 7:17); 1-1 Galimov (Petrov 15:05); 1-2 Cormier (Wikstrand, Ozhiganov 28:37 PP); Sannikov (Kudryavtsev 29:03); 2-3 Fisenko (Galimov, Yarullin 44:13 PP); 2-4 Wikstrand (Frattin, Azevedo 56:38)

Goalies: Konovalov – Reideborn