Litovchenko hits a hat-trick, Dynamo downed in OT

Saturday brought two more warm-up games, including a four-period match-up for Dynamo against Metallurg Novokuznetsk. Sibir took on Vityaz in the other game.

Sibir Novosibirsk 4 Vityaz Moscow Region 1 (1-1, 0-0, 3-0)

These teams were playing their second games of their training camps in Minsk, and both were looking to bounce back after defeats last week. However, it was Sibir who came out on top thanks to a hat-trick from Vyacheslav Litovchenko.

Vityaz was the first to show in this game, opening the scoring after 46 seconds through Vitaly Popov. However, Litovchenko tied the scores midway through the first period.

The game remained deadlocked until early in the third, when Litovchenko scored two more in the space of 30 seconds. Anton Nazarevich completed the scoring on 45 minutes.

After the hooter, the teams played a shoot-out, with Vityaz coming out on top 3-2.

Dynamo Moscow 2 Metallurg Novokuznetsk 3 OT (2-0, 0-1, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)

It’s a long time since Metallurg played in the KHL, but the Novokuznetsk club continues life in the second tier and sprung a surprise for Dynamo in the Blue-and-Whites’ first action of the summer. This was an unusual game, with four periods of regulation time enabling both teams to send out two different rosters for 40 minutes each.

Alexei Kudashov’s much-changed line-up did well in the first period, but was unable to hold onto a two-goal lead and lost out in the second period of overtime.

The early stages were all about Dynamo. From the opening seconds, the Muscovites had the better of the play and that was converted into goals by Maxim Dzhioshvili and Ivan Muranov. After that, though, Metallurg got into the game. Midway through the second period Daniil Yerdakov halved the deficit then, on a two-man power play, Mikhail Semenenko tied the scores at the start of the third.

The fourth period could not separate the opponents, but a period of 3-on-3 overtime did not take long to settle the outcome: Metallurg’s Damir Rakhimullin potted the winner on 81:23.