Debut day. September 2 round-up
The second day of KHL action brought several notable debuts. Kunlun Red Star’s Kyle Wood picked up three points on his first appearance in the league, helping the Dragons to a 3-1 win. Taylor Beck had 1+1 as Sibir won 2-0 at Sochi, while veteran Sergei Andronov scored twice on his first game for Lokomotiv, only to end on the losing side in Yekaterinburg. Elsewhere, Severstal had a good win at Traktor and Spartak edged Amur on a late goal from Ilya Talaluyev.
Andronov’s pair can’t save Loko
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 (1-1, 2-0, 1-1)
For years, Sergei Andronov has been at the heart of CSKA. Today, in his first KHL game for another club since his days at Lada Togliatti in 2009, he scored twice for Lokomotiv, but still finished on the losing side.
Loko absorbed some early pressure before taking the lead in the eighth minute when young Danill Tesanov’s neat pass set up an emphatic finish from Andronov. However, the home team tied the scores when Brooks Macek scored from close range after good work from Avtomobilist’s second line.
In the middle frame, the Motormen took control. Goals from Andrei Obidin and Danil Romantsev opened a decisive advantage. Andronov pulled one back in the third, but Lokomotiv was unable to tie the game and a last-minute marker Anatoly Golyshev wrapped up a winning start for Avtomobilist.
Guslistov’s double downs Traktor
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Severstal Cherepovets 4 (1-1, 1-2, 0-1)
This was a contrasting tale of two young players. In Chelyabinsk, there has been great excitement about Maxim Shabanov’s progress in pre-season. Today, though, he was without his regular partner Vladimir Tkachyov, missing through injury, and played alongside another youngster, 24-year-old Alexander Podkorytov on Traktor’s third line.
Unfortunately, it was precisely that third line that got caught in possession early in the game, allowing a counterattack that resulted in Severstal’s 20-year-old prospect Nikita Guslistov opening the scoring.
Traktor replied quickly to that one, with Sergei Kalinin tying the game. However, in the second period the teams’ discipline began to fray. Twice, Severstal converted power play chances with Robin Press restoring the lead and Guslistov potting his second of the game to extend it. At the other end, Teemu Pulkkinen got a PP goal of his own to keep Traktor in contention, but midway through the third, Daniil Vovchenko made it 4-2. That was how it finished, despite Pulkkinen and Artyom Blazhiyevsky both hitting the frame of Dmitry Shugayev’s goal in the closing stages.
Bright debut for Wood
Kunlun Red Star 3 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (0-0, 3-0, 0-1)
Red Star defenseman Kyle Wood had a debut to remember as the Dragons won their first game as a Western Conference team.
Wood, 26, joined Kunlun from Kladno and the Canadian had a hand in all three of his new team’s goals. After a scoreless opening stanza, Red Star took charge early in the second as Admiral ran into penalty trouble. It started with Wood collecting an assist as Parker Foo’s power play goal broke the deadlock 26 seconds after the intermission. Within three minutes, it was 2-0: this time Wood stepped up from the blue line to smash home a one-timer off a feed from another summer signing, Zac Leslie. The third goal, also on the power play, saw Wood and Brandon Yip combine to set up Cliff Pu.
That took the game away from an Admiral team which struggled to make an impact in the first 40 minutes. The final frame was much better from the visitor, but it wasn’t until the final minute that Rudolf Cerveny managed to grab a consolation goal. In keeping with earlier events, this too was on the power play.
Beck makes instant impression
HC Sochi 0 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Taylor Beck did not need long to open his account for Sibir. The Canadian, who joined the club from Dinamo Minsk in the summer, was on the scoresheet after just 50 seconds of his first competitive game for his new employer.
Beck pounced on a big rebound from goalie Maxim Tretyak, who struggled to control Vyacheslav Osnovin’s shot. The reaction from the home crowd was telling: within a minute of the home opener, there was audible dissatisfaction from the Leopards faithful, already bruised after a frustrating preseason campaign.
If there was consolation for the host, it came from the players’ response. After a bad start, Sochi shaded the play in the first period and dominated the action at the start of the second. However, there was no way past Anton Krasotkin in the visitor’s net and gradually Sibir was able to neutralize the threat. With five minutes to play, another summer signing added a second goal. Beck sent Vladimir Butuzov on an odd-man rush and the former Amur forward converted with aplomb to put the game out of reach.
Talaluyev gives Spartak a tight verdict
Spartak Moscow 3 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (2-1, 0-1, 1-0)
Amur’s power play kept the Tigers in contention in Moscow, with Spartak pegged back twice. However, a late goal from Ilya Talaluyev gave the home team the verdict in its season opener.
Spartak made a bright start and took the lead in the 13th minute. Andrei Loktionov won an attacking face-off, Dmitry Kugryshev’s shot was padded away and Alexander Khokhlachyov converted the rebound. After looking good in the summer, this line demonstrated its prowess in the first competitive action of the season.
However, the Red-and-Whites’ weakness was its discipline. Shane Prince took a penalty, and a minute later, Igor Rudenkov tied the scores. A stretch pass from Nikita Chibrikov, one of the many youngsters who arrived from SKA in the summer, set up Roman Lyubimov for the 2-1 goal before the intermission. Once again, though, Spartak was caught out by the Amur power play late in the second period. Andrew Calof scored his first for his new club to tie the game at 2-2.
The prospect of the first overtime game of the season was growing ever more realistic as the third period wore on. However, with three minutes to play Talaluyev, a 24-year-old looking to recapture the promise he showed in 2020-2021, stuffed home the winning goal when he hassled Ruslan Pedan into giving up the puck close to the net.
