Avangard suffers home loss, Sato raises the Japanese flag. October 9
It was a big day for the Far East. The KHL’s Chinese franchise, Kunlun Red Star, became the first visiting team to win at Avangard’s new arena in Omsk. Matt Jurusik’s first KHL shut-out backstopped a 4-0 win for the Dragons. Then Japanese forward Yu Sato scored in Torpedo’s 5-2 win over Dinamo Minsk. In doing so, he became the first player from Japan to find the net in a KHL game. Sunday’s other games both went to shoot-outs before Severstal and Vityaz edged past Vityaz and Spartak respectively.
Dragons stun Avangard
Avangard Omsk 0 Kunlun Red Star 4 (0-0, 0-1, 0-3)
Avangard crashed to a first loss at its new home when the Dragons shut out the Hawks. The visitor enjoyed its first shut out since November 2020 to record back-to-back victories for the second time this season.
Full of confidence after yesterday’s 5-1 win over Metallurg, Avangard made a strong start. The home team dominated the first period, but could not find a way past Matt Jurusik in the Red Star net. The visitor struggled to generate offensive in the opening frame, but Kunlun hung around and managed to grab the first goal at the start of the middle frame. Brandon Yip deflected a Jason Fram point shot past Vasily Demchenko to break the deadlock in the 25th minute.
But it was the third period that saw the Dragons take control. Parker Foo put in a huge shift behind the net, holding off Mikhail Gulyayev and recovering from a fall to set up Devin Brosseau to double the lead. Then Foo made it 3-0 in the 55th minute with a shot that squeezed home off the post and the back of goaltender Demchenko. Avangard’s netminder responded angrily, smashing his stick against his net before he was withdrawn to the bench to calm down.
The change did nothing to help Avangard rally in the final stages. Foo got his third point of the game late on, assisting as Ethan Werek added an empty net goal to seal a first ever victory in Omsk.
Sato puts Japan on KHL scoresheet
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 Dinamo Minsk 2 (1-1, 1-1, 3-0)
Yu Sato wrote a chapter of KHL history when he became the first Japanese player to score a goal in the league. The 20-year-old, who learned the game as a youngster with Moscow’s Krylya Sovietov club before playing in Finland, Canada and the USA, joined Torpedo in the summer. He registered a first point in the league earlier in the season and today, in his 11th appearance, he found the net to help his team to victory.
His big moment came after 28 minutes. Sato collected the puck in his own zone and turned on the turbos. The youngster has always been renowned for his pace, and he burned through the Dinamo defense to get into a shooting position and beat Alexei Kolosov in the visitor’s net.
That restored Torpedo’s lead after Andrei Belevich and Igor Martynov traded first period goals in Nizhny Novgorod. However, there was still work for the home team to do before it could avenge Monday’s loss against the Bison here.
Pavel Varfolomeyev tied the scores in the 35th minute but early in the third there was a double minor on Nikita Pyshkailo for high-sticking. Nikolai Kovalenko quickly converted the first penalty to restore the home lead, but Dinamo killed the second two minutes to keep the game very much in the balance.
Torpedo sealed the win late on, grabbing two empty net goals through Kirill Voronin and Mark Marin.
Fifth straight loss for Traktor
Severstal Cherepovets 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 SO (2-2, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)
An entertaining game in Cherepovets ended with Traktor slipping to a fifth straight defeat. For the second game running, the visitor made it to overtime but was unable to finish the job in the extras.
The first period was full of action as the teams traded four goals. Severstal got in front when Alexander Suvorov scored a fifth-minute power play goal. The Belarusian teen is on a hot streak, and this is the fourth game in five that has seen him on the scoresheet.
However, Traktor turned the game around on markers from Sergei Telegin and Ilya Karpukhin. Just when Anvar Gatiyatullin’s team was anticipating bringing a lead into the locker room at the first intermission, Mikhail Tikhonov tied it up in the last minute of the period.
The teams traded more goals in the middle frame. Pavel Denisov restored the home lead, but Anton Burdasov tied it up within a couple of minutes.
That was the end of the scoring in regulation and overtime also failed to separate the opponents. However, Severstal got the shoot-out verdict when Traktor failed to score. Ruslan Abrosimov and Daniil Vovchenko beat Ilya Proskuryakov in the visitor’s net to give the Steelmen the extra point.
Spartak improvement falls short
Vityaz Moscow Region 2 Spartak Moscow 1 SO (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)
A week ago, Vityaz crushed Spartak 5-1 in Moscow. The Red-and-Whites clearly learned from that unhappy experience and produced a far more competitive performance here.
Indeed, it was the visitor that took the lead in the first period when Roman Starchenko scored on the power play midway through the frame. Despite the boost of a first win in three games when it beat Severstal on Friday, Spartak was unable to build on its lead here, though.
Instead, Vityaz tied it up early in the second with another goal on the PP. This time Stanislav Yarovoi was the scorer. That’s his second goal of the season, both against Spartak.
However, this was a game dominated by the two goalies. Maxim Dorozhko made 31 saves for Vityaz, while Patrik Rybar did even better with 45 stops for Spartak. Their efforts kept the game deadlocked until the very end, when a shoot-out decided the result. Dorozhko was the stronger of the netminders in that shoot-out, with Kirill Rasskazov and Daniel Butsayev solving Rybar. When Dorozhko stopped Alexander Khokhlachyov’s last-chance effort for Spartak, Vityaz sealed its second win over the Muscovites in the space of a week.
