Leaders stay on course, Dragons soar at Barys. October 11 round-up
SKA and Avtomobilist consolidated their positions at the top of the KHL’s conferences. Avto made light of an injury crisis to defeat Torpedo 4-1, while SKA dug deep to edge Dinamo Minsk in overtime. The biggest win of the day came in Kazakhstan, where Kunlun Red Star thrashed Barys 5-0. Maxim Dorozhko starred in goal for Vityaz to earn an overtime win at Spartak, Anton Berlyov’s double earned Admiral the verdict over Sibir and Traktor snapped Neftekhimik’s winning streak.
Berlyov, Cerveny lead Admiral to win
Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Admiral Vladivostok 4 (0-0, 2-3, 0-1)
Sibir came into the game lifted by a 3-0 win over Sochi and had an almost unchanged line-up. Admiral, by contrast, responded to a 1-4 loss against CSKA with a major reshuffle. Notably, forward Dmitry Sayustov played his first game of the season for the visitor, beginning his campaign against one of his former clubs.
However, it was Anton Berlyov and Rudolf Cerveny who had the biggest impact on the game. Berlyov scored twice, assisted by Cerveny on both occasions. The Czech also got a goal of his own.
The scoring did not start until midway through the game. There was little to choose between the teams in the first period, but Sibir got on top at the start of the second and deserved the breakthrough when Trevor Murphy fired home in the 31st minute. However, Admiral responded immediately with Gleb Zyryanov batting the puck into the net. The home bench demanded a review for high sticks but the on-ice verdict was upheld and Sibir faced a delay of game penalty. While Taylor Beck sat it out, Cerveny grabbed the go-ahead goal.
The home team had barely killed another penalty when Berlyov made it 3-1, but once again there was a swift response. Timur Akhiyarov pulled one back for Sibir to make it a one-goal game at the intermission.
Sibir then dominated the third period, outshooting Admiral 12-3. However, there was no way past Nikita Serebryakov in the visitor’s net and Berlyov wrapped it up with an empty-net tally.
Dragon fire scorches Barys
Barys Astana 0 Kunlun Red Star 5 (0-3, 0-2, 0-0)
Kunlun captain Brandon Yip was named as the KHL’s top forward for last week, and he continued his hot streak with three more points as the Dragons demolished Barys. Tuesday’s win was the Chinese franchise’s equal biggest in the KHL, matching a 5-0 home success against Medvescak back in Jan. 2017. That season, KRS’s first, was the only time to date that Red Star reached the playoffs; today, Greg Ireland’s team stands eighth in the West, buoyed by a run of 10 points from the last six games.
For Barys, though, this was a day when everything went wrong. Andrei Skabelka’s men returned home after an impressive win at Ak Bars but found Red Star a far tougher proposition. The visitor recorded its first road win of the season in Omsk on Sunday, and followed it up with another – and a second successive shut-out – in Kazakhstan.
The game was decided by three goals in six first-period minutes. Jack Rodewald got the opener, steering a Yip feed beyond Julius Hudacek in the home net. Then, a sublime counterattack saw Yip combine with Chelios before scoring at the far post. Hudacek’s evening took a sharp turn for the worse when he advanced far from his crease to field the puck during a home power play. His wayward pass was gift-wrapped, and Cory Kane did not reject the invitation to score the third.
That brought Nikita Boyarkin to the home net, and he was beaten twice in the second period. Another power play saw Kyle Wood fire in a dangerous feed the Zac Leslie diverted into the net. Then, in the final seconds of the frame, Vincent LoVerde got his first in the KHL to complete a miserable night for Barys.
Motormen make light of injury worries
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (1-0, 2-0, 1-1)
Avtomobilist opened a three-point gap at the top of the Eastern Conference, despite contending with seven injuries ahead of the visit of Torpedo.
The visitor, third in the West, has impressed this season and arrived on the back of home wins over Barys and Dinamo Minsk. Today, though, little went right for Igor Larionov’s team, which was missing impressive youngster Vasily Atanasov through injury.
The Motormen have greater injury worries. Stepan Khripunov is the fifth forward on Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team to be out of action. That meant Denis Yerkin, top scorer for Gornyak in last year’s VHL, got his first KHL appearance. There was a youthful look to the fourth line as well, with Avto down to the bare bones.
Torpedo might have got in front in this game when it enjoyed five minutes on the power play, including a minute of 5-on-3 play. However, the visitor was unable to take advantage and Avto punished that wastefulness in the 19th minute when Patrice Cormier’s diagonal pass was converted by Danil Romantsev at the far post.
Cormier was involved again as Anatoly Golyshev doubled the lead in the 28th minute. The Canadian screened Adam Huska as Golyshev shot the puck and the Slovak had no chance of making the save. Late in the frame, Andrei Obidin and Viktor Neuchev turned on the style for a fine goal to make it 3-0.
Torpedo did not give up, but only the most optimistic fan would have believed that Sergei Goncharuk’s late goal could spark a dramatic comeback. Instead, Golyshev put his second of the game into an empty net to seal an impressive win for the home team.
Two streaks end in Nizhnekamsk
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 0 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
A solitary goal was enough to end Neftekhimik’s six-game winning streak and bring some much-needed relief to Traktor. The visitor endured a five-game skid ahead of Tuesday’s game, but posted a third win of the season over today’s host to move back into the top eight.
It was not, perhaps, a game destined to live long in the memory. Both goalies were in commanding form, with Ilya Proskuryakov collecting a shut-out while Emil Garipov collected 31 saves against the club where he began this season.
After two periods of toil, the only goal came in the 45th minute. Albert Yarullin was the scorer, converting a feed from Adam Almqvist. Sergei Shumakov, signed last week, collected his first point of the season with an assist.
The win lifts Traktor above today’s opponent, but it’s incredibly tight at the foot of the Eastern Conference. Traktor is on 14 points from 18 games and moves to eighth; below, Avangard, Neftekhimik and Amur have 13 each, and all have played fewer games than Anvar Gatiyatulin’s team.
Glotov grabs OT winner for SKA
SKA St. Petersburg 3 Dinamo Minsk 2 OT (1-1, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0)
Vasily Glotov returned to SKA earlier this season, bringing to an end a spell with HC Sochi. Since coming home, the 25-year-old has made an impact in Petersburg and today he potted his second game-winner of the season.
This one came in overtime, exchanging passes with Damir Zhafyarov before beating Konstantin Shostak in the visitor’s net. That extends SKA’s winning streak to seven games and Roman Rotenberg’s team has an intimidating seven-point lead at the top of the standings after just one loss in seven games.
This game burst into life early. SKA took a sixth-minute lead through Alexander Volkov. It started with a point shot from Andrei Pedan, which Emil Galimov redirected onto the post. However, the attacking team retained possession and the second phase saw Volkov open the scoring off a feed from Zakhar Bardakov.
However, the lead lasted barely a minute before Pavel Varfolomeyev tied the game. The Dinamo forward pulled two defensemen out of position before collecting a pass, jumping off the boards and finding the top corner. Soon after, Minsk had a power play and Vladimir Alistrov twice came close to putting the visitor in front. However, the game remained tied until the first intermission.
In the second period, Dinamo did get the lead that it threatened. SKA ran into penalty trouble – a theme throughout the evening – and faced 37 seconds with just three skaters. Although Dmitrij Jaskin was returning to the game, he was unable to influence events as John Gilmour’s point shot took a deflection off a home stick and found the target.
SKA tied it up again early in the third through Igor Ozhiganov. Then, on a late power play, Marat Khairullin dinged one off the crossbar as Dinamo hung on to force overtime. The extras, though, saw Glotov grab the winner to maintain Petersburg’s dominance at the top of the table.
Dorozhko denies Spartak, Rasskazov wins it for Vityaz
Spartak Moscow 0 Vityaz Moscow Region 1 OT (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Vityaz goalie Maxim Dorozhko is not an easy man to beat. Earlier this season he marked his first KHL start by blanking Lokomotiv for a full 65 minutes on September 17. On that occasion, he was ultimately defeated in a shoot-out.
Today, against Spartak, he again went more than 60 minutes without allowing a goal. This time, he finished on the winning team thanks an overtime tally from Kirill Rasskazov.
Three minutes into overtime, Rasskazov was in the right place to tuck away the rebound after Jeremy Roy’s shot was padded away. That broke the deadlock at last to give Vityaz the verdict.
Dorozhko finished with 32 saves to earn his team the win. That improves Vityaz to six wins from the last seven, banishing the specter of the six-game skid that preceded the current run.
Spartak, too, is no stranger to low-scoring hockey this term. Twice before, the Red-and-Whites eked out 1-0 victories: at home to Sibir on Sep. 4, and on the road in Sochi on Sep. 23. Today, the home team shared the goaltending load. Patrik Rybar started the game and made 25 saves before Anton Krasikov took over and stopped a further 13 attempts before Rasskazov settled it in the extras.
