KHL press office
exclusive for khl.ru
Two big comebacks. October 15 round-up
Saturday’s action saw two teams retrieve two-goal deficits to win in shoot-outs. Sibir rallied from 0-2 at Dynamo Moscow, then Admiral recovered from 1-3 to win at Avangard. Metallurg also came from behind, beating Torpedo 2-1 on a late Artyom Minulin goal. There were comfortable victories for Barys, Salavat Yulaev and SKA, while Lokomotiv moves to third in the West after edging Dinamo Minsk.
Comfortable win for Salavat Yulaev
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 0 (2-0, 2-0, 0-0)
Salavat Yulaev wrapped up its latest home stand with a convincing victory over Neftekhimik. The visitor arrived in good form, with seven wins from its past eight games, but had no answers in Ufa.
Neftekhimik made some changes for this game. Bulat Shafigullin moved to the second line and Maxim Berezin was named as the seventh D-man, while Yohann Auvitu, missed the game. For Salavat Yulaev, the big team news involved young forward Yegor Suchkov, promoted from the VHL, joining Alexander Kadeikin’s line. Stanislav Bocharov dropped down the lines to make way for the teenager.
The home team dominated from the off, and the opening goal came in the ninth minute when Ivan Drozdov finished off a quick attack. Then came a power play goal from Pavel Koledov, firing home from out wide.
After the intermission, Neftekhimik came out with greater determination. However, despite some nice interchanges around Ilya Ezhov’s net there was no tangible reward for the visitor’s efforts. Instead, further goals from Alexei Pustozyorov and Sergei Shmelyov took the game away.
Up by four at the second break, Ufa’s main aim in the third period was to preserve a shut-out. That was achieved and Ezhov posted his second blank of the season.
Sibir rallies to stun Dynamo
Dynamo Moscow 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 SO (2-0, 1-3, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Both teams came into this game on the back of victories, and neither coach made major changes to the line-ups. Both, though, gave their back-up goalies a chance, with Konstantin Volkov between the pipes for Dynamo and Denis Kostin assuming the same responsibility for Sibir.
Kostin spent last season with Dynamo St. Petersburg in the VHL. There, he shared a locker room with Dynamo’s Maxim Dzhioshvili. The home forward clearly studied his goalie closely back then and today he scored on Kostin to open the scoring on the power play in the seventh minute. That stretched Dzhioshivili’s productive streak to five games; soon Dmitry Rashevsky extended his run to eight with a helper on Maxim Sushko’s goal.
Rashevsky scored a goal himself midway through the third period to restore Dynamo’s two-goal advantage after Denis Golubev reduced the deficit. However, Golubev’s effort was more in line with the pattern of play in the second period, while Rashevsky’s came on a rare Dynamo counter. As the game progressed, Sibir continued to press Volkov’s net. Alexander Sharov scored on the power play, then Anton Nazarevich – another former Dynamo Petersburg player – tied the game.
Dynamo dominated the first period, Sibir the second. The third, then, was evenly matched but could not produce a winner. Neither could overtime, despite Dzhioshvili getting the puck in the net right at the end. His effort was ruled out as it crossed the goal line just after the hooter. Then, in the shoot-out, Sibir converted four of its five attempts to take the win.
And Admiral also fights back
Avangard Omsk 3 Admiral Vladivostok 4 SO (1-1, 2-0, 0-2, 0-0, 0-1)
Interim head coach Mikhail Kravets’ second game in charge of Avangard was a frustrating affair. He saw his team open a 3-1 lead, only to lose in a shoot-out as Admiral got its first road win over the Hawks since 2017.
There was a debut for defenseman Ziyat Paigin, recently signed from Torpedo, and Corban Knight returned to the home line-up. Admiral, meanwhile, handed a first game of the season to goalie Alexander Lazushin while head coach Leonids Tambijevs again reshuffled his lines in search of a winning formula.
Avangard made the better start, seeing more of the puck and doing more with it. The second power play of the game saw Reid Boucher open the scoring. However, Admiral responded well to giving up that goal and the visitor tied the game just before the intermission when Michal Kristof scored.
In the second period we saw more penalties, with the Sailors in particular running into trouble with the officials. Nonetheless, both goals were scored at equal strength. Boucher got his second of the game in the 25th minute before Vladimir Zharkov extended the lead with a well-taken goal. Admiral had chances at the other end but could not find a way past Vasily Demchenko in the home net even when firing in a salvo of three quick shots.
Admiral finally solved Demchenko at the start of the third when Nikolajs Jelisejevs found the net. That was just the start for the Latvian, who went on to tie the game in the 48th minute. After that, Avangard stepped up its game once more in search of a winning goal. However, there was no change in the score and the action moved into overtime.
It was the first additional period at the G-Drive Arena and it could not produce a winner. That brought the arena’s first shoot-out, where Kristof delivered the winning play for Admiral.
Three goals in 72 seconds overwhelms Amur
Barys Astana 5 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (1-1, 3-0, 1-0)
This game was settled by a goal rush in the second period. Barys scored three times in 72 seconds, irrevocably snapping a 1-1 tie and taking the result away from the Tigers.
Before that, Barys took the lead in the eighth minute. There was greater delight for the home fans because the scorer was Nikita Mikhailis. He’s one of the key forwards on this team, but today was his first goal of the season. However, the home team was unable to build on that early breakthrough and was pegged back late in the frame when Pavel Makhanovsky tied the game.
The decisive goal blitz began on 26:27 when Ansar Shaikhmeddenov restored the home lead. He was quickly followed by Yury Sergiyenko and Linden Vey. Both starting goalie Evgeny Alikin and understudy Janis Kalnins felt the force of the blast; Amur swapped netminders after the third goal went in.
Amur continued to try to attack Julius Hudacek’s net but rarely got shots to him. The home defense worked hard to block shots and got in the way of 20 attempts over the 60 minutes. At the other end, Yegor Petukhov added a fifth goal early in the final frame while the Tigers were unable to find even a consolation goal.
Late Metallurg goal sinks Torpedo again
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (0-0, 0-1, 2-0)
It wasn’t as dramatic as the comebacks in Moscow and Omsk, but this game also saw the winner come from behind to get the points. Torpedo was hoping to avenge a late loss at home to the Steelmen, but Metallurg managed a repeat of that early-season game with a 59th-minute winner here.
Magnitogorsk welcomed back Brendan Leipsic, rested for the previous game. Vasily Koshechkin took over from Eddie Pasquale in goal. Koshechkin was not unduly troubled in an opening frame that was light on meaningful action. Despite its reputation as a swashbuckling, goal-getting team, Torpedo played cautiously. That invited Metallurg to move forward, but the home team struggled to create much danger around the opposition net save for one chance carved out by Leipsic’s blistering pace.
After the intermission, though, it was Torpedo that quickly opened the scoring. Magnitka got caught on the change, Denis Yan got the puck on the blue line and took it to the net before beating Koshechkin from close range. Despite that bright start, the visitor was unable to impose itself on the game – partly due to taking three penalties in a row – and Metallurg dominated the action without managing to beat the impressive Ivan Kulbakov in the Torpedo net.
In the final frame, though, Metallurg turned it around. The home team at last managed to get a power play goal when Yegor Yakovlev joined the attack to fire in an unstoppable stop. Another home PP saw Nikolai Goldobin hit the piping and when the teams returned equal strength the game went into de facto overtime. It was clear that the next goal would prove decisive and with a couple of minutes to play, Artyom Minulin picked the perfect moment to open his account for the season. His strike settled the outcome in the home team’s favor.
Shalunov lifts Loko to third
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 Dinamo Minsk 2 (1-0, 1-1, 1-1)
Two goals from Maxim Shalunov helped Lokomotiv to a victory that lifts the Railwaymen to third place in the West. For Dinamo, though, a fifth straight loss cost the Bison the chance to move back into the top eight.
Neither team was able to generate much offense in the first period. However, just as it looked as if the game would go goalless to the first intermission, Lokomotiv conjured up a moment of quality. Yegor Averin moved into the Minsk zone, dished off the puck to Artur Kayumov, then collected a return pass. His shot from the slot flashed under the crossbar, too good for Konstantin Shostak in the visitor’s net.
Kayumov played a big part in the second goal, which came in the 28th minute as Lokomotiv exploited its second power play of the game. Kayumov’s pass sprang the visiting defense and released Shalunov one-on-one with Shostak to double the lead. Dinamo, meanwhile, continued to have its share of possession and turned that into a goal shortly after the midway point. Pavel Varfolomeyev’s one-timer gave Ivan Bocharov little chance and put the game right back in the balance.
The early part of the third period was characterized by a series of fouls and the disjointed play that followed suited Loko just fine. The home team was able to run down the clock and capitalize on Dinamo’s increasing desperation for a goal. Finally, another breakaway saw Shalunov get his second of the game, putting the outcome beyond reach. Minsk managed to pull one back in the final minute through Roman Gorbunov, but with just 10 seconds left on the clock there was no time to save the game.
SKA bounces back after rare loss
Vityaz Moscow Region 0 SKA St. Petersburg 5 (0-1, 0-1, 0-3)
When these teams met in Petersburg just over a week ago, SKA had a real battle to take the points. Two goals in the last 10 minutes finally turned the game in the league leader’s favor after Vityaz put up a huge battle. Today, with Roman Rotenberg’s men looking to bounce back from a rare defeat, things were rather more straightforward.
This return to winning ways was built less on explosive offense than careful defense. Although the shot count might suggest another close game, in reality SKA’s D kept Vityaz at arm’s length. The home team was not shy about getting pucks to the net, but rarely delivered them to Alexander Samonov with any venom.
At the other end, SKA took its chances. Defenseman Stepan Falkovsky got himself involved in the attack to open the scoring in the 13th minute. Then, midway through the second, Marat Khairullin doubled the lead on the power play.
The third frame began with a rush of penalties. SKA had a 5-on-3 advantage, only for Dmitrij Jaskin to go to the box and blunt that particular weapon. However, the home team kept infringing the rules and eventually Khairullin was able to get a second PP goal just as Jaskin was returning to the game. The power play continued, and SKA’s Czech forward was involved immediately with a helper as Alex Grant made it 4-0. In the closing seconds, Jaskin added a fifth, also on the power play, to complete a good night for his team.
