Ufa celebrates Green Derby road win. October 22 round-up
The top action of the day was in Kazan, where Salavat Yulaev won its rivalry game against Ak Bars. The home team failed to build on Monday’s win over Metallurg and remains in unconvincing form after this 2-3 loss. Elsewhere, Sibir blew a 3-0 lead at home to Vityaz, but scraped a win in the shoot-out. Lokomotiv dropped a 2-0 advantage in Minsk and lost 2-5 to Dinamo.
Vityaz fightback falls short
Sibir Novosibirsk 4 Vityaz Moscow Region 3 SO (1-0, 2-1, 0-2, 0-0, 1-0)
Vityaz pulled off a big comeback from 0-3 to force overtime, but the visitor could not finish the job and lost out in a shoot-out. That left Vyacheslav Butsyaev’s team on the wrong end of a five-game skid as it heads home after a tour of the Far East.
Sibir reshuffled its attacking lines for this game, while Vityaz complete revamped three of its four troikas. That, perhaps was a response to the form of the two goalies. Anton Krasotkin is among the top goalies for shut-outs this term, while Maxim Dorozhko is on top for save percentage and GAA.
Dorozhko’s impressive figures took a hit in the early part of the game as Sibir built its three-goal lead. Timur Akhiyarov opened the scoring in the first period, shooting home while Nikita Setdikov took Dorozhko’s eyes away. Taylor Beck assisted on that play, and he extended the home lead with a power play goal in the second period. And further penalty trouble saw Setdikov on target to add a third in the 27th minute.
Although Jeremy Roy pulled a goal back midway through the third period, it was hard to see a way back for Vityaz. The loss of Vitaly Popov late in the session, injured after a hit from Michal Cajkovsky, did nothing to enhance the cause. However, the visitor kept competing and grabbed a lifeline at the start of the third period when Yegor Voronkov made it a one-goal game. Battered and beleaguered, Vityaz now had a road to recovery. Sibir tried to strangle the fightback, but gradually the visitor regained the initiative and tied the game with five to play when Alexander Yaremchuk converted Vladislav Valentsov’s feed from behind the net.
That forced overtime, in which either team might have snatched victory. However, the game was destined to go to a shoot-out, and Alexander Sharov got the decisive goal for Sibir.
Fast start not enough for Loko
Dinamo Minsk 5 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 (1-2, 3-0, 1-0)
Dinamo recovered from a slow start to enjoy an emphatic victory over Lokomotiv. The Railwaymen steamed into this game in great form, with five straight wins lifting them to second place in the Western Conference. Dinamo, by contrast, ended its long skid with a 5-3 win over rock-bottom Sochi on Tuesday.
At first, it looked as though Lokomotiv was on track to extend its impressive streak. A shorthanded goal from Sergei Andronov opened the scoring, and Artyom Ilyenko doubled the lead inside the first 10 minutes.
Dinamo need a response, and Dmitry Sokolov made a start when he pulled one goal back in the 16th minute. However, Loko kept its lead until the intermission, and the stats suggested the visitor was good value for that advantage.
Everything changed at the start of the second. Whatever Craig Woodcroft told his troops at the intermission had the desired effect. Igor Martynov tied the game right away, then Mikhail Shalagin made it 3-2 on 26:37. That was the end of goalie Daniil Isayev’s evening; Ivan Bocharov came into the game to replace Loko’s starter.
But Bocharov could not halt the Minsk offense. Roman Gorbunov made it 4-2 in the 35th minute and, with tempers flaring, Loko’s Alexander Yelesin got into a fight with Shawn Lalonde late in the frame.
Any hopes of a third-period fightback were quickly sunk. Mark Barberio added a fifth for Dinamo 30 seconds into the final frame, then Alexander Polunin, two goal hero in Thursday’s win at Dynamo Moscow, took a double minor for high-sticking, eating into the time available for a revival. The Belarusians held on comfortably to make it back-to-back wins for the first time since Sep. 22.
Salavat Yulaev wins in Kazan
Ak Bars Kazan 2 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3 (0-2, 1-1, 1-0)
There was a sell-out crowd as Oleg Znarok led a team into a Green Derby in Kazan for the first time. He was hoping for a repeat of the 3-0 scoreline he enjoyed in Ufa in late September. Victory here, moreover, would build on Monday’s success against Metallurg and draw a line under the recent six-game losing streak.
However, Viktor Kozlov’s Salavat Yulaev came to town buoyed by a good run of form that lifted the team to third in the East. And there was vengeance in mind after that loss on home ice in the earlier fixture.
Ak Bars welcomed back Kirill Adamchuk after a five-game suspension, with Maxim Chudinov making way on the blue line.
Kozlov, meanwhile, overlooked the four goals his team allowed in Cherepovets last time out and continued with Ilya Ezhov in goal. Vladislav Kartayev and Stepan Sannikov returned to the offense, added experience to the fourth line for the big game.
The first period was fast-paced, but the visitor was noticeably quicker than Ak Bars, both in terms of thought and action. For all that, Ak Bars had a great chance to take the lead when Kirill Semyonov burst clear only to be denied by Ezhov. Instead, the first goal went to Sannikov, who marked his return to the team by opening the scoring in the 12th minute when he converted the rebound from his own shot at Amir Miftakhov. Ezhov made another big stop, this time denying Alexander Radulov in a one-on-one, and late in the opening frame Alexander Chmelevski made it 2-0 to the visitor.
Ufa captain Grigory Panin did not return to the game in the second period after suffering an injury, and his absence told on the visitor’s defense. Ak Bars took advantage to reduce the deficit in the 27th minute when Ilya Safonov knocked a Slava Voynov shot into the net. Subsequently, the home team was able to spend plenty of time occupying the Ufa zone. Dmitry Kagarlitsky spurned a gilt-edged chance to tie the scores when he failed to outwit Ezhov.
That failure was punished when Salavat Yulaev got on the power play. Shakir Mukhamadullin restored the two-goal lead in the 33rd minute.
Ahead of the final frame, Znarok decided to shake up his team by putting Timur Bilyalov into the game in place of Miftakhov. That added impetus to the attack, and a power play goal from Vadim Shipachyov early in the session raised hopes of a fightback. Subsequently, roared on by a capacity crowd, the home team created plenty of presentable opportunities to tie the scores. However, Ezhov and Salavat Yulaev held firm to claim victory in an absorbing encounter.
