New leader in the East, Loko leapfrogs CSKA. November 7 round-up
Salavat Yulaev is two points clear at the top of the Eastern Conference after a 4-1 win at Kunlun Red Star. In the West’s big game, Lokomotiv edged CSKA in a shoot-out, moving ahead of the Muscovites into second place in the West. Traktor is back in the playoff spots after beating Sibir 3-2, and Torpedo sent Spartak to a fifth straight loss.
Traktor back into top eight
Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (3-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Traktor moved back into the top eight with victory over Sibir. The home team moves ahead of Barys, at least until tomorrow’s game in Astana.
The win was achieved without forward Anton Burdasov, whose place on the first line went to Teemu Pulkkinen. Sibir, meanwhile, welcomed back Nikita Shashkov from injury and the forward was eased back into action with a spot on the fourth line.
Early in the game, the teams exchanged penalties. Sibir failed to take advantage of its power play, and no sooner had Adam Almqvist returned to the game than Traktor got its chance and took the lead. Alexei Byvaltsev’s pass off the boards towards Sergei Kalinin never reached its target, bouncing off a Sibir skate and into the net. It was the third time Byvaltsev opened the scoring in meetings between the teams this season.
The goal ushered in a spell of Traktor dominance, but late in the frame Shashkov marked his return with a breakaway goal to tie the game. Despite starting on the fourth line, the forward was moved up to the first alongside Vyacheslav Osnovin and Nikita Korotkov as the game went on.
Traktor was stung into action and responded with two quick goals on visiting netminder Denis Kostin. First, Kirill Kapustin’s one-on-one breakaway restored the home lead. Then, on the next attack, Mikhail Kotlyarevsky’s one timer brought him a first goal for the club.
Sibir changed goalie during the intermission, but a penalty at the start of the second period handed Traktor the initiative right away. It wasn’t until later in the middle frame that the visitor began to play itself back into contention.
In the third period, the teams managed an incredible nine minutes and 23 seconds of unbroken, high tempo game time. Traktor continued to look the likelier team to score and it wasn’t until the closing stages that Sibir managed to start generate renewed offense. With two minutes left, Dmitry Ovchinnikov forced home a second goal and set up a nervous finish. However, Traktor held on to move up the standings.
New leader for Eastern Conference
Kunlun Red Star 1 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 (1-1, 0-0, 0-3)
Two goals for Ivan Drozdov saw off some spirited resistance from Kunlun Red Star as Salavat Yulaev moved two points clear of Metallurg at the top of the Eastern Conference.
The visitor got its win despite going into action without any imports. On the morning of the game, Canadian defenseman Ryan Murphy was placed on the injured list, then the club’s general director Rinat Bashirov announced that Alexander Chmelevski was ill and would not play. Josh Ho-Sang remains unavailable with a long-term injury. For Red Star, captain Brandon Yip was rested.
Even before the game started, there was a flashpoint between the two teams. During the warm-up, Red Star enforcer Garet Hunt crossed the halfway line into Salavat Yulaev’s space. That upset power forward Evgeny Timkin, prompting a spot of pushing and shoving.
Once the action got underway for real, fans were treated to a blistering start. Salavat Yulaev needed just 81 seconds to open the scoring, with Chmelevski’s replacement, Danil Aimurzin, setting up Shakir Mukhamadullin for the first goal. The Dragons responded 10 seconds later, Parker Foo tying it up on a Cliff Pu helper. Meanwhile, despite the pre-game antics of Hunt and Timkin, there were no penalties in the first period. KRS got the game’s first power play on 20:54 when visiting goalie Ilya Ezhov was called for tripping.
Despite that early power play in the middle frame, Red Star was unable to take control of the play and the session finished goalless. Salavat Yulaev had to wait until the 45th minute for its first power play of the game, but wasted little time in converting that into a goal. Jason Fram sat for tripping and Aimurzin got his second helper of the evening as Ivan Drozdov restored the visitor’s lead. Two days earlier, Drozdov got the game winner at Neftekhimik; today he scored twice in the third period, both on the power play, to lead his team to another win. Grigory Panin wrapped it up with an empty netter.
Spartak sinks to fifth straight loss
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Spartak Moscow 1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1)
Blanked 0-4 by Lokomotiv in its last game, Torpedo bounced back with victory over Spartak. The Red-and-Whites, meanwhile, suffered a fifth successive defeat.
Torpedo got ahead in the seventh minute when Nikolai Kovalenko converted the first power play of the game. It was an advantage that the home team would not relinquish, even though Spartak had marginally the better of the play in opening frame. The visitor had more shots (10-8) and enjoyed slightly more time in the attacking zone compared with its host.
Early in the second session, Torpedo extended that lead thanks to Maxim Letunov. His fourth of the season did not greatly change the pattern of play. Spartak still had a slight edge, but could not find a way past home goalie Ivan Kulbakov.
Despite the Muscovites’ recent problems, Alexander Khokhlachyov remains a persistent goal threat. He moved to 7 (2+5) points from his last six games when he pulled one back in the 56th minute. That gave Spartak hope of saving the game, but Sergei Goncharuk hit the empty net to ensure Torpedo would take the win.
Loko moves into second
CSKA Moscow 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 SO (1-1, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Lokomotiv edged in front of CSKA to move second in the Western Conference thanks to a shoot-out win in the capital. Artur Kayumov potted the decisive goal to settle this battle of the big guns in the West.
The Railwaymen got a great start to the game, taking the lead inside three minutes. Maxim Osipov was the scorer, collecting the puck after Maxim Shalunov won an attacking face-off. Osipov advanced from the blue line and picked out a wrister that beat Adam Reideborn in the home net.
However, the first power play of the game saw the Muscovites draw level. Nikita Cherepanov’s foul led to Konstantin Okulov forcing the puck home from a tight angle after Artyom Sergeyev’s point shot sparked a frenzy on the slot. Late in the opening frame, Loko came close to restoring its lead when Artyom Ilyenko fired an Alexander Polunin feed against the post from a tight angle.
Overall, the first period was evenly matched. In the second, though, Lokomotiv took greater control of the game. The visitor outshot CSKA 12-6 and enjoyed a significant territorial advantage. However, it took time to turn that into a goal. Late in the session, Denis Alexeyevforced the puck home from the slot after Alexander Yelesin’s slap shot.
The video review was called into action twice at the start of the third period. The first question was about CSKA’s tying goal: Prokhor Poltapov battled hard on the slot to force the puck through Daniil Isayev’s pads, but it took a long look at the footage to confirm that it wholly crossed the line. Within a couple of minutes, Lokomotiv was close to regaining the lead once more. Alexeyev led a two-on-two breakaway and his shot beat Reideborn, only for Nikita Nesterov to sweep it off the line. Another video check found that, this time, the puck did not fully cross the line and the game remained tied at 2-2.
That incident was a rare moment of relief for the Lokomotiv defense, which came under intense pressure in the final frame. CSKA outshot the Railwaymen 16-2, but could not force a winner in regulation.
That failure proved costly: overtime did not produce a goal, despite CSKA playing without a netminder. Then the shoot-out saw Lokomotiv prevail thanks to Kayumov.
