Gusev impresses for SKA, Admiral remains unsinkable at home. November 26
Nikita Gusev had three points as SKA beat Torpedo 6-2 in Saturday’s big game. Elsewhere, Alexander Polunin’s double set Lokomotiv on the way to victory over Sibir and Avangard edged Severstal in Cherepovets. Admiral posted a seventh successive home victory, seeing off Neftekhimik for the second time in two days.
Seventh home success for Admiral
Admiral Vladivostok 2 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 (1-0, 1-0, 0-1)
After Neftekhimik lost here on Friday, Oleg Leontiev made big changes. He scratched Mikhail Sidorov, Bulat Shafigullin, Sergei Kuptsov and Hunter Shinkaruk from the line-up, bringing in Gleb Semyonov, Danila Popov, Yegor Popov and Rafael Bikmullin. His opposite number, Leonids Tambijevs, stuck with a winning team despite the short turnaround between the two games.
This game, the teams’ third meeting this week, came less than 24 hours after Admiral’s 4-3 victory. The Sailors have an impressive home record and were going for a seventh successive victory at the Fetisov Arena today.
The home team got in front in the 15th minute when Pavel Shen was first to react after Alexander Shevchenko’s shot cannoned back off the boards. The stats suggested that the game was even, but in reality Admiral looked the livelier of the teams. That was backed up by a second goal in the middle frame. Dmitry Sayustov converted a two-man rush with Nikolajs Jelisejevs supplying the killer pass.
That second goal might have persuaded Admiral that this game was won. Or maybe Neftekhimik realized that it had to work harder to get out of its hole. Either way, the visitor had the initiative in the third period. The forced the home team to work hard on defense, limiting Neftekhimik to shots from the outside or getting bodies in the way to block efforts on Nikita Serebryakov’s net. With almost four minutes left, Leontiev withdrew his goalie in favor of a sixth skater. However, it wasn’t long before that extra man was lost when Leonid Metalnikov took a penalty as he tried to protect the empty net. That wasn’t quite the end of the story: 10 seconds from the end, Evgeny Mityakin denied Serebryakov a shut-out but it was too late for the Wolves to save the game.
Polunin powers Loko win
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 0 (0-0, 2-0, 1-0)
Two goals from Alexander Polunin midway through this game set the Railwaymen on course for a third straight victory. Igor Nikitin’s team also halted Sibir’s four-game winning streak, denying the visitor the chance to go second in the Eastern Conference.
There was little to choose between the teams in the opening stages, with Sibir getting the game’s first power play but failing to make much impression with the man advantage. In the latter half of the opening frame, Lokomotiv began to get on top. The home team was helped by a PP of its own, but neither side could force an opening before the intermission.
The breakthrough came midway through the game with a classic pacy counter attack. Alexander Yelesin played the stretch pass to Pavel Kraskovsky, and he dished the puck off to Polunin for the finish. Sibir’s defense looked bewildered by the speed at which play went from one end to the other.
Within two minutes, Polunin and Lokomotiv were celebrating again. This one came on the power play, with Rushan Rafikov and Denis Alexeyev working the puck along the blue line before setting up Polunin for a wrister from between the hash marks.
Loko’s lead was justified: the home team outshot Sibir 15-4 in that second period. However, the pattern changed in the final frame as the visitor tried to get back into the game. Now it was time for Ivan Bocharov to shine in the home net. There was little sign of Loko as an attacking force, and the goalie stopped 13 shots in the final stanza to preserve his team’s lead. Late in the game, Sergei Andronov’s empty netter wrapped up a victory that keeps Lokomotiv in third place in the West, now just one point behind CSKA.
Hawks come from behind
Severstal Cherepovets 1 Avangard Omsk 2 (1-0, 0-2, 0-0)
Avangard came from behind to edge past Severstal in Cherepovets. The Hawks, beaten for the first time in 10 games last time out, bounced back quickly to continue their rise up the Eastern Conference. Mikhail Kravets’ team remains sixth in the standings, but is now just two points behind Salavat Yulaev as the upper reaches of the table are increasingly tight.
Severstal, meanwhile, is struggling to get into the top eight in the West. Thursday’s win over Vityaz gave the Steelmen the chance to move within a point of the playoff places today, and that seemed entirely possible when Igor Geraskin gave his team a first-period lead. Sergei Tolchinsky attempted to launch a speedy raid into Severstal territory, only to be met by a big hit on his own blue line. The puck went to Robin Press, who sent Geraskin into the Avangard zone to beat Vasily Demchenko.
Home fans could point to the shot count – 9-4 in Severstal’s favor – as evidence that the lead was well-merited. However, the possession numbers suggested that Avangard was far from out of the game, and the middle frame proved just that.
Seconds after the intermission, Vladimir Tkachyov sent the puck along the boards, Reid Boucher steered into the path of Corban Knight and the Canadian needed no second invitation to shoot past Timofei Korolyov. A few minutes later, the young goalie had to contend with an unexpected Viktor Svedberg shot from center ice. Korolyov made the initial save, but the Avangard offense swarmed around the rebound and Arseny Gritsyuk made it 2-1.
Severstal’s best chance of saving the game arrived midway through the second period when Boucher was ejected from the game for kneeing. However, the home team could not score on the major penalty, nor on a minor for Svedberg late in the second period.
In the final frame, Avangard went into game management mode, closing out the play effectively. Severstal struggled to create good chances and was unable to salvage the game.
Gusev masterclass paces SKA success
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 SKA St. Petersburg 6 (1-1, 0-2, 1-3)
Nikita Gusev collected three more points as SKA produced an impressive victory at Torpedo. Gusev scored two goals and had an assist, while young Nikolai Polyakov potted his first KHL marker in a big win for Roman Rotenberg’s team.
The first period went at a gallop, with plenty of incident at both ends of the ice. However, after 20 minutes there was nothing to separate the teams. SKA got the opening goal in the 13th minute. Gusev played the puck into the slot and Dmitrij Jaskin corralled it before turning to shoot past Adam Huska in the home net.
Torpedo found a swift response, though, with Nikolai Kovalenko tying the game two minutes later. He finished off a two-man breakaway that he shared with Alexei Kruchinin, ensuring that the teams were level at the first intermission.
However, when the game reached its midway point, SKA took control. The visitor got back in front on a shorthanded goal. Kruchinin lost possession at one end of the ice, Marat Khusnutdinov and Marat Khairullin led the rush and defenseman Andrei Pedan rumbled into the Torpedo zone in time to collect Khairullin’s pass and shoot past Huska. Then came a power play tally for SKA. Alexander Nikishin did well to keep the puck in the zone, then Khusnutdinov set up Gusev for the finish. That takes Gusev to 10 (5+5) points in his last seven games.
While Gusev, SKA’s leading scorer in the KHL, is a familiar name on the scoresheet, Nikolai Polyakov is still a little-known figure. Today the 22-year-old got his first KHL goal in only his third appearance for SKA. He capitalized on a defensive error midway through the third. Then Gusev potted his second of the night and Khusnutdinov struck on the power play to leave Torpedo on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline.
There was no way back for the home team, but late in the game Yu Sato got a consolation goal.
