Day of extras. January 19 round-up
Three out of four KHL games on Thursday went to overtime as fans were treated to a series of close-fought encounters. Barys moved off the foot of the Eastern Conference after edging Traktor 3-2 in the extras, while Torpedo defeated Lokomotiv in the same fashion, helped by three points from Alexei Kruchinin. SKA needed a shoot-out to win at Severstal, and Dynamo was the only regulation time winner after blanking Avtomobilist.
Barys grabs valuable OT victory
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Barys Astana 3 OT (0-0, 1-0, 1-2, 0-1)
This was a big game in the race for the Eastern Conference playoffs. Traktor, in eighth place, started the day three points clear of basement club Barys. The visitor was on a run of four straight losses, a sequence that saw it overhauled by the chasing pack.
Traktor, too, suffered defeat in its last game and that prompted changes in the roster for this road trip. Artyom Blazhiyevsky and Vladimir Tkachyov were notable returnees. Barys, meanwhile, had to cope without its captain Linden Vey, who picked up a knock in practice. He was one of several men unavailable at the start of this latest road trip for the Kazakhs.
The home team was looking to defeat Barys for the first time this season and it made a strong start. Gradually, though, the visitor settled to its task and the game turned into a defensive stalemate. The teams were unable to score in the first period, and there were just 14 shots on target in total.
After the intermission, Traktor raised its game. Suddenly the home team was enjoying greater control of the puck and applying ever increasing pressure on the Barys net. Julius Hudacek repeatedly saved his team from going behind, but the visiting goalie was beaten late in the frame when Mikhail Goryunov-Rolgizer converted a great feed from Tkachyov.
However, Barys quickly turned the game on its head early in the third. Anton Sagadeyev tied the scores as he found the net for the fourth game in a row. Anvar Gatiyatulin challenged the play, claiming offside, but earned nothing more than a delay of game penalty for his team. Alexander Borisevich converted the power play and Barys led 2-1. In response, Traktor’s Robert Hamilton potted his first goal in the KHL. He fired home from the blue line, picking an important time to open his account.
Hamilton’s marker secured a point for Traktor by taking the game to overtime. Significantly, that ensures a two-point lead for the home team over its closest challengers for a top-eight spot. However, Nikita Mikhailis scored on the wraparound in overtime to give Barys the win and lift his team to ninth in the standings.
Podyapolsky gets the better of former team-mates
Severstal Cherepovets 1 SKA St. Petersburg 2 SO (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Although SKA has been dominant at the top of the table all season, and Severstal is struggling to get into the playoff places, games between the two teams have been surprisingly close this term. Today’s was the fourth meeting of the two, and for the third time it took OT to separate the opponents. SKA duly secured its fourth win of the season over the Steelmen, but did not have everything its own way.
For Severstal, the point was not enough to return to the top eight. Andrei Razin’s team is level with Dinamo Minsk on 53 points, but the Belarusians have the advantage after winning more games in regulation.
In this game, the visitor was undermined by penalty trouble in the first period. At equal strength, SKA was clearly the stronger team. However, six minutes of home power play eventually led to the opening goal when Daniil Vovchenko struck just before the intermission.
However, the stats suggested that the league leader was enjoying the better of the play. Sure enough, when Severstal finally took a penalty of its own late in the second period, Marat Khairullin converted the power play to bring the scores level.
In the third period, Severstal tried to even out the play. The home team had some success and, for the first time in the game, shots on goal were more or less equal. However, this owed as much to a big effort to block SKA’s attempts as it did to any greater offensive threat at the other end.
Severstal played most of the extras without a goalie, hoping that the extra skater would bring a winning goal. The gamble did not pay off, although impressive control of the puck meant that SKA was unable to spend any time on the attack in the whole five minutes. Thus the game went to a shoot-out and visiting goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky got the better of his former club. He won all four duels, while Nikita Gusev and Dmitrij Jaskin were on target at the other end to give SKA the verdict.
Kruchinin leads Torpedo to OT win
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 OT (1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 1-0)
These Volga city rivals are geographic rivals and also neighbors in the Western Conference standings. Both teams are battling with Dynamo Moscow for a top four finish, and after today’s action all three are tied on 70 points.
In head-to-head action, Torpedo’s victory means both teams have two wins from four meetings this season. Lokomotiv had blanked Igor Larionov’s men in the previous two encounters and came within a couple of minutes of winning this in regulation. However, the visitor could not hold on.
Lokomotiv led twice. Ivan Chekhovich opened the scoring against his former club in the 14th minute, but Alexei Kruchinin tied it up shortly afterwards. Nikolai Kovalenko got an assist against the team where he began his career. Oddly, Loko absolutely dominated the shot count, leading 13-4 at the intermission. However, Torpedo spent more time on the attack but struggled to get its efforts on target.
The second stanza was goalless and the action was rather more even. However, when Vladislav Firstov took a penalty midway through the third, Lokomotiv seemed poised to assume control. Torpedo killed that penalty, but could not slow Loko’s momentum; 15 seconds after the teams were back to equal strength, Stepan Nikulin made it 2-1 to the visitor.
It looked like that might be enough to win it. However, Larionov is a coach happy to take a chance. There were almost three minutes left when he called a time-out and replaced goalie Adam Huska with a sixth skater. That move paid dividends: Sergei Goncharuk grabbed a tying goal on 58:08 and sent the game into overtime.
The extras saw relatively few meaningful attempts on goal at either end. However, Torpedo scored with its first shot on goal, Kruchinin beating Ivan Bocharov to seal the win. The home forward had a hand in all three goals on the night.
Avto denied by Volkov and Dynamo
Dynamo Moscow 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0)
Avtomobilist’s uneven form continues. The Eastern Conference leader boasts some of the most productive players in the KHL this season. However, the league’s fourth-highest scorer could not find the net here, just two days after scoring seven on Spartak, and continues to alternate victories and defeats.
Dynamo goalie Konstantin Volkov made 24 stops to claim his shut-out and the home team gradually assumed control of the game after a slow start. The win pushes the Blue-and-Whites into a three-way with Lokomotiv and Torpedo. All three teams have 70 points as they look for a top-four finish in the West.
The first period produced few scoring chances as both teams played cautious hockey. The closest we came to an opening goal was in the 18th minute. Dynamo defenseman Andrei Mironov’s point shot prompted a battle in front of Igor Bobkov’s net, but Ilya Kablukov’s backhanded effort flashed just over the crossbar.
The tempo picked up in the second period. Avtomobilist launched a threatening counterattack, with Sergei Shirokov releasing Stephane Da Costa down the left-hand channel. The French center moved in from the corner, but could not find a way past Konstantin Volkov in the home net. Almost immediately, Dynamo carved out a good chance of its own: Rashevsky stripped Da Costa of the puck and advanced on the net only for Bobkov to pull off the save.
In the 26th minute, Dynamo opened the scoring. Ivan Igumnov advanced down the wing and set up Bogdan Trineyev for a one-timer from the center of the Avto zone.
However, the game remained in the balance. Both teams created further chances but it wasn’t until late in proceedings that the home team put the result beyond doubt. Igumnov doubled the lead on the counter, converting Jordan Weal’s surge into the danger zone. Then Pavel Kudryavtsev, who scored twice in the Tuesday’s high-scoring win at Torpedo, potted an empty-netter to wrap up a third-straight victory for the Blue-and-Whites.
