Epic clash in Petersburg, Dynamo seals playoff spot. February 3 round-up
Conference leaders SKA and Ak Bars shared 11 goals in Petersburg. Emil Galimov got four of them to lead SKA to victory over his former club. Dynamo’s win over Barys sees the Muscovites seal a playoff spot, while CSKA moves to second in the standings after beating Salavat Yulaev. Today’s other games were all about the Eastern playoff race. Traktor moved off the foot of the table by winning at Avtomobilist, while Neftekhimik remains in eighth spot thanks to a 3-2 road win at Spartak.
Avangard goes to OT again
Amur Khabarovsk 3 Avangard Omsk 2 SO (1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Friday saw all four of the teams battling for eighth place in the East in action. Amur was the first to appear, taking on Avangard and looking for a win to get ahead of Neftekhimik, at least temporarily. The Hawks, meanwhile, arrived after splitting two overtime verdicts in Vladivostok and Mikhail Kravets’ team went the distance for the third game in a row.
The visitor made a fast start, with Reid Boucher opening the scoring in the fifth minute. That’s 26 goals this season for the American, his best return in the KHL also making him the leading sniper on his team. After getting in front, Avangard looked to build on that breakthrough, putting Janis Kalnins under intense pressure in the Amur net.
However, late in the opening frame the home team got into the game and Ivan Nikolishin released Stanislav Bocharov for the tying goal. The Tigers carried that momentum into the second period and after a spell of pressure Amur went ahead through Nikita Grebyonkin.
That wasn’t enough to win it. Avangard found an equalizer in the closing minutes when Boucher’s feed set up Corban Knight on the slot to make it 2-2. That took the game to overtime, which saw the Tigers clinging on in the face of a serious examination from the visitor. Amur survived that onslaught and went on to win it in the shoot-out.
Traktor off the foot of the table, Avtomobilist misses chance to go top
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 (0-0, 1-2, 0-0)
Traktor moved off the foot of the Eastern Conference with a hard-fought win in Yekaterinburg. The Motormen had hopes of returning to the top of the standings with victory today, but fell short against an opponent desperate to remain in playoff contention.
The first period was long on effort but short on scoring chances. Traktor spent plenty of time in Avto territory, but the teams managed just 11 shots on goal between them in the opening frame.
Things livened up in the second period, with Traktor scoring two goals in the first five minutes. Pyotr Khokhryakov grabbed the first, steering a Teemu Pulkkinen effort beyond the reach of Igor Bobkov in the home net. A couple of minutes later, Maxim Shabanov doubled the visitor’s lead.
Almost immediately, a tripping call on Roman Manukhov gave Avtomobilist a much-needed power play, and that helped Curtis Valk reduce the deficit. Valk was first to react when Sergei Shirokov’s shot dinged the piping and dropped behind Traktor goalie Kirill Ustimenko.
Three goals in six minutes was a stark contrast with all that came before. It all proved to be very different from what would follow. After pulling one goal back, the Motormen took control of the game. Ustimenko faced 20 shots in the second period, and the third saw Avto take the shot count 17-3. However, there was no further scoring. Ustimenko finished with 39 saves and Traktor grabbed a valuable victory.
Shugayev shut-out boosts Severstal playoff push
Severstal Cherepovets 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0)
Dmitry Shugayev made 25 saves to deny Lokomotiv the chance to return to second place in the Western Conference. Igor Nikitin’s team booked its playoff place on Wednesday, but found Severstal’s determination to secure its own post-season spot was too strong to repel.
The first period brought no goals, but Lokomotiv looked the more likely team. Helped by two power plays, the visitor outshot Severstal 10-3. However, there was little between the opponents when it came to territorial advantage, encouraging the home team to believe there was better to come.
That optimism was justified. When Loko’s Mikhail Belyayev took a boarding call in the 28th minute, the home PP did its job. Ruslan Abrosimov grabbed the game’s opening goal, following his four-point game against Metallurg on Tuesday with another big contribution here.
Abrosimov was assisted by Robin Press, and the Swedish defenseman doubled Severstal’s lead midway through the third period with a second power play goal of the night. Lokomotiv tried to push forward for a way back into the game but could not solve Shugayev. Daniil Vovchenko’s empty net marker sealed the win for the Steelmen.
Dynamo seals post-season spot
Dynamo Moscow 3 Barys Astana 2 (1-1, 2-1, 0-0)
The Blue-and-Whites could secure their playoff spot today with a win over Barys and a loss for city rival Spartak at home to Neftekhimik. Alexei Kudashov’s team delivered their part of the equation, coming from behind to defeat Barys and send the Kazakhs to the foot of the Eastern Conference.
Barys is in urgent need of points to stay in touch with the top eight in the East. Today, the visitor made a fast start and Nikita Mikhailis got the opening goal in the seventh minute. That was a good omen for his team: Mikhailis has not been in the kind of productive form we’re used to seeing from him, but his last five goals before today’s game contributed to victories.
This was not destined to be number six in that sequence, though. Jordan Weal tied the game within minutes, and the scores remained level until the intermission. After the break, Maxim Dzhioshvili, who recently extended his contract with Dynamo, made it 2-1 only for Dmitry Shevchenko to tie it up midway through the game.
However, Shevchenko unwittingly undermined his team. On 37 minutes, he took the first Barys penalty of the day, and Yegor Martynov applied the full punishment to restore Dynamo’s lead. That was the end of the scoring, with the home team confirming its playoff place while the visitor suffered a fifth loss in six games at the most important stage of its season.
Galimov settles clash of the titans
SKA St. Petersburg 7 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (3-3, 2-1, 2-0)
This was always going to be the big game of the day, and it did not betray its top billing. The two Conference leaders went head-to-head in Petersburg and traded 11 goals in an engrossing battle before SKA came out on top.
The home team’s success may not be a surprise. SKA has been consistently impressive this season, enjoying a commanding lead over the rest since the fall. Ak Bars, by contrast, was not even in a playoff spot in November, but forced its way to the top of the East for the first time this week.
Today’s story was further enlivened by the various players facing their former club. Vadim Shipachyov is one of them, and the Ak Bars man opened the scoring in the fifth minute when he converted the first power play of the game. That ushered in a free-scoring opening stanza that would finished tied at 3-3. Alexander Nikishin brought SKA level, only for Dmitry Voronkov to restore the visitor’s lead. Then Dmitrij Jaskin got to work, setting up Emil Galimov for 2-2 before scoring himself to make it 3-2. That tally also bettered Ilya Kovalchuk’s club record 32-goal haul in a single regular season campaign.
The action was unrelenting: SKA killed two minutes of 3-on-5, but Ak Bars tied the scores at even strength when Ilya Safonov redirected Daniil Zhuravlyov’s effort into the net.
At the start of the second period, Slava Voynov made it 4-3 to Ak Bars. Like Shipachyov, he scored on one of his former clubs. However, that would be the last goal for Kazan to celebrate. Galimov, another player facing his former club, took center stage. He tied it up in the 37th minute, then a power play goal in the final seconds of the frame saw Marat Khusnutdinov send SKA to the second intermission with a 5-4 lead.
Galimov stretched that lead to a decisive one in the third period, scoring twice to finish with four in the game. That takes him to 12 goals this season; in 2019-2020 he potted 14 in 47 appearances for Ak Bars.
Neftekhimik stays in top eight
Spartak Moscow 2 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 3 (0-1, 0-1, 2-1)
Neftekhimik withstood a Spartak fightback to oust Amur from the top eight in the East. The Tigers had leapt ahead with a home win early in the day, but this triumph at Spartak ensured that Neftekhimik would end Friday in a playoff spot. Spartak’s loss also ensured that Dynamo Moscow would feature in this season’s playoffs.
The Red-and-Whites, looking for a win to get back into the playoff race in the East, offered free tickets to this game. However, it did not generate the bumper crowd hoped for at the Megasport Arena. Those who came saw Spartak dominate the first period, only to fall behind to a Rafael Bikmullin goal after 14 minutes.
In the second stanza, Neftekhimik doubled its advantage. Fyodor Svechkov took an interference major and the visitor turned that into a goal thanks to Evgeny Kashnikov. Helped by that long power play, Neftkehimik also enjoyed a noticeable territorial advantage in the middle frame.
Early in the third, Spartak goalie Patrik Rybar had to return to the bench. He was only away for 45 seconds, but in that time stand-in goalie Dmitry Kulikov was beaten by Pavel Poryadin and Neftekhimik led 3-0. The home team rallied and Maxim Tsyplakov emerged from the penalty box to reduce the deficit midway through the session. Spartak continued to press and got a second goal when Svechkov squeezed the puck into the net in the final minute. However, that was too little, too late.
Ufa rally can’t keep CSKA out of second place
CSKA Moscow 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 (1-0, 1-0, 2-2)
The defending champion moved up to second place in the West after overcoming Salavat Yulaev on home ice. The visitor suffered a second straight loss on its current road trip, having gone down 1-5 at Torpedo on Wednesday.
The big moment in the first period was a double minor for CSKA’s Vladislav Provolnev. Up to that point, in the 13th minute, the teams had been relatively equal. However, the penalty was followed by the game’s opening goal. That was not good news for Ufa, though: the visitor’s power play fluffed a line change and Pavel Karnaukhov grabbed the loose puck and set up Mikhail Grigorenko to make it 1-0 to the Muscovites.
In the second period, the home team doubled its lead thanks to Andrei Svetlakov’s 10th goal of the season. Initially, he was looking for Konstantin Okulov on the slot. However, when the puck came back to him, Svetlakov took matters into his own hands to make it 2-0.
The third could hardly have started any worse for Salavat Yulaev. Sergei Plotnikov added a third goal in the 42nd minute, then Nikolai Kulemin’s foul gave CSKA its first power play of the night. However, the visitor killed that penalty and got on the scoreboard at last in the 47th minute through Ivan Drozdov. Now there was hope, and another Salavat power play saw Alexander Chmelevski score during a 6-on-4 format.
That made it a one-goal game with five to play and the outcome was far from certain. However, a defensive lapse ended Ufa’s hopes. Failing to properly clear their lines, the visiting players presented the puck to Maxim Mamin. He swiftly delivered it to Vladislav Kamenev on the slot and his backhand finish wrapped up the game.
