Torpedo wins in dramatic finish, Dynamo edges Moscow derby. February 14
Tuesday’s highest-scoring game was in Nizhny Novgorod, where Sibir produced a heroic fightback to tie its game at Torpedo 4-4. However, the home team took the honors in overtime, returning to second place in the West. Also in the West, Spartak lost out at home to Moscow rival Dynamo, missing the chance to close on eighth-placed Dinamo Minsk. Earlier in the day, Amur moved up to eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a win over Avtomobilist, while Ak Bars tightened its grip on top spot following victory at Admiral.
Tigers climb back to eighth
Amur Khabarovsk 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 (1-0, 0-1, 2-1)
Amur moved back into eighth place in the East after edging past Avtomobilist. The visitor came to the Far East with hopes of wresting top spot away from Ak Bars, but this loss leaves the Motormen six points off the lead.
The opening goal came midway through the first period. Avtomobilist tried to set up a position in the Amur zone but lost possession. The Tigers leapt on an odd-man rush, Jan Drozg outwitted Sergei Zborovsky and Vladislav Barulin finished off the play.
That lead lasted until midway through the second period. Then the visitor raised its game. First Pavel Kulikov hit the post, but a minute later Anatoly Golyshev stuffed home the tying goal at the second attempt. The Avto forward celebrated his birthday with a goal that snapped a 13-game drought dating back to Dec. 26.
Amur began the third period on the power play after Stephane Da Costa took a double minor penalty for high sticks. That helped the home team generate the momentum that saw Stanislav Bocharov set up Ivan Nikolishin to make it 2-1. That lead was short-lived, with Alexei Makeyev tying the scores midway through the final frame.
However, a couple of minutes later Amur got the winning goal. Visiting head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin blamed his team’s clumsiness in coughing up the puck while on the attack. That enabled Ruslan Pedan to get forward and the defenseman fired home a slapshot to give the Tigers a 3-2 lead that they held to the end.
Ak Bars tightens grip on top spot
Admiral Vladivostok 2 Ak Bars Kazan 3 (0-1, 1-2, 1-0)
It’s the final road trip of the regular season for Ak Bars, and the Kazan team heads to the Far East looking to secure top spot in the Eastern Conference. Today’s opponent, Admiral, still needs a couple of wins to guarantee itself a playoff place, so both teams had something to play for in Vladivostok.
Ak Bars made a fast start. The visitor’s top line pressed the home defense, with Dmitry Voronkov and Alexander Radulov giving no rest to Colby Williams or Libor Sulak. The latter was harried into a mistake that led to Ilya Safonov opening the scoring in the third minute. Admiral’s Czech defenseman has been a big part of his team’s playoff push this season, but this proved not to be his game. Early in the second period he failed to cut out Nikita Dynyak’s pass for Artyom Lukoyanov as he stood in front of an open net; Ak Bars had a short-handed goal to make it 2-0.
The next home power play was a bit more successful. True, Ak Bars was back to full strength when Alexander Shevchenko found the net, but Amir Miftakhov’s penalty expired just six seconds before the visiting netminder had to retrieve the puck.
It wasn’t long before Ak Bars restored its two-goal lead, with Lukoyanov picking out a wonderful pass to gift Artyom Galimov a third goal for the visitor.
In the third period, Admiral sought to play at an accelerated tempo. That had a damaging impact on the precision of the home team’s hockey, and resulted in plenty of energy expended but relatively few smart decisions. Rudolf Cerveny managed to pull one goal back with six minutes left, but that was as good as it got for the Sailors.
Sibir’s big fightback falls short in OT
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 OT (3-1, 1-0, 0-3, 1-0)
Sibir scored twice in the last two minutes to force this game to overtime. However, that stirring comeback was not enough to bring victory to the visitor. Maxim Letunov’s overtime tally gave Torpedo the verdict and returned the home team to second place in the Western Conference. Sibir collects one point, and is now four behind Eastern Conference leader Ak Bars.
The first period was action packed, and ended with Torpedo seemingly in control of the game. The home team score two early goals through Sergei Goncharuk and Bogdan Konyushkov. Alexander Sharov pulled one back on Sibir’s first power play of the game midway through the session, but Vasily Atanasov restored the host’s two-goal cushion before the intermission.
In the middle frame, Torpedo extended that lead. Goncharuk got his second of the evening, giving him 4 (2+2) points from the game. And that looked like it might be the end of the meaningful action with the home team seemingly poised to ease to victory.
Sibir had other ideas. Timur Akhiyarov gave the visitor hope when he pulled one back in the 48th minute, then came a crazy finale. Valentin Pyanov made it 3-4 on 58 minutes and in the final surge Taylor Beck scored 15 seconds from time to make it 4-4. That was Beck’s second point of the game, moving him level with Dmitrij Jaskin on 55 points at the head of the KHL scoring race.
In the extras, though, Torpedo managed to secure the win. Letunov got the decisive goal with one minute left. The win puts his team a point ahead of Lokomotiv and CSKA in second place in the West.
Derby loss leaves Spartak playing catch-up
Spartak Moscow 2 Dynamo Moscow 3 (0-1, 0-1, 2-1)
A derby defeat is always painful. For Spartak, though, today’s loss against Dynamo hurts more than most. The Red-and-Whites missed the chance to close the gap to eighth placed Dinamo Minsk. There are still three points between the two rivals for a playoff spot, but with just five games left to play time is running out.
Dynamo took the lead midway through the first period on a play that has been familiar in the past couple of games. Vladislav Kodola produced a stretch pass and Dmitry Rashevsky raced onto the puck to score. Apart from that opportunity, Spartak arguably shaded the play, albeit in a stanza that lacked much pace. However, the home team was fortunate not to fall further behind in farcical circumstances. Maxim Chudinov attempted to clear the puck, only to fire it straight at Nikita Sokolov’s stick. The rebound was skidding towards the net, where a video review confirmed that Alexei Krasikov just managed to stop it crossing the line.
In the second period, Koloda turned goalscorer when he doubled Dynamo’s lead on the power play. The former Severstal man danced in from the boards before ripping a wrist shot that gave Krasikov no chance.
The two-goal lead was a fair reflection of play through 40 minutes, but Spartak immediately made things more interesting at the start of the final frame. Late in the second, Jakob Lilja took a high-sticking penalty after catching Ilya Talaluyev in the face. Early in the third, Talaluyev himself took advantage, forcing the puck home from close range after a Shane Prince shot caused confusion on the Dynamo slot.
However, Talaluyev ultimately ended up costing his team late in the game. The Spartak forward took a penalty in the closing minutes, and Lilja redirected a Brennan Menell shot into the net to make it 3-1. Phil Varone pulled a goal back for the Red-and-Whites almost immediately, but the playoff chasers could not find a way to bring it to overtime.
