Makeyev hits hat-trick, Lada gets first win. September 9 round-up

Avtomobilist was the day’s big winner, downing Sibir 6-1 in the new Novosibirsk arena with Alexei Makeyev scoring a hat-trick. Lada celebrated its first win since returning to the KHL, thumping Amur 5-1. Dynamo’s Jordan Weal had 1+2 as he inspired his team’s power play in a 4-0 win over Sochi. Metallurg came from behind to win at Vityaz, while Avangard remains unbeaten with a 4-1 success over winless Barys.

Weal inspires Dynamo PP

Dynamo Moscow 4 HC Sochi 0 (0-0, 2-0, 2-0)

The Blue-and-Whites picked up their second victory of the season and celebrated a first shut-out of the campaign. For Sochi, victorious in Kazan last time out, today’s game was a disappointing return to its early-season form.

Perhaps more important for Dynamo, today’s game saw the power play click at last. Previously, Alexei Kudashov’s team had just one goal in 11 PP opportunities. Today it claimed all four goals with a man advantage. Jordan Weal was involved in three of them.

There was little evidence of home dominance in the opening frame. Dynamo took two early penalties, once again exposing Sochi’s inefficient PP, and struggled to assert itself thereafter. However, the game remained goalless through 20 minutes.

Then came the first Sochi penalty of the game – tripping from Anton Sagadeyev – and Dynamo got the lead at the start of the second. Weal was the provider, Nikita Gusev the scorer. On 34:02, Dynamo’s second power play saw Weal on target off a Brennan Menell feed. Sochi then killed a bench minor, but could not survive Nikita Komarov’s major. The penalty carried into the final stanza, Dynamo began with a face-off in Sochi territory and Eric O’Dell scored on his former club.

For O’Dell, a goal after five seconds set a KHL record for the fastest goal scored in any third period. The previous best, six seconds, was set by Alexei Makeyev in 2018 and matched by Teemu Hartikainen a couple of years later.

Midway through the final frame, Maxim Dzhioshvili got his first of the season, and the first of the game that did not involve Weal & Co. At the other end, Ilya Konovalov finished with 25 saves for his first shut-out of the new campaign.

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Sibir humbled in new home

Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 6 (0-1, 1-2, 0-3)

Sibir moved into its new arena with a win on Thursday. However, the second KHL game at the club’s new home was a huge hangover after that opening night party. Fans were leaving their seats long before the end of this heavy home loss, with head coach David Nemirovsky admitting that his players needed to be much better.

For the Motormen, Alexei Makeyev had a big game. His third-period hat-trick turned events into a calamity for Sibir. And his clinical finishing highlighted the difference between the teams: Avto scored six goals off 24 shots; Sibir fired 33 efforts at Vladimir Galkin but scored just once.

Admittedly, the final rout was not immediately evident. Although Curtis Valk’s early power play goal gave Avtomobilist the edge, the game was alive at the midway point. Sibir tied the scores in the second period when Ivan Klimovich got his first KHL goal, but ultimately fell away in the latter half of the game.

Maxim Denezhkin restored the visitor’s lead, and Stephane Da Costa made it 3-1 before the second intermission. Then Makeyev took over with a natural hat-trick in the third to make the final score lopsided.

Hawks stay perfect, Barys still can’t win

Avangard Omsk 4 Barys Astana 1 (0-0, 1-1, 3-0)

The formbook is unchanged: Avangard remains unbeaten, Barys is still seeking its first win. The Kazakhs have twice gone close, taking Sibir to overtime in the previous two games, while the Hawks’ gentle early season schedule brought one-goal victories over Sibir and Avtomobilist.

Today, the teams played out a cautious first period with few clear-cut chances. It wasn’t until early in the second that we saw the first goal, with Barys breaking the deadlock on 21:05. Riley Barber was the architect, creating the opening for Nelson Nogier to score a power play tally.

Avangard responded late in the middle frame when Igor Geraskin tied the scores. The former Severstal man is settling in well at his new club, and moved to 4 (2+2) points from three games so far.

Barys began brightly in the third period, and had a power play chance early on. However, it was another Avangard newcomer, defenseman Libor Sulak, who snapped a 1-1 tie midway through the session. That proved decisive: Pontus Aberg took a rather unnecessary penalty to help Vladimir Tkachyov make it 3-1, then Ryan Spooner added an empty net goal to assist on that play.

Lift-off for Lada

Lada Togliatti 5 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (1-0, 1-0, 3-1)

Lada celebrated its first victory since returning to the KHL, running up a big scoreline against Amur. Moreover, the Motormen saw Canadian forward Scott Kosmachuk score his first goal in the KHL, a feat matched by Ostap Safin. Mikhail Fisenko and Nikolai Glukhov potted their first markers of the season.

In three previous games, Lada struggled to score. So when Fisenko converted a power play in the sixth minute that was a big lift for the host. That was the only goal of the first period, and the middle frame saw Kosmachuk on target for the first time. His tally added to an assist on Fisenko’s opener.

The third period saw Lada grab two short-handed goals. Troy Josephs set up Safin for 3-0, then scored himself to add to the pair he potted against Salavat Yulaev. In between, Alexander Khokhlachyov got one back for Amur, converting a five-on-three power play. Khokhlachyov was back in action after he was obliged to miss the previous game against his former club, Spartak.

His goal made little difference for the Tigers. Another power play, this one for the home team, saw Glukhov apply the finishing touch to make it 5-1.

Metallurg battles back at Vityaz

Vityaz Moscow Region 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 (3-2, 0-1, 0-1)

After losing three of its first four games, including a 0-7 thrashing from Dinamo Minsk, Vityaz has not much enjoyed the start of the season. Metallurg, meanwhile, suffered an OT loss at Avtomobilist but rebounded to win the next two. That saw one Magnitka fan hail new head coach Andrei Razin as an incarnation of the Egyptian sun-god Ra, and also gave today’s visitor plenty of confidence.

However, even ancient deities need to dig deep sometimes, and Razin’s Metallurg had to come from behind here. The game began with a rush of goals: on 8:24 it was 2-2, with Metallurg briefly leading twice but unable to hold onto the advantage.

Late in the opening frame, Ivan Savchik put Vityaz ahead for the first time. The 23-year-old’s only previous goal came in his team’s only previous win of the season, suggesting the kind of auguries that a Pharoah’s high priest might take as a portent of doom.

But Magnitka was focussed on the present, not the distant past. It took time to turn things around, but a power play late in the second saw Grigory Dronov tie the game. Then Danila Yurov made it 4-3 at the start of the third – American center Luke Johnson got his first point of the season with an assist on that goal – and that proved enough to win the game.

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