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Dynamo wins capital clash, Michkov assists in Sochi win. September 13 round-up
Dynamo Moscow added to CSKA’s sluggish start to the season, winning 4-1 at the defending champion thanks to two goals from Dmitry Rashevsky and three points for Nikita Gusev. Matvei Michkov’s new loan spell at Sochi began with two assists in an entertaining OT win at Severstal. And the day’s third game also finished in a road win as Amur edged Sibir in a shoot-out.
Amur takes shoot-out win at Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Amur Khabarovsk 2 SO (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
For the third game in a row, Sibir welcomed a former head coach to the club’s new arena. And, once again, it was a rewarding trip for the visitor. While Andrei Skabelka’s Barys picked up one point in a shoot-out loss, Amur’s Andrei Martemyanov followed Nikolai Zavarukhin in leaving with the win.
True, the Tigers needed a shoot-out to take the verdict. After a heavy loss to Avtomobilist, Sibir produced a much-improved performance today. Head coach David Nemirovsky replaced goalie Denis Kostin with Anton Krasotkin and was forced to bring Artyom Zhukov into the defense following an injury to Trevor Murphy.
The first period was goalless and, for the most part, evenly matched. However, Amur began the second on the power play after a wholly unnecessary penalty on Sibir. A second before the hooter, one of the home players jumped off the bench to head off the ice for the intermission. The officials spotted it and handed a bench minor for too many men. Amur was not able to turn that into a goal, but gained momentum at the start of the second session and opened the scoring when Dmitry Shevchenko and Kirill Slepets combined for Pyotr Khokhryakov to pot his first since joining the club.
The tying goal, late in the second, saw another player open his account at a new club. Nikolai Prokhorkin scored his first for Sibir in memorable style. The play began with an audacious ‘through-the-legs’ pass from Taylor Beck, then the summer signing got to work. A dangle took him past Alexander Bryntsev and set him on course to the net, then he tested Dmitry Lozebnikov on the wraparound and stuffed the puck neatly inside the post.
There was no further scoring, with Sibir unable to profit from a power play in overtime. The shoot-out saw Amur take the win, with captain Evgeny Grachyov converting both his attempts.
Michkov returns to Sochi, has two points in OT win
Severstal Cherepovets 4 HC Sochi 5 OT (0-0, 3-1, 1-3, 0-1)
Sochi avenged a 6-3 loss on its previous visit to Severstal, turning this game around late on with a pair of power play goals. The Leopards improved to three victories from the last four games after winning on the road in Kazan and Yaroslavl.
The big team news was Matvei Michkov making his first appearance of the season for Sochi. The SKA prospect is back with the Leopards on loan and slotted into the second line here alongside Artur Tyanulin and Amir Garayev. He played 18 minutes and picked up two assists along the way. However, it was doubles from Timur Khafizov and Jesse Graham that made the difference.
For Severstal, meanwhile, Alexander Skorenov got his first goals since joining the club in the summer. The 23-year-old forward is not a prospect who sparkles as brightly as Michkov, but he enjoyed a promising rookie season with Dynamo (15 points in 26 regular season games, then four helpers in three playoff outings). Today, he took a penalty in the second period that allowed Timur Khafizov to cancel out Dmitry Moiseyev’s opener. Then he made amends with two goals in the middle frame to give the Steelmen a 3-1 lead.
Both of those goals came on the power play after Gleb Koryagin took a kneeing major in the 32nd minute. That penalty might have been the decisive moment in the game, but Sochi is made of stern stuff this season and was not about to roll over.
Early in the third, Michkov combined with Michal Kristof to set up Jesse Graham and it was a one-goal game once again. Then, with time running out, Severstal hit penalty trouble. Mark Barberio’s tripping call saw Graham get his second. Then Daniil Vovchenko’s foul led to Khafizov making it 4-3 just four seconds into the PP, with Michkov again collecting a helper.
Game over? Not yet. Andrei Kozyrev called his goalie Dmitry Shugayev back to the bench, and with six skaters the home team tied the game. Yegor Stepanov found the net with 1:40 left to play. Improbably, we now faced overtime.
The extras saw Sochi take the verdict. Sergei Popov got the decisive goal on 3:39 of the extras.
Derby delight for Dynamo
CSKA Moscow 1 Dynamo Moscow 4 (0-1, 1-1, 0-2)
Tonight, Moscow is blue and white. Dynamo took the verdict in its first capital derby of the season, while the defending champion’s slow start to the season continues. For the visitor, this was a third straight win and its first against a top-class opponent. CSKA, meanwhile, has just two victories in its first six games – hardly the form of champions.
Sergei Fedorov’s team didn’t make a bad start to the game, and had the first real chance when Anton Slepyshev’s attempt to redirect a point shot dropped just beyond the post. However, Slepyshev quickly followed that with a minor penalty, and the first power play of the game saw Dynamo in front. Jordan Weal, so effective in the overtime win against Barys, was involved again and his cross-ice pass set up Nikita Gusev for the opener.
That lead lasted until midway through the game. Then it was CSKA’s turn for a power play goal. Andrei Svetlakov finished off a long spell of pressure, outmuscling Kirill Gotovets on the slot to stuff home the rebound from Nikita Nesterov’s point shot.
The home team looked to build on that foundation, but was undermined when Darren Dietz took a penalty. The momentum was lost, and in the final minute of the frame Dynamo regained the lead. First, Weal’s wrister dinged the iron. Then, moments later, Gusev dished off the puck for Dmitry Rashevsky to make it 2-1 four seconds before the intermission.
CSKA started the third period strongly, but was again undone by penalties. Midway through the frame, Dynamo got a five-on-three advantage. The host managed to get one man back on the ice but could not withstand the pressure. Gusev was involved once again as Rashevsky potted his second.
One more penalty for CSKA, this time on Maxim Mamin, slowed the home team’s final surge. Forced to defend late in the game, there was a sense of inevitability about Yegor Petukhov putting a fourth goal into an empty net.
