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A day of shut-outs. September 29 round-up
All three KHL games ended with a shut-out on Friday. First, Metallurg regained its share of top spot in the overall standings, snapping a three-game skid with a 1-0 squeaker at Salavat Yulaev. Magnitka moves to 19 points, level with Western Conference leader Torpedo. Dynamo closed on the Western summit with an emphatic victory over Avangard. Four power play goals helped Alexei Kudashov’s men to a 6-0 victory. And there was a third shut-out of the day in Mytishchi, where Amur blanked Kunlun Red Star to avenge a shoot-out loss in its home opener 10 days earlier.
Magnitka edges past Ufa
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 0 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 (0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Metallurg’s second visit to Ufa in a month coincided with Salavat Yulaev’s now traditional fundraiser in support of children living with cerebral palsy. A group of children designed special one-off uniforms for both teams to wear in the pre-game skate and during the game itself. Mark, aged 9, created a new logo for Salavat Yulaev and also took part in the ceremonial puck drop.
On the ice, Ufa was eager to end a run of five home losses against Magnitka. The visitor, which threw away a winning position at Kunlun Red Star last time out, rejigged the defense and brought back Artyom Zagidulin in goal. He was a virtual spectator in the early stages, facing just one shot in the first 15 minutes as Metallurg dominated the play.
The second period continued without a goal, but this team both teams were asking questions of the goaltenders. Metallurg got a big chance late in the frame when it had a five-on-three power play. That continued into the third, but it wasn’t until the teams were back to full strength that Robin Press unleashed a thunderbolt from the blue line to open the scoring.
Subsequently, the home team tried to step up its offense. However, despite outshooting Metallurg 15-6 in the third period there was no way past Zagidulin. He finished with 28 saves and his first KHL shut-out since Feb. 2019.
Ill-discipline costs Avangard
Dynamo Moscow 6 Avangard Omsk 0 (1-0, 4-0, 1-0)
The Blue-and-White power play took this game away from Avangard as Dynamo bounced back from Monday’s loss at Sibir. The Hawks’ discipline let them down, and a string of penalties in the second period brought three PP tallies for the home team.
Before that, this was a competitive game. Both teams played on the front foot in the first period – and notably, Avangard stayed out of the box – as Dynamo moved in front on Cedric Paquette’s eighth-minute marker. The home team added a second after the intermission, Brennan Menell on target, but it wasn’t until the midway point that things fell apart from Avangard.
Dynamo got its first power play on 29:48, and Maxim Dzhioshvili made it 3-0. Then Mikhail Belyayev went to the box, and just as Avangard thought it had fended off the danger, Damir Sharipzyanov’s trip meant the visiting players changed places on the sidelines. Despite killing the first penalty, a second was too much and Nikita Gusev scored 12 seconds after Sharipzyanov sat. When Libor Sulak went to the sin bin a couple of minutes later, there was a certain inevitability about what happened next: Eric O’Dell made it 5-0, and Mikhail Kravets recalled starting goalie Vasily Demchenko to the bench.
The Hawks were not learning their lesson. Incoming netminder Andrei Mishurov began the third period facing a three-on-five PK after Reid Boucher’s unsporting behavior call on the hooter saw him join Ziyat Paigin in the box. With 10 seconds of the restart, Bogdan Kiselevich made it three in an increasingly crowded sin bin; Gusev did the honors to make it 6-0. Avangard was unable to find even a consolation goal, failing to score for the first time this season.
From shoot-out loss to shut-out win
Kunlun Red Star 0 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (0-1, 0-1, 0-0)
Amur got revenge for defeat in its home opener, punishing some wayward finishing from KRS to snap a four-game skid.
Red Star came into this game lifted by a shoot-out win over Metallurg. The Dragons made a lively start, and will feel they should have opened the scoring before Artur Gizdatullin unpicked the home defense in the 13th minute.
In the previous meeting in Khabarovsk, Red Star came from behind thanks to 56 saves from Jeremy Smith. He returned to the home net today, but was beaten again at the start of the second period when Kirill Kapustin doubled Amur’s lead.
In the third period the visitor was content to allow Red Star to have more possession, but was rarely troubled as it closed out the win. Two penalties in the last 10 minutes frustrated the home team as it tried to launch a game-saving late push and Janis Kalnins finished the game with 35 saves to record his first shut-out of the season.
