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Leopards end Torpedo’s unbeaten run. September 30 round-up
HC Sochi became the first away team to win in Nizhny Novgorod this season. A hat-trick from Borna Rendulic paced a 5-2 victory at the league leader. Lokomotiv also hit five on the road, climbing to second in the West with a 5-0 thrashing of Severstal. Troy Josephs ended Lada’s goal drought, scoring twice in a 2-1 OT win at Dinamo Minsk. Earlier in the day, Sibir defeated Barys for the fourth time this month, Traktor avenged last week’s loss at Spartak and Avtomobilist sank Admiral with three goals in the third period.
Sibir maintains its hold over Barys
Barys Astana 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (0-1, 0-1, 1-0)
This was the fourth meeting of the season for these two opponents, and Sibir maintained its hoodoo over the Kazakhs. Last Saturday in Novosibirsk, David Nemirovsky’s team won 4-2 having earlier taken OT and shoot-out verdicts.
Today saw another right battle between these teams before, once again, Sibir prevailed. The visitor got an unlikely boost right at the start: during the first shift, Barys forward Pontus Aberg lost his stick. He hurried to the bench for a replacement, but the few seconds in which he was out of the game were enough for Ilya Morozov to open the scoring.
Later, the teams traded shots against the piping as Yegor Shalapov and Taylor Beck went close. However, the second goal had to wait until the end of the second period. Once again, Sibir got a helping hand from its host: Batyrlan Muratov coughed up the puck in his own zone and Nikolai Prokhorkin seized the opportunity to beat Andrei Shutov with a neat finish.
In the closing stages, Rudolf Cerveny pulled a goal back for Barys. That was the Czech forward’s first goal since joining the club, while David Sklenicka’s assist stretched his productive streak to seven games.
Patient Avto wears down Admiral
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (0-0, 0-1, 3-0)
Avtomobilist was without captain Sergei Shirokov for the first time this season. In his absense, Anatoly Golyshev wore the ‘C’, Stephan Khripunov stepped up to the top line and Vasily Filyayev stepped up from the juniors for his first appearance of the season. Admiral continued without first-choice goalie Nikita Serebryakov, who is linked with a move away from the club.
Serebryakov’s absence meant that Pavel Khomchenko continued as the starter. He did well here, keeping Avto at bay for 40 minutes before he was finally beaten. His second period performance was particularly strong, as the Motormen deployed an effective pressing game to keep play around his net for long spells. At the other end, Admiral made the home team pay for it failure to score: Giovanni Fiore carved out a chance for himself and opened the scoring, leaving a couple of home defensemen in his wake.
However, the lead did not last long into the third period. An Avtomobilist power play brought a familiar combination: Stephane Da Costa to Brook Macek, shot, goal. Even after that, the home team had a tough time getting the better of the impressive Khomchenko. Although the play was largely one-way traffic, the visitor preserved the 1-1 scoreline, albeit with some good fortune when Oleg Li hit the piping on a solo rush.
However, as the clock ticked into the last five minutes, the home team got its reward for adjusting its first line. Alexei Makeyev was pushed up to join the strike force and he reacted first to convert the rebound following a dangerous breakaway. In the final second Danil Romantsev added an empty net goal to wrap up the win.
Tight battle ends in Traktor win
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Spartak Moscow 1 OT (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 1-0)
A week ago, these teams met in Moscow and Spartak edged an OT verdict. Today, in Chelyabinsk, we again saw a home win in the extras. That saw Traktor improve a recent run of just one win in five games.
Neither team wasted any game getting stuck into this game and the first penalty came after 13 seconds when Maxim Tsyplakov was called for hooking. Both teams were eager to get pucks to the net, firing in more than 20 shots between them in a lively first period, but only a few of them were genuinely troubling for Zach Fucale and Patrik Rybar.
Goalies remained on top in the second period, and it wasn’t until the 31st minute that German Rubtsov managed to break the deadlock to give Spartak the lead. Traktor dominated on the draw, and delivered rather more hits, but could not turn that into a goal.
Spartak thought it had doubled its lead early in the third, but Alexander Pashin’s goal was called back after a video review. Soon afterwards, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev tied the scores with a legitimate tally when he stepped off the boards and roasted a shot into the corner of the net. The game slowed a little in the closing stages, with both teams anxious not to lose at least one point. Traktor showed slightly more initiative and Anton Burdasov might have won it with a one-on-one raid. However, it wasn’t until overtime that Maxim Shabanov settled the issue with a powerful wrister.
Sochi impresses at league leader
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 HC Sochi 5 (1-2, 1-0, 0-3)
Sochi underlined its playoff credentials with an impressive victory at table-topping Torpedo. Borna Rendulic scored a hat-trick as the Leopards shattered their opponent’s unbeaten home record. Three unanswered goals in the third period sees Sochi climb to fourth in the Western Conference.
A lively first period brought a flurry of goals around the midway point. Rendulic and Kirill Rasskazov scored for Sochi, sandwiching an Andrei Belevich tally for Torpedo. Bobby Lynch got an assist on that goal to record his first KHL point.
In the middle frame, Lynch added his first goal since moving to Russia. The American forward has a long-standing relationship with the Larionov family after playing on junior teams with Igor Larionov Jr. Today, the head coach’s son assisted as Lynch tied the game on the power play in the 35th minute.
At the point, we were set for a tight third period. Torpedo was looking to move three points clear in the West with a win, but it was Sochi that took the honors. Matvei Michkov grabbed the go-ahead goal in the 47th minute, and Rendulic added two more to put the game out of Torpedo’s reach.
Gernat gets first goals for Loko
Severstal Cherepovets 0 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 (0-2, 0-0, 0-3)
Lokomotiv moved up to second in the West with an emphatic victory at Severstal. The visitor was never seriously troubled in this game after taking an early lead. That goal went to Slovak defenseman Martin Gernat, who finished the game with 2+1.
Gernat opened the scoring in the fifth minute, with 18-year-old Daniil But getting an assist. That was the first point of the season for the Coyotes’ first-round draft pick. Late in the first period, Alexander Polunin doubled the visitor’s lead on the power play.
Severstal was limited to just three shots in the opening frame, but the home offense came into the game a little more in the second. However, there was no way past Ivan Bocharov in the visitor’s net.
That was the story for much of the third period as well. Severstal posed a greater offensive threat, but struggled to break down a well-drilled Loko defense. Late in the game Maxim Shalunov added a third to put the result beyond doubt with five to play. There was still time for Gernat to get his second of the night into an empty net. Then a 5-on-3 power play saw Artur Kayumov compound a miserable outing for the Steelmen with a fifth goal in the last minute.
Josephs steers Lada past Dinamo
Dinamo Minsk 1 Lada Togliatti 2 OT (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Lada’s impressive start to the season was in danger of stalling. The Motormen twice failed to score, losing in OT at home to Traktor then suffering the same fate on the road at Vityaz. Today, though, leading scorer Troy Josephs rediscovered the way to goal, leading the visitor to an overtime success.
Dinamo has problems of its own. Early season results were not impressive, but there were promising signs on the current home stand. A hard-fought win over Vityaz was followed by a battling loss to high-flying Torpedo before the latest game saw a memorable win over Ak Bars.
The home crowd hoped that Saturday’s game would bring more of the same, and when Andrei Stas opened the scoring midway through the first period, that prospect looked good. The only complaint at the first intermission was that the Belarusians had just one goal: Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team dominated the game and outshot Lada 12-3.
Failure to build a bigger lead proved costly. Dinamo continued to boss the shot count in the second, but took its first penalties of the game. The second power play chance saw Josephs tie the game.
In the third, Minsk tried to finish the job. The Bison continued to have more possession and more shots, but Alexander Trushkov stood firm in the visitor’s net. He finished with 38 saves, while Josephs popped up in overtime to grab his second, game-winning goal.
