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Five-star Ak Bars, Hawks get back on form. October 1 round-up
There were just two games on Sunday’s KHL card, and both ended in victories for Eastern Conference powerhouses. Ak Bars snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 thrashing of Amur. Meanwhile, Avangard ended a four-game skid with an OT success at Kunlun Red Star.
Avangard snaps losing run
Kunlun Red Star 3 Avangard Omsk 4 OT (0-1, 2-1, 1-1, 0-1)
Avangard snapped a four-game losing run with a much-needed win at KRS – but the Hawks had to work for this verdict. Mikhail Kravets reacted to Friday’s 0-6 loss at Dynamo by scratching captain Damir Sharipzyanov. Andrei Mishurov got the start in goal and Kravets reshaped his attacking lines.
That prompted a fast start from the Hawks, who outshot Red Star 15-3 in the first period. However, the visitor was far from having it all its own way. The first big chance of the game saw Luke Lockhart ding Mishurov’s post, then Vladimir Tkachyov saw his effort whistled off on a bench challenge for a tight offside in the build-up.
The opener came in the 16th minute as the Dragons ran into penalty trouble. Valentin Pyanov converted that chance to separate the teams at the intermission.
Kunlun got its first power play at the start of the second, and gave up a short-handed goal to Semyon Chistyakov before Ryan Sproul found the net just before Igor Geraskin’s term was up. That lifted the home team, and the scores were level before the break thanks to Devin Brosseau.
Another power play goal saw Reid Boucher restore Avangard’s lead at the start of the third, but by now Red Star believed it could take something from the game. That belief was substantiated by Luke Lockhart’s 55th-minute tying goal.
There might have been more for the home team: Kunlun began overtime on the power play, but could not turn that advantage into a winning goal. Instead, in the final seconds of the extras, Ryan Spooner squeezed a shot through Jeremy Smith’s pads to give Avangard a much-needed victory.
Early goals leave no way back for Amur
Ak Bars Kazan 5 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (3-1, 1-0, 1-0)
A fast start from Ak Bars settled this game inside five minutes. A convincing win saw Zinetula Bilyaletdinov bounce back from two losses, while Amur’s 2-0 win at KRS turned out to be a false dawn as the Tigers slipped to a fifth defeat in six.
The game was effectively done in the first minutes. Kirill Semyonov opened the scoring on 68 seconds, then Ilya Safonov doubled the lead inside five. Janis Kalnins, who enjoyed a shut-out at Red Star, was out of the game early but his replacement, Igor Bobkov, could not really stem the tide.
Dmitry Kagarlitsky added a third in the 19th minute, ending Bobkov’s brief spell of respite. Stanislav Bocharov got one back for Amur just before the intermission, but there was never much evidence of a fightback.
Safonov potted his second of the game at the start of the second. Amur responded by unleashing the full force of its offense: in the middle frame, the visitors out shot Ak Bars 15-4. However, there was no way past Timur Bilyalov and the teams reached the second intermission with the host up 4-1.
That had the game out of any realistic reach for Amur. Although the visitor tried to press in the third it was more in hope than expectation. The only further score came late on as Semyonov got his second of the game to complete an emphatic win and lift Ak Bars to second in the East.
