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Severstal grabs stunning win, exes haunt former clubs. October 3 round-up
Severstal was a big underdog in Kazan, but shrugged off its recent losses to win 4-1 against Ak Bars. In Tuesday’s other games, Avtomobilist goalie Evgeny Alikin produced a game-winning performance against his former club, Amur. And young forward Denis Vengryzhanovsky scored the only goal to give Avangard the edge against his old team, Torpedo.
Amur denied by former goalie
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 Amur Khabarovsk 1 SO (0-1, 0-0, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Goaltender Evgeny Alikin denied his former team-mates to help Avtomobilist edge a tight verdict over Amur. The former Tigers netminder stopped 23 out of 24 shots in the game, and was unbeaten in the shoot-out to give his team a narrow win.
Alikin saw more of the puck in the early stages as Amur deployed a pressing game. However, most of the goal attempts came from the blue line and presented little danger. Even so, pressure brought its rewards: Maxim Osipov’s wayward pass was intercepted by Stanislav Bocharov, who set up Dmitry Shevchenko for the opening goal.
During the intermission, Avtomobilist clearly refined its tactics and the second stanza began with far more determination to shoot the puck. However, greater intent did not bring immediate rewards: goal attempts tended to fly wide of the mark or crash into Dmitry Lozebnikov’s pads.
During the second break, home head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin indulged in his now familiar remix of his attacking lines. That brought redoubled efforts in front of Lozebnikov but it still took time for the home team to make the vital breakthrough. The game was in the 56th minute before Brooks Macek managed to tie the scores with a trademark finish from his accustomed spot in the circle.
Avtomobilist got a big chance late in the game when Yakov Rylov took a delay of game penalty. That meant the home team started the extras playing with five skaters and an empty net, but could not force the winning goal. Instead, the action went to a shoot-out where Alikin excelled. He won all six of his duels before, at the 12th attempt, we finally saw a successful conversion. Alexei Makeyev potted the winner and Avto took the spoils.
Severstal shocks Ak Bars
Ak Bars Kazan 1 Severstal Cherepovets 4 (0-2, 0-1, 1-1)
Severstal changed up its team after back-to-back losses at home, and secured an impressive and unexpected victory in Kazan. Ak Bars followed its comfortable home win over Amur by sending out an unchanged roster, but could not repeat its success against the Steelmen.
Andrei Kozyrev rang the changes on the visiting team. Defenseman Vasily Shulimov was scratched, forward Yegor Stepanov was out injured and that saw Nikita Makeyev and David Dumbadze come into the line-up. The attacking lines were reshuffled, as were the defensive partnerships, and there was no place for former Ak Bars blue liner Vasily Tokranov.
The home team made the right kind of start, with Vadim Shipachyov’s line creating two good chances on the first shift. But that was soon a distant memory as Severstal jumped to a 2-0 lead inside five minutes. The first goal stemmed from Nikita Lyamkin’s inexplicable decision to attempt to take on a visiting forward in his own zone. Lyamkin was the last defenseman, he lost the puck and Alexander Skorenov pounced to open the scoring. Moments later, home goalie Artur Akhtyamov spilled the puck in front of the net and Mikhail Ilyin was on hand to put away the rebound. Ak Bars had some chances, but they tended to be standalone plays rather than concerted pressure. The best of them saw Dmitry Kagarlitsky get clean though on goal only to be denied by Dmitry Shugayev in the visitor’s net.
Shugayev also looked solid at the start of the second, when an Ak Bars power play generated plenty of action around his net. At the other end, Skorenov was a constant threat. First he conjured a dangerous shorthanded chance, then he drew a foul from Dmitry Yudin and Danil Aimurzin added a third goal late in the middle frame.
In the third period, Severstal held Ak Bars at arm’s length for long spells, only rarely allowing the home team to get to the slot. Strikingly, despite the stellar home offense, it was the unheralded fourth line of Nikita Dynyak, Dmitry Katelevsky and Semyon Terekhov that often looked the liveliest. The latter handed his team a lifeline midway through the session when he got Ak Bars on the scoreboard, but that was as close as the host got. Despite a late surge, there was no way back and Nikita Korostelyov’s empty-netter sealed the deal for Severstal.
Vengryzhanovsky sinks former club
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 Avangard Omsk 1 (0-1, 0-0, 0-0)
Typically, Torpedo’s games are high scoring affairs. This one was anything but, and it ended in a rare defeat for Igor Larionov’s team. A solitary goal from Denis Vengryzhanovsky separated the teams, while Vasily Demchenko recorded his first shut-out of the season. A second successive home defeat for Torpedo denied it the chance to move level with Metallurg at the top of the overall standings.
Vengryzhanovsky, 22, swapped Torpedo for Avangard during the summer. Last season the youngster played 36 games for tonight’s opponent, having worked his way up through the club’s junior ranks. Today was his first meeting with his old colleagues, and it took him just eight minutes to make an impact. Avangard launched a two-on-two raid and the forward moved in from the left boards to place a wrist shot into the far corner.
Subsequently, Torpedo spent the bulk of the first period pushing for a reply. However, Avangard defended strongly to take its slender advantage into the intermission.
That proved to be the story of the remainder of the game. The visitor rarely posed much of an attacking threat, and managed just 18 shots all night. However, hard work on defense – including 18 blocked shots – limited Torpedo’s chances. With Demchenko on top of his game (28 saves for him), the visitor managed to subdue a dangerous home offense and secure its first win in regulation since Sep. 16.
