Goal rush for visiting teams. October 7 round-up

Saturday’s four games all ended in victories for the visiting team, and produced some spectacular scorelines. Severstal won 10-1 at Sochi, the biggest win of the season so far. Torpedo went top of the Western Conference with a 7-1 hammering of Dynamo, powered by six goals from 12 shots in the second period. Traktor had a 4-1 success at Avangard following the departure of head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin, and Spartak edged a 4-3 verdict at Kunlun Red Star.

Vengeance for Spartak

Kunlun Red Star 3 Spartak Moscow 4 (1-1, 2-2, 0-1)

Spartak avenged its opening day loss to Red Star by repeating the 4-3 scoreline from that September encounter. Maxim Tsyplakov’s third-period goal separated the teams after a close-fought clash in Mytishchi.

Prior to Tsyplakov’s winner, the lead changed hands frequently. Spartak went ahead in the 14^th minute when a tic-tac-toe play brought Pavel Poryadin a power play goal. However, when the Dragons got their first PP of the game, Brandon Yip banged home the tying marker just before the intermission.

Red Star went in front early in the second through Jason Fram, whose previous goal this season also came against the Red-and-Whites. However, another power play saw Spartak tie the scores through Dmitry Vishnevsky, then Yegor Zaitsev’s dangle unlocked the home defense as the visiting D-man made it 3-2 to the visitor.

It didn’t take long for Kunlun to tie it up again, with Kyle Wood finding the net on the power play following a textbook play from a face off. That set up an open third period, but Tsyplakov’s effort proved decisive. KRS sees its skid extend to six games, Spartak builds on a win over Sibir last time out.

Winning start for Zavarukhin

Avangard Omsk 1 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 (0-1, 1-2, 0-1)

Traktor was the second team this season to part company with its head coach when Anvar Gatiyatulin left shortly after Wednesday’s 0-4 loss at home to Salavat Yulaev. That came hours after Vityaz was the first to change its leadership. Since then, Vityaz picked up two wins, and today Traktor also enjoyed a “new coach bounce”, securing a good win at Avangard under interim boss Alexei Zavarukhin.

The Hawks returned home with some optimism. Despite a run of losses, including some painful ones, the last three games brought improvement. Two wins, then an OT loss in Kazan, suggested Avangard was turning a corner. But that progress hit the wall today.

At the end of an even first period, Traktor went in front on a goal from Buddy Robinson. The recent signing potted his first KHL tally with a close-range backhand shot after exchanging passes with Albert Yarullin.

Once in front, Traktor seized control of the game early in the second period. Maxim Shabanov and Sergei Kalinin scored twice in barely a minute to open a 3-0 lead, and Avangard was never able to come back. The home team replaced Vasily Demchenko with back-up goalie Ilya Proskuryakov, and Mikhail Gulyayev pulled a goal back within a minute. But that was as close as the Hawks would get.

Igor Martynov’s tripping call handed the momentum back to Traktor and for much of the remainder of the game the visitor concentrated on puck possession, squeezing the host out of contention. Yegor Popov’s empty net goal simply confirmed the inevitable.

Steelmen post biggest win of the season

HC Sochi 1 Severstal Cherepovets 10 (1-2, 0-2, 0-6)

Severstal went goal crazy, handing Sochi a crushing defeat on home ice. A 10-1 scoreline would always be eye-catching, but today’s result was even more surprising given Sochi’s strong start to the season. The Leopards had nine wins from their previous 10 games, and also won three out of four against today’s opposition. Severstal, by contrast, began the day outside the top eight.

Thus, when Artur Tyanulin gave the home team the lead, few would have bet against Sochi going on to record another victory. Severstal responded with two power play goals late in the first period as Kirill Pilipenko and Nikita Korostelyov turned the scores around. Nonetheless, 1-2 after 20 minutes offered no signs of what was to come.

In the second period, the Steelmen extended the lead. Two goals in a minute saw Korostelyov and Ruslan Abrosimov make it 4-1. Perhaps more importantly, the underlying stats pointed to Severstal’s dominance: 19-7 in shots in the middle frame, and more than eight minutes on the attack against less than three.

Sochi got a power play early in the third, but Pilipenko scored a short-handed goal. That was his second of the night against his former club. Back at equal strength, Korostelyov completed his hat-trick and the remainder of the evening was about damage limitation for the Leopards. But the damage kept coming. Incoming goalie Nikita Bogdanov allowed four goals in 10 minutes, casting some shade on his first appearance on KHL ice. The 28-year-old played nine seasons in the VHL prior to tonight, but found himself beaten by Vasily Tokranov, Alexander Skorenov, Dmitry Moiseyev and Timur Mukhanov as Severstal ran riot to record the biggest win of the season so far.

Atanasov treble sinks Dynamo

Dynamo Moscow 1 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 7 (0-1, 1-6, 0-0)

Not quite as high-scoring, but no less impressive, Torpedo also enjoyed a surprisingly big win at Torpedo. The two teams have been battling for the leadership in the Western Conference alongside Lokomotiv this season, and today Igor Larionov’s team struck a decisive blow against one of its immediate rivals.

After a run of nine wins from 10 lifted Dynamo to the summit, the Blue-and-Whites have suffered a touch of altitude sickness. Wednesday’s visit from Lokomotiv brought a 2-5 loss, and today’s game means Andrei Kudashov’s men have allowed 12 goals in two games. Perhaps more worrying, on both occasions the third period was goalless, with the game effectively irretrievable after 40 minutes’ play.

There wasn’t much sign of the rout early on. The first period was lively and entertaining, but also evenly matched. The opening goal went to Torpedo in the 18^th minute, a hard-won effort that relied on home defenseman Andrei Mironov deflecting the puck into his own net under pressure from Alexei Kruchinin. Vasily Atanasov was credited with the goal after his shot bounced off Mironov.

At the start of the second period, Torpedo increased its lead on a power play goal from Igor Larionov Jr. However, Dynamo quickly responded with Nikita Gusev halving the deficit as the teams played four-on-four.

Then came the game-breaker. Anton Sizov returned from the box and Torpedo used its brief power play to restore a two-goal lead through Atanasov. Then, after Cedric Paquette’s foul, the young forward completed his hat-trick. While the stewards cleared the caps from the ice, Dynamo swept away starting goalie Ilya Konovalov and sent Konstantin Volkov into the game.

The home team fluffed a power play chance, and when Torpedo got back to full strength a goal from Maxim Letunov erased any hopes of a Dynamo fightback. In the latter stages of the middle frame, further tallies from Anton Silayev, then Larionov Jr, opened a 7-1 lead. In the period, Torpedo had 12 shots and scored six goals. In desperation, Konovalov was sent back into action to relieve Volkov with the game clearly gone.

The third period was something of an anticlimax. The teams produced no further goals, denying Dynamo the chance of a consolation tally or two. Today’s big win puts Torpedo on top of the Western Conference with Dynamo three points back in fourth alongside Sochi and Spartak.