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Loko edges clear at the top, Goldobin collects four assists. October 9 round-up
A solitary goal in the 59th minute decided the table-topping clash between Lokomotiv and Torpedo, with Georgy Ivanov sending the Railwaymen two points clear in the West. KHL scoring leader Nikolai Goldobin had four assists as Spartak spoiled Dmitry Ryabykin’s first game as Vityaz head coach with a 5-1 win. There were OT wins for Spartak’s Moscow neighbors, with CSKA victorious at Sochi and Dynamo edging Severstal after a 0-0 tie. Barys won its first game after Andrei Skabelka’s departure, and SKA hit Kunlun for six.
Coaching changes favor Barys
Barys Astana 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (1-0, 1-1, 0-0)
This game was a battle between two teams who replaced their head coaches last week. Traktor’s Anvar Gatiyatulin departed first, and his interim replacement Alexei Zavarukhin enjoyed a 4-1 win at Avangard in his first game. Andrei Skabelka left Barys on Saturday, and this was Galym Mambetaliev’s debut as interim head coach for the Kazakhs.
Looking to snap a five-game skid, Mambetaliev immediately put his stamp on the team. Apart from starting goalie Andrei Shutov, he changed every aspect of Skabelka’s team in the OT loss at Vityaz. Zavarukhin’s biggest challenge was filling the skates of injured Anton Burdasov.
One of the players who found himself given a chance to impress was Vsevolod Logvin, a 19-year-old forward who had limited opportunities under Skabelka. He made the most of his increased ice time and opened the scoring in the first period.
In the second, Arkady Shestakov doubled the lead on the power play. At the other end, Traktor twice had the puck in the net in reply, but both were ruled out following video reviews. The third time was the charm for the visitor, with Buddy Robinson on target for the second time since his arrival at the club.
However, that was as close as Traktor could get. In the third period neither team was able to create much by way of scoring chances for long spells. Towards the end, Robinson missed a good chance to tie the scores, while Batyrlan Muratov came close to adding a third Barys goal into an empty net late on.
Late goal puts Lokomotiv on top
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 (0-0, 0-0, 1-0)
This was a battle for top spot in the Western Conference, and it produced a nervous, hard-fought encounter worthy of the big prize. Earlier in the season, Torpedo won 5-2 here in Yaroslavl, but there was little sign of any repeat of that scoreline.
For much of the game, this was a battle between two netminders. For Loko, Daniil Isayev dealt with everything that came his way to record his second shut-out of the season. At the other end, Adam Huska was by far the busier of the two goalies and stopped more than 40 shots before the home team solved him in the final seconds.
In the first period, Isayev was the busier of the two goalies. He had to make 10 saves, but the closest we came to a goal was when Maxim Shalunov fired against the bar from a tight angle for the home team.
However, in the second period, Lokomotiv had a substantial advantage in terms of shots (13-5) and began to push Torpedo back into its own zone. Nonetheless, it took a smart intervention from the home bench to challenge the visitor’s 32nd-minute goal from Alexei Kruchinin. His wrist shot found the net, but an eagle-eyed video coach spotted an offside and the review ruled out the goal.
Loko’s dominance in the third period was even greater, with Torpedo held to just four shots at Isayev. At the other end, Huska faced 23 efforts and seven more attempts were blocked by his defense. However, Torpedo stood up well in the face of the onslaught and seemed to have done enough to force overtime when Georgy Ivanov finally broke the deficit. With 75 seconds left on the clock, he got to the rebound after Artur Kayumov redirected Denis Alexeyev’s shot. That proved enough to separate the teams and lift Loko two points clear of today’s opposition.
Goal drought follows goal glut
Severstal Cherepovets 0 Dynamo Moscow 1 OT (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
In its previous game, Severstal scored 10. Dynamo, meanwhile, suffered a 1-7 loss. So, almost inevitably, this was a goaltending duel that finished goalless in regulation.
Severstal’s Dmitry Shugayev was the busier of the netminders in this game, stopping 34 efforts before Brennan Menell finally beat him in the extras. Dynamo was clearly determined to bounce back after its Torpedo torment and it took Severstal more than 10 minutes to test Ilya Konovalov in the visitor’s net.
That’s not to say that Konovalov could take the evening off. Midway through the third period, Severstal got a great chance to score in somewhat unlikely circumstances. The home team was on the attack when Dynamo defenseman Yegor Morozov pushed away a discarded stick lying on the ice in his team’s zone. The stick slid towards the puck carrier and the officials had no hesitation in ruling that this represented throwing the stick, an automatic penalty shot. Up stepped Alexander Zhabreyev, but Konovalov won the duel to keep the game goalless.
In overtime, Menell grabbed the winning goal with a fine piece of individual skill. He collected the puck at the top of the left-hand circle and found a path around Timofei Davydov before firing across Shugayev and into the far corner.
Nesterov goal gives CSKA the edge
HC Sochi 2 CSKA Moscow 3 OT (1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)
When these teams met in Moscow on Sep. 28, CSKA powered to a 7-1 victory. For the defending champion, it was the first hint of a return to form; for Sochi it was a sharp reminder that a promising start to the season had some way to go to bring any concrete reward.
Today, on the Black Sea coast, the teams met again and the outcome was very different. Although CSKA ultimately claimed the verdict again, this was a game on a knife-edge, ultimately decided late in overtime.
In regulation, CSKA led twice but was never able to put Sochi away. Vladislav Kamenev opened the scoring on the power play in the 14th minute, but Vasily Machulin tied it up before the intermission with his first of the season. The 21-year-old has featured intermittently this term, but his success suggests that Sochi may be adding depth beyond its impressive imports.
The middle frame followed a similar pattern. Prokhor Poltapov gave CSKA the lead once more, but Daniil Seroukh tied it up. Seroukh, 26, made his KHL debut this season and scored his first goal in his sixth game at this level.
That was enough to get Sochi to OT, but if the home time enjoyed success thanks to some emerging players, CSKA won it due to experience. The Muscovites played their usual trick of withdrawing the goalie to play four-on-three through the extras and, with 40 seconds on the clock, Nikita Nesterov grabbed the winning goal. He got himself into space in front of the net and emphatically converted Kamenev’s feed to settle the outcome.
Goldobin orchestrates big win for Spartak
Spartak Moscow 5 Vityaz Moscow Region 1 (0-0, 2-0, 3-1)
Vityaz’ new head coach Dmitry Ryabykin took charge for the first time at Spartak. However, he was unable to build on the two victories secured by interim boss Alexei Tertyshny as the home team made it three wins in a row to keep pace with the Western Conference leaders.
In truth, Vityaz was rarely competitive here. Although the first period was goalless, Spartak enjoyed a visible advantage in terms of shots and possession. At the start of the second, the home team missed out on an opening goal when a video review spotted a high stick.
However, after killing a penalty, Spartak moved in front in the 28th minute. Pavel Poryadin, who had emerged from the box a minute earlier, extended his productive streak to four games with the opener. Nikolai Goldobin, the current KHL scoring leader, had an assist on the play. He would go on to complete a quartet of helpers and move to 25 (10+15) points for the season.
Poryadin doubled the lead late in the middle frame, converting a five-on-three power play. And penalty trouble would become a theme for Vityaz in the third period, when it allowed two more power play goals before giving up a shorty late on.
Before all that, Derek Barach give Vityaz some hope in the 45th minute with his second goal of the season. Spartak challenged the play, unsuccessfully, and had to deal with delay of game penalty. However, when Ruslan Pedan took a major for checking to the head, the visitor’s hopes were ended. Spartak scored twice on that penalty, Ivan Morozov and Roman Rukavishnikov on target, Goldobin with two more assists. Shane Prince’s short-handed tally unusually did not involve Goldobin, but added insult to injury for Vityaz.
Comfortable win for SKA
SKA St. Petersburg 6 Kunlun Red Star 2 (2-0, 3-1, 1-1)
SKA made short work of Kunlun to build on its win at CSKA. The Dragons slipped to a seventh successive loss despite handing a debut to Finnish forward Teemu Pulkkinen.
Pulkkinen’s first appearance for his new club was overshadowed by a fast start from the home team. SKA opened the scoring in the second minute on a goal from Mikhail Pashnin. Then, Brandon Yip took the game’s first penalty and the host converted that power play in the eighth minute thanks to Maxim Fedotov.
Up 2-0 and in control at the intermission, SKA increased its dominance in the middle stanza. Sergei Tolchinsky added a third then, after a 28th-minute scuffle that saw two players from each side called for roughing after Pavel Dedunov’s cross check, Vladimir Alistrov made it 4-0 shortly after his team returned to full strength.
Red Star rallied to score on Nikita Serebryakov after 35 minutes, with Colin Campbell potting his first of the season. Within a minute, though, SKA was up 5-1 thanks to Alex Galchenyuk.
In the third period, Parker Foo got his first goal of an injury-hit season but SKA again responded quickly. This time Mikhail Vorobyov was the scorer, adding to a hat-trick of earlier assists with a short-handed goal midway through the session.
