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Magnitka rides high, Tigers pounce on top eight. October 17 round-up
Andrei Razin’s Metallurg has a youthful feel to it this season, and several of its rising stars aligned to inspire a 4-0 win over Avtomobilist. The result puts Magnitka two points clear at the top of the standings. In Tuesday’s other action, Amur won 3-2 at Traktor and goes to eight in the Eastern Conference.
Amur moves into playoff zone
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Amur Khabarovsk 3 (1-1, 0-2, 1-0)
This game brought together two teams battling for a place in the top eight. Traktor was hoping to continue its run of alternating wins and losses with a verdict that would give it some breathing space ahead of the chasing pack. Amur, meanwhile, sought to move into the playoff places.
The visitor had to endure an early storm. In the first period, Traktor dominated much of the play. However, the Tigers showed great resilience, blocking 20 shots at Evgeny Lozebnikov’s net. That limited the home team to a single goal, scored in the seventh minute by Viktor Antipin. At the other end, Alexander Khokhlachyov converted a counterattack to bring the visitor level. Ironically, his shot found the net via a deflection off Antipin’s skate.
In the middle frame, Traktor continued to have the lion’s share of the possession but found it harder to break down a compact visiting defense. That also provided a springboard for some threatening counterattacks: although it saw less of the puck, Amur arguably created the better scoring chances on a regular basis. And the Tigers took advantage with goals from Sergei Kolesnikov and Anatoly Nikontsev opening a 3-1 lead.
The pattern of play did not change much in the final stanza. Amur was content to allow Traktor to hold the puck in harmless areas, but did a great job of restricting shooting lanes and keeping the home team to the outside. By the end of 60 minutes, the visitor had 41 blocked shots and Traktor could only muster a power play goal from Vitaly Kravtsov in the 57th minute.
Nabokov’s first shut-out boosts Metallurg’s youngsters
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 0 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 (0-1, 0-1, 0-2)
Metallurg took over as undisputed leader in the KHL standings thanks to a convincing victory at Avtomobilist. The Steelmen blanked the home offense to post a third successive win and move to 31 points. That’s two ahead of Western Conference leader Lokomotiv, and four clear of Ak Bars, currently second in the East.
Today’s plaudits went to young goalie Ilya Nabokov. The 20-year-old made 29 saves to record his first KHL shut-out and claim his fourth win in eight appearances this season. Although Nabokov is a familiar name for a Russian goalie, Ilya, who hails from the Chelyabinsk Region town of Kasli, is no relation to the Kazakh-born Russian international Evgeny, who had a short spell with Magnitka during the 2004-2005 lockout.
With a young goalie keeping them out at one end, Metallurg’s young forwards combined to open the scoring at the other. The visitor applied plenty of pressure on Avtomobilist goalie Vladimir Galkin in the first period, and forced a breakthrough in the 19th minute. Mikhail Grass won an attacking face-off and sent the puck right to Danila Yurov. The 19-year-old immediately snapped off an instinctive shot that got over Galkin’s pad to open the scoring.
Avtomobilist improved in the second period and the game was more evenly matched. However, the scoring pattern was exactly the same: one goal, scored by Metallurg in the 19th minute. Nikita Grebyonkin moved down the left with the puck and played it towards the slot, where the on-rushing Maxim Mukhametov was on hand to double the lead. By the standards of Magnitka’s key players in the early stages of this game, Mukhametov is a veritable greybeard at the age of 24: neither the other point scorers nor the goalie are older than 20.
However, old heads have a role to play as well, particularly when protecting a lead in the closing stages. A late Avtomobilist power play offered one last chance of redemption for the home team, but it all went wrong when Alexei Makeyev lost the puck to Maxim Karpov. The Metallurg forward launched a rapid counter, and Denis Zernov bagged a shorthanded goal to put the game beyond reach. Another youngster, Roman Kantserov, had the final word when he made it 4-0 on the same PK, compounding a miserable evening for the home team.
