Neftekhimik grabs fourth straight win, Torpedo snaps skid. October 21 round-up

Neftekhimik continues its climb up the Eastern Conference and today’s 2-0 win over SKA makes it four-in-a-row for the Wolves. The Petersburg team, meanwhile, was unable to build on its own recent form. Torpedo snapped a five-game losing streak on home ice with a much-needed 4-2 win over Amur. Lokomotiv saw its goal drought reach seven full periods. A late marker could not prevent a 1-2 loss at improving Vityaz.

Torpedo back on form

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 4 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (2-2, 1-0, 1-0)

After a sticky run of recent form, this was a much-needed win for Torpedo. The home team lost five of its last six and suffered five successive losses at home, seeing the team slip from the top of the Western Conference. Today, though, things improved with a win over an Amur team that arrived with back-to-back wins on its current road trip.

There was an early boost for Torpedo with a beautifully-worked goal after 64 seconds. Vasily Atanasov pulled off a no-look pass through his own legs for Maxim Letunov to finish. However, despite a bright start from the home team, Amur got an unexpected equalizer when Kirill Slepets leapt out from behind the net and squeezed shot inside Ivan Kulbakov’s near post. Although Torpedo continued to press, Amur got the go-ahead goal in the 18^th minute when Yakov Rylov spotted Vladislav Barulin and picked out a perfect pass to set him up to score. However, the scores were level at the intermission. A too many men call undermined Amur and Alexei Kruchinin finished off another elegant combination.

In recent games, Amur has been strong in the middle frame. In its last two road games, the Tigers took the second period 2-0 on both occasions. Today that run came to an end. The play slowed a little and that seemed to suit the home team better: Torpedo got up 3-2 on a breakaway goal late in the session when a couple of Amur errors invited Kirill Voronin to race clear and score.

Voronin had support from Kruchinin on that rush, and his colleague potted his second of the game at the start of the third period. That goal came on the power play and left Amur with too much to do. Torpedo opted against seeking further goals and produced a steady, controlled finish to the game to snap its recent slump.

Loko’s stutter continues

Vityaz Moscow Region 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 (0-0, 2-0, 0-1)

Lokomotiv paid the price for poor finishing and suffered a third successive defeat. The Railwaymen outshot Vityaz 28-14, but only managed one goal. Meanwhile, a below-par second period cost the visitor. After reaching the top of the standings, Loko’s form has slumped. Vityaz, meanwhile, recorded a second win in succession to build on the 5-2 success over Avangard.

The visitor, which also managed just one goal in its previous two games, made changes. Andrei Sergeyev returned from injury and Martin Gernat was recalled after missing the defeat at CSKA but played in a facemask to protect an injury.

The early stages were not exactly stacked with goalmouth incident. That suited Lokomotiv fine: a leisurely pace to the game enabled the visitor to control much of the play, but an early power play came to nothing. The problem came in front of goal, with 22 attempts forcing just seven saves from Maxim Dorozhko in the Vityaz net.

However, we had seen almost nothing of the Vityaz offense in that opening frame. The second changed all that. The home team opened the scoring in the 27^th minute through Scott Wilson and extended its lead before the intermission on a power play goal from Ivan Yezhov as Daniil Tesanov sat out a major penalty.

After the break, Lokomotiv looked for a way back. By now, the visitor had gone seven full periods without a goal and most of the third would elapse before that unhappy record ended. All too often, promising positions came to nothing. Finally, with 4:45 left to play the drought was lifted. Maxim Shalunov and Artur Kayumov produced a lovely combination that enabled the former to halve the deficit. Although that visibly lifted the visitor, there was not enough in the tank to snatch an equalizer and Vityaz held on to take the verdict.

Dolganov blanks SKA

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 SKA St. Petersburg 0 (0-0, 1-0, 1-0)

Both teams came into the game in good form. Neftekhimik had three wins in a row, and had taken points from the last six games. SKA won four of its preceding five. However, it was the home team that continued its upward trajectory, blanking the visitor to secure a fourth straight win.

In the first period that outcome seemed unlikely. SKA had the better of the play, goalie Nikita Serebryakov was relatively untroubled in his 200^th KHL appearance. At the other end, the visitor had better control of the puck and put some pressure on Filipp Dolganov in the home net, but Neftekhimik defended strongly and blocked 13 shots in the first period.

The home team also had to deal with some unexpected problems. Evgeny Kashnikov took an injury in the first period and although he returned after the intermission, Evgeny Mityakin took his place in the treatment room. Despite this, there was good news for the Wolves midway through the game when an odd-man rush saw Dmitry Zhukenov open the scoring.

SKA had chances to respond. Alex Galchenyuk was at the heart of the best moments for his team, and was agonizingly close to tying the scores when his solo rush ended with a shot against the piping.

The action did not relent in the third. The height of the drama came midway through the session: Artyom Zemchyonok fired against the piping as SKA was denied for a second, and immediately after that Mikhail Pashnin’s trip gave Neftekhimik a power play. The home team needed no further invitation and Zhukenov potted his second of the game.

The closing stages saw the pressure mount up on Dolganov’s net, with SKA gaining control of the slot and regularly threatening. However, the goaltender continued his impressive form in his rookie KHL season and recorded his third shut-out of the campaign after stopping 36 shots.