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Spartak’s record-breakers and OT empty-netters. October 24 round-up
Spartak reeled off a ninth straight victory while its top line took its goal tally to a club record 31 for the season. The 4-1 win at Amur keeps the Red-and-Whites on top of the standings. Dynamo moved to second in the West with a 5-2 win over Vityaz. Elsewhere, CSKA and Avangard both withdrew their goalies in overtime and both lost. Admiral snapped its skid against the Muscovites, while Ak Bars edged past the Hawks. Salavat Yulaev’s Alexander Samonov had 32 saves in a 1-0 win at Torpedo, and Avtomobilist snapped a three-game skid with a 5-2 verdict over Barys.
Red-hot Red-and-Whites
Amur Khabarovsk 1 Spartak Moscow 4 (0-0, 0-1, 1-3)
Spartak’s red-hot trio of Nikolai Goldobin, Ivan Morozov and Pavel Poryadin fired once more today, potting their 30th and 31st goals of the season. That helped the Red-and-Whites to a ninth successive victory, and set a club record for the most productive troika in the KHL era. Previously, the most prolific line was the Slovak combo of Branko Radivojevic, Martin Cibak and Stefan Ruzicka.
With two markers in the third period, the first line sealed another victory for the top scoring team in the league this season and strengthened the Muscovites’ grip on top spot in the standings. And the visitor was the better team for much of the game. The first period was goalless, but Spartak was visibly the more threatening side while Amur failed to take advantage of its power play chances.
Spartak did not get a power play of its own until midway through the game. When it arrived, though, it led to Dmitry Vishnevsky opening the scoring. Early in the third, a second PP brought a second goal, this time for Shane Prince after a long discussion about whether the puck made it over the line.
Penalties were Amur’s undoing, and Poryadin added a third power play goal in the 54th minute. There was still time for Goldobin to find the empty net, moving him to 35 points for the season and making the score 4-0. The only blemish for the visitor came in the final seconds, when Kirill Kapustin robbed Patrik Rybar of a shut-out with a late consolation goal.
CSKA blows 2-0 lead, falls in OT
Admiral Vladivostok 3 CSKA Moscow 2 OT (0-1, 1-1, 1-0, 1-0)
The Sailors snapped a long losing streak with a big fightback win over the defending champion. Down 0-2, Admiral recovered to force overtime before Leonid Metalnikov potted the winning goal.
Defenseman Matvei Shuravin, who recently became CSKA’s youngest scorer in the KHL, found himself promoted to the first pair alongside Nikita Nesterov for this game. The defending champion was hoping to bounce back after a 1-4 loss at Ak Bars, while Admiral looked to snap a six-game skid with a handful of changes from the team that lost 3-4 to Spartak.
The early pressure came from CSKA, which opened the scoring in the fifth minute thanks to Sergei Plotnikov. Admiral responded by raising the tempo, but lacked the cunning to unpick the visiting defense.
Things improved for CSKA after the intermission. A power play goal from Maxim Sorkin doubled the lead and for a long time the home team was unable to lay a glove on the opposition. Leonids Tambijevs called a time-out midway through the session, and that had the desired effect. Almost immediately, Admiral halved the deficit when Alexei Solovyov found the net. That was his team’s first shot on goal in the second period, and it lifted a weight from the players’ shoulders.
Nonetheless, a tying goal was needed and for much of the third period CSKA seemed capable of closing out the win. However, with a couple of minutes to play, Giovanni Fiore found a gap in the visiting defense and got clean through to beat Alexander Sharychenkov.
CSKA loves to play without a goalie in overtime, but today that gamble backfired. Admiral won possession, Metalnikov shot at the empty net and found the target to grab a much-needed victory.
Fast start puts Motormen in control
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 5 Barys Astana 2 (2-0, 1-1, 2-1)
There was no messing around from Avtomobilist after three successive home losses. Nikolai Zavarukhin shook up his roster, and his changes brought immediate results. Two goals in the first four minutes set up a convincing win over Barys.
On 2:34, Jesse Blacker gave the home team the lead with a goal against his former club, then Danil Romantsev doubled the advantage 66 seconds later. After scoring just two goals in the previous three games, Avto had two games in little over three minutes.
That early success encouraged the home team, but Barys began to gain some defensive cohesion and made it to the intermission with no further damage. However, the second stanza brought another fast start for the Motormen and Romantsev set up Sergei Zborovsky to make it 3-0 with his first goal since Sep. 2.
There wasn’t much sign of the Barys offense, with the visitor struggling to get out of its zone. However, the Kazakhs managed to pull a goal back out of nothing. An attacking face-off win from Rudolf Cerveny set up Maxim Musorov to shoot home through traffic. Later, fans were treated to a bout between Brooks Macek and Alikhan Asetov. Macek, however, collected 17 penalty minutes as the initiator of the fight.
Avtomobilist continued to dominate the game, shrugging off a four-minute PK that spanned the second intermission. Midway through the third, period, a swift counterattack saw Vladimir Kuznetsov present Alexei Makeyev with a look at an empty net for 4-1 and the game was effectively done. The teams traded two further tallies, with Riley Barber getting a consolation effort for Barys before Anatoly Golyshev had the final word.
Samonov denies Torpedo
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 (0-1, 0-0, 0-0)
A rare low-scoring encounter in Nizhny Novgorod saw Salavat Yulaev subdue the usually lively Torpedo offense. A first-period goal from Artyom Pimenov was the only score in a game dominated by goaltenders. Alexander Samonov stopped 32 shots to deny Torpedo, while Adam Huska had 22 saves in a losing cause.
Pimenov’s winner came in the 12th minute. Torpedo failed to clear its lines, with Kirill Kirsanov’s attempted pass being intercepted. Danil Bashkirov slid a pass down the right-hand channel for Pimenov, who cut inside and got to the doorstep before beating Huska.
The first period was a fairly even affair, but as Torpedo worked to retrieve the deficit, the home team came to dominate more of the play as the game wore on. Bobby Lynch was close to tying the game at the start of the second, but Samonov reacted smartly to stop his redirect. Later in the frame, Bogdan Konyushkov’s stretch pass gave Nikita Shavin a great opportunity but once again the visiting goalie was on top.
Salavat Yulaev was not entirely absent as an attacking force and Huska had to work hard early in the third as a flurry of shots came in on his goal. But for much of the final stanza, Torpedo asked the questions: by the end of the game, Ufa had 20 blocked shots on top of Samonov’s saves as a hard-working display secured the win.
Lyamkin seals OT verdict
Ak Bars Kazan 2 Avangard Omsk 1 OT (1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 1-0)
This game featured an early goal and a very late one as two of the Eastern Conference heavyweights went head-to-head. But after that 1-1 tie in regulation, Ak Bars secured a seventh win in eight games on Nikita Lyamkin’s OT goal. The win lifts Kazan level with Metallurg at the top of the Eastern standings; both teams have 32 points.
The opening goal came on 1:40. Kirill Petrov robbed Libor Sulak of the puck on the boards and advanced to the net. He couldn’t beat Ilya Proskuryakov, but the rebound dropped for Ilya Safonov to score.
Subsequently, Avangard had the better of the game and Timur Bilyalov made 15 saves to preserve that lead until the intermission. During the break, though, the home team regrouped and looked stronger in the middle frame. However, the change had less to do with greater offensive presence from the host, and more with getting more blocks on Avangard shots. The Hawks were still unable to find a way through.
For much of the third period, chances were hard to find. Ak Bars looked to run down the clock, Avangard tried to make inroads but faced a deep, well-drilled defense. With three minutes left, Proskuryakov went to the bench and the extra man worked out for the visitor. Mikhail Belyayev produced a great redirect to steer Damir Sharipzyanov’s point shot past Bilyalov with 50 seconds left.
In the extras, Avangard again opted to play with an empty net. However, this time Ak Bars took advantage. The home team already fired wide after gaining possession, then Kirill Semyonov intercepted the puck in his own zone and Lyamkin drilled it into the boards before watching it rebound away down the ice and into the unguarded net.
Rashevsky hat-trick sinks Vityaz
Dynamo Moscow 5 Vityaz Moscow Region 2 (2-0, 2-2, 1-0)
The Vityaz mini-revival came to a halt in Moscow as Dynamo reeled off a fourth successive victory. The home side took a grip on the game in the first period and never let go, with Dmitry Rashevsky scoring a hat-trick.
Rashevsky got things started in the second minute, opening the scoring off Mario Patalakha’s assist. That was a first KHL point for the 18-year-old defenseman. After 14 minutes, Rashevsky and Dynamo doubled the total to leave Vityaz with work to do.
A power play goal at the start of the second had the visitor on the board. Alexander Daryin raised Vityaz hopes, but they were crushed midway through the session. Jordan Weal and Eric O’Dell scored 92 seconds apart and a 4-1 lead looked insurmountable. Late in the period, Vityaz got some grounds for encouragement: a bench challenge cost Dynamo a fifth goal, then Nikita Almazov struck to make it 2-4.
But there was no profound momentum change after that. Instead, Dynamo closed out the third period calmly and sealed the win with three to play when Rashevsky found the empty net to complete his hat-trick.
