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Moscow duo win on the road. October 28 round-up
Saturday’s action saw two teams fight back from 0-2 to win. Amur recovered to defeat Vityaz 4-2 at home, while CSKA won 6-3 on the road at Sibir. In Ufa, Dynamo edged Salavat Yulaev in a tough battle.
Tigers claw back two-goal deficit
Amur Khabarovsk 4 Vityaz Moscow Region 2 (0-2, 2-0, 2-0)
The Tigers rallied from 0-2 to snap a three-game skid. Vityaz, victorious at Admiral in the first game of its Far East tour, was unable to build on that result and lost its way after a good first period.
The visitor wasted little time in assuming control of the game. Scott Wilson opened the scoring in the third minute off Alexander Daryin’s feed. Later, the Canadian forward added a helper as Daryin doubled the lead before the intermission.
Amur trailed but could point to an even balance of play as evidence that this was not the end of the story. In the second period, the home team recovered. Artur Gizdatullin and Sergei Lapin cancelled out the visitor’s lead, with the latter converting a breakaway after Vityaz coughed up the puck in center ice.
In the third period, Amur enjoyed greater control of the puck. Nonetheless, it took some time to generate a winning goal. A power play chance came and went, then Vityaz had two PPs at the other end without regaining the lead. However, in the last minute Stanislav Bocharov put Amur ahead for the first time, then Evgeny Grachyov’s empty net tally sealed the win.
Okulov at the double as CSKA fights back
Sibir Novosibirsk 3 CSKA Moscow 6 (2-1, 0-2, 1-3)
After Amur retrieved a two-goal deficit to win, CSKA went to Sibir and did the same thing. Sergei Fedorov’s team struggled early in the game but found its shooting form to ease to a high-scoring victory.
Sibir made a bright start to the game, and was decent value for the lead after Vladimir Butuzov’s seventh-minute goal. The home forward took a chance and shot into traffic, then celebrated as the puck deflected off a defenseman’s skate to beat Dmitry Gamzin in the CSKA net. In the 15th minute, Sibir got the first power play of the game, but it didn’t last long. Andy Andreoff soon followed Prokhor Poltapov to the sidelines, and the four-on-four shift saw Artyom Mikheyev double the home lead.
CSKA began the fightback right away, with Mikhail Grigorenko’s one-timer halving the deficit before the intermission. Midway through the second stanza, the scores were level when Nikita Nesterov drove the puck into enemy territory and set up Maxim Sorkin for a wrister from the left-hand circle. The visitor got in front for the first time after 36 minutes thanks to Konstantin Okulov, who found the net after an extended spell of pressure on Denis Kostin’s net.
After turning the game around, CSKA struggled to finish the job. The third period saw Sibir try to rebuild its attacking game. Chances did not exactly flow, but with the Muscovites tied down on defensive duties it wasn’t easy to build a decisive lead. Midway through the session, Darren Dietz took a penalty and Andreoff converted the power play to draw Sibir level once again.
With six minutes left, it was anyone’s game. However, CSKA proved the stronger in the final stages. Okulov’s second of the game restored the defending champion’s lead, then Maxim Mamin and Vitaly Abramov took the verdict away from Sibir. David Nemirovsky suffered a first loss in five games, missing the chance to move up from eighth in the East. CSKA goes to fifth in the West.
Dynamo’s PP makes the difference
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 Dynamo Moscow 2 (1-1, 0-0, 0-1)
In-form Dynamo recorded a fifth straight win at Salavat Yulaev after a gritty encounter in Ufa. Two power play goals gave the visitor the edge.
The first big incident came in the sixth minute. Dynamo was already on the power play when home captain Grigory Panin took a major penalty for slashing at Daniil Pylenkov. The five-on-three advantage brought a couple of big chances, but Ufa was already back to four skaters when Artyom Ilyenko stuffed home the puck following a booming point shot from Brennan Menell.
But that was neither the end of the major penalty, nor the end of the incident deriving from it. Salavat Yulaev swiftly found a short-handed goal to tie the scores. Ivan Drozdov fed Dinar Khafizullin on the blue line and visiting goalie Ilya Konovalov could only pad his effort into the path of the alert Nikolai Kulemin to make it 1-1.
Once back to even strength, Salavat Yulaev began to offer more resistance to Dynamo’s offense and the first period ended level in several key indicators.
In the second period, the home team offered more attacking play. Salavat Yulaev created the better opportunities, but could not find a way to score. At the other end, Dynamo was limited to intermittent counterattacks and the teams remained deadlocked through 40 minutes.
Much of Dynamo’s best opportunities were coming on the power play, and when Drozdov sat for slashing in the 47th minute the visitor took advantage. Thirty seconds of a man advantage proved sufficient: Eric O’Dell restored the Blue-and-Whites’ lead from close range after he seized control of the rebound from a Menell shot.
In the closing stages, Salavat Yulaev found Dynamo’s PK in obdurate mood as the visitor shut down the final minutes of play. With just over two minutes left, Alexander Samonov left the crease in favor of a sixth skater. Konovalov had to be alert to deny Drozdov a late leveller as Dynamo held on.
