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Lada tops the standings, Dynamo leads in the West. October 30 round-up
A 3-1 victory over Admiral put Lada Togliatti on top of the overall KHL standings. The Motormen have 35 points, level with Dynamo Moscow, but lead the way thanks to more regulation time victories. Dynamo, meanwhile, won 6-1 at Sochi with Ilya Kablukov scoring in his 1,000th KHL appearance. Monday’s other game saw a short-benched Sibir defeat Vityaz in a shoot-out.
Player shortage can’t stop Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Vityaz Moscow Region 2 SO (0-0, 1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Sibir came into this game with something of a selection crisis. The home team named just 11 forwards, a labor shortage not helped by a three-game ban for captain Nikolai Prokhorkin after he was ejected from his previous outing. With the juniors away on a road trip, there was little opportunity to call up any reserves and as a result leading scorer Taylor Beck found himself split across two lines.
Not surprisingly, Beck ended up far ahead of his team-mates for game time. He played more than 26 minutes, almost two minutes more than D-man Yegor Alanov and four-and-a-half more than Andy Andreoff, the next most active forward. The Canadian’s marathon stint brought him two assists as Sibir tied 2-2 in regulation.
However, it wasn’t until midway through the second period that we saw the opening goal of the game. It came on the power play, with Alanov firing home a one-timer to put Sibir in front.
Vityaz has shown some better form in recent games, and managed to turn the game around. The visitor tied the scores just before the intermission thanks to Alexander Yaremchuk, then got in front midway through the third. Both goals came on the power play, the second following a penalty for the ubiquitous Beck. Sibir’s hardworking forward made amends late on, though, setting up Timur Akhiyarov for a point shot that tied the game with 2:48 left to play. That was the only goal at equal strength in the game.
Overtime could not separate the teams, despite a Vityaz power play. The shoot-out saw Beck miss his attempt, but it mattered little. Nikita Shashkov scored, and home goalie Anton Krasotkin stopped everything that came his way at the other end.
Motormen move to the top of the standings
Lada Togliatti 3 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (0-1, 1-0, 2-0)
Lada’s remarkable season continues. Today’s win makes it four in a row, six out of seven (the seventh was an OT loss at Dynamo) and puts the Motormen clear at the top of the KHL standings. Not bad for a league newcomer who began the season hoping to have a comfortable run to the playoffs.
Today, Togliatti’s fans saw their favorites fall behind at home to struggling Admiral. But they also saw Oleg Bratash’s men recover strongly to record a 3-1 victory. That moves the team to 35 points, level with Dynamo at the top of the West, and three clear of immediate Eastern Conference rivals Metallurg and Ak Bars.
It was a second game in successive days for the home team, which overcame Metallurg with a last-minute goal on Sunday. That might account for a sluggish first period, which saw just four shots at Pavel Khomchenko in the visitor’s net. Admiral was rather more active, and got a reward midway through the opening stanza. The Sailors won a face-off, Alexander Gorshkov took the puck around the net and dished it off to the slot for Anton Berlyov to score. Gorshkov recorded his 100th point for Admiral, the first man to reach that milestone with the club.
Part of Lada’s problem was penalties. Two early indiscretions handed Admiral the initiative in that first period. After the intermission, discipline improved and so did the home team’s game. In the 27th minute, a high press helped Sergei Shumakov intercept Gorshkov’s attempted pass. The home forward produced a classy wrist shot to tie the game. Admiral responded with some big chances at the other end, but Berlyov could not add to his first period tally.
With the game tied going into the third, Lada stepped it up and moved in front. in the 45th minute, Vladislav Syomin released his two Canadian team-mates on an odd-man rush. Scott Kosmachuk used Troy Josephs as a decoy, taking on the shot himself and making it 2-1. Almost immediately, the home power play got another chance to strengthen that position, but today both PKs were impressive.
Admiral was still in the game until the final seconds. There were some chaotic scenes in front of Alexander Trushkov’s net as Lada battled to preserve its slender lead. However, the final word went to Dmitry Kugryshev, who found the empty net to put Togliatti on top of the championship standings. Thirty season ago, this club made history by taking the championship outside of Moscow for the first time in history: today’s edition is springing new surprises on its return to the big league.
Kablukov scores in 1,000th game
HC Sochi 1 Dynamo Moscow 6 (0-0, 1-2, 0-4)
Dynamo romped to a sixth successive victory thanks to a powerful third-period performance at Sochi. Four unanswered goals in that final frame turned a finely-balanced encounter into a lopsided final score.
For Sochi, 5-4 winners over SKA last time out, this was an abrupt return to Earth. Prior to the SKA game, the Leopards lost four in a row; a team that saw some key performers move on in recent weeks looks destined for more runs of rough form going forward.
Despite that, the home team was competitive through 40 minutes. A goalless opening frame saw Dynamo on top, but Mikhail Berdin did well in the home net. At the other end, only the post denied Amir Garayev the opening goal: a few millimeters might have meant a very different evening for both teams.
In the event, Dynamo got in front in the 26th minute through Cedric Paquette. He scored from close range after Brennan Menell’s shot reached him on the slot via a cannonade of deflections. Midway through the session, a Sochi power play brought a tying goal for Sergei Popov and the visitor then had to kill another penalty. The home team could argue that it was far more competitive in the middle frame, but still trailed at the intermission on Pavel Kudryavtsev’s goal late in the session.
Home hopes took a big blow right at the start of the third when Paquette got his second of the evening. After that, Dynamo took the game away. Eric O’Dell and Andrei Mironov built up an unassailable lead. Then, in the final minutes, a special moment. Ilya Kablukov, playing his 1,000th game in the KHL, marked the occasion with a goal. The hard-working center is not noted for big production – he’s far more of a guy for the hard, unheralded jobs. But when Dmitry Rashevsky set him up in front of the net, he picked out the open corner of Berdin’s goal to make the final score 6-1. Victory moves Dynamo to the top of the Western Conference, a point clear of cross-town rival Spartak.
