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Gusev joins 200 club, hat-tricks for Goldobin, Chmelevski. October 31 round-up
Nikita Gusev scored his 200th KHL goal, joining an elite band of just 11 players. His tally proved to be Dynamo’s game-winner at Sochi as the Muscovites went clear at the top of the overall standings. Spartak is close behind and scoring leader Nikolai Goldobin’s hat-trick powered a 6-1 win over Neftekhimik. Alexander Chmelevski also scored three as Salavat Yulaev downed Amur 4-1. Metallurg announced Sergei Mozyakin on the coaching staff, and he started with a 3-2 win over Barys. Avangard beat Torpedo by the same scoreline, and Ak Bars did likewise on the road at SKA. Avtomobilist blanked Kunlun Red Star, and Severstal won at Dinamo Minsk.
Second win for Hawks over Torpedo
Avangard Omsk 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 (1-1, 1-0, 1-1)
The Hawks continued its win-lose sequence with a hard-fought home victory over Torpedo. This was the second time this season that Avangard edged today’s opponent, and it put a dent in the visitor’s steady return to form.
Lifted by three wins in four games, Torpedo made the brighter start. That converted into the opening goal in the sixth minute when Bobby Lynch got the puck to the slot and Kirill Voronin simply forced it beyond Andrei Mishurov in the home net.
Torpedo remained the livelier of the teams after taking the lead, but penalties began to undermine the visitor. Avangard could not convert its first power play, but Reid Boucher produced a trademark finish to tie the game on the second. The home team was close to taking a lead to the intermission, but Adam Huska made a great save to stop Ryan Spooner during an odd-man-rush.
Early in the second, Avangard found itself reduced to three skaters for almost a full minute, but managed to keep Torpedo at bay. Once back at full strength, the Hawks quickly moved in front when the first line produced a neat play for Spooner to finish. The lead might have been bigger: Torpedo continued to take penalties, giving five-on-four and five-on-three chances. However, Spooner and Boucher could get no closer than dinging the iron.
Avangard’s wastefulness caught up with it in the third period. The home team continued to waste chances, and a rare raid from Torpedo ended with Mikhail Orlov battling to win a loose puck against two opponents, then firing an instinctive shot past Mishurov.
The final result came down to power play chances: Torpedo wasted its opportunity, almost allowing Igor Martynov a short-handed goal. Avangard did better, with captain Damir Sharipzyanov unleashing a terrific one-timer from the blue line to settle the outcome.
Galkin blanks Dragons, Avto stops the rot
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 Kunlun Red Star 0 (0-0, 2-0, 1-0)
The Motormen recovered from back-to-back losses with a shut-out victory over Kunlun Red Star. The visitor has an unhappy record against Avtomobilist, picking up just one point the previous 10 games between the teams and suffering several heavy losses in that time. Today brought a slight improvement for the Dragons compared with last season’s 1-5 and 1-6 losses, but Vladimir Galkin’s second shut-out of the season ensured that the points stayed in Yekaterinburg.
The first period saw chances at both ends, but no goals. Matt Jurusik was the busier of the two goalies, but Galkin made a couple of big stops when called upon to keep the game deadlocked until the intermission.
After the break, Red Star got on the power play – and promptly gave up a short-handed goal for Stepan Khripunov. That’s the eighth time in two months that the Chinese franchise allowed a goal when it had a man advantage. Once in front, Avtomobilist enjoyed the better of the play and doubled its lead midway through the game thanks to a power play goal from Alexei Makeyev after Brooks Macek’s dangerous shot was caught up in traffic.
In the third, Red Star tried to find a way back into the game. However, Avtomobilist is strong when it has a lead to defend and despite possession for the visitor, scoring chances were hard to find. The final word went to Andrei Obidin, moved to the first line for today’s game, who scored into an empty net in the last minute.
Magnitka legend joins the coaching staff
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 Barys Astana 2 (0-1, 1-0, 2-1)
The big news out of Magnitogorsk ahead of this game was the announcement that club legend Sergei Mozyakin was joining the Metallurg coaching staff. The record-breaking forward, who previously worked as director of sporting development, will help head coach Andrei Razin refine the team’s offensive lines and power play.
After five successive losses, three of them against derby rival Traktor, it was no surprise that Metallurg would seek to shake things up. However, not many would have anticipated changes beyond the line-up.
Barys also came into the game with problems after losing three in a row. However, the visitor had the better of the opening frame. A couple of Metallurg penalties helped the Kazakhs get more than twice as many shots as the home team and it was little surprise that the opening goal went to Arkady Shestakov on the power play.
Metallurg set about putting things right from the first shift of the second period. Robin Press was centimeters away from tying the game after he cut a swathe through the Barys defense and beat Eddie Pasquale, only for a defensemen to recover and hack the puck clear of danger. The tying goal came shortly afterwards. Razin sent Dmitry Silantyev into action in place of Danila Yurov, and his shot created a scramble on the slot before Makar Khabarov found the net.
Later, Magnitka had its first power play of the evening and spent almost the full two minutes knocking on Pasquale’s door without finding a breakthrough. That was the story of the middle frame: despite outshooting Barys 15-4, the home team could not get in front.
Reward came in the third. Khabarov made another effective attacking contribution, joining the attack to set up Yegor Korobkin for the go-ahead goal. That was a baseball-style finish, swatting home the rebound from his initial attempt. Korobkin added another, again redirecting a puck in flight with a deft touch on Alexei Maklyukov’s effort.
Barys managed to pull one back in the closing moments, with Kirill Savitsky thumping home a feed from behind the net to set up a tense finish. However, Metallurg held on and Mozyakin’s coaching debut ended in victory.
Chemelevski treble tames the Tigers
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (0-0, 3-1, 1-0)
A hat-trick from Alexander Chmelevski, and three assists from Josh Leivo, saw Salavat Yulaev to a comfortable home win against Amur. The Ufa team bounced back after a couple of losses but was unable to improve on fifth place in the East. Amur meanwhile remains outside the playoff places after failing to build on Thursday’s victory over Vityaz.
The first period was goalless. Although Salavat Yulaev had the better of the game, there was a lack of creativity about the home offense. Too many efforts were straightforward for visiting goalie Dmitry Lozebnikov and there were few moments of genuine quality from either team.
Things improved after the intermission. The teams traded power play goals: Ivan Drozdov for Ufa, assisted by Leivo on his return from injury, then Ivan Mishchenko for Amur. Then the home team moved in front. Chmelevski’s first of the night was somewhat fortunate: the puck bounced off the boards directly to him. Then, 10 seconds before the intermission, Chmelevski struck again, this time during a four-on-three power play.
In the 45th minute, the American forward completed his hat-trick, potting another power play goal. That’s a second hat-trick of the season for Chmelevski, who also scored three on Lada in a 5-2 victory back in September. It also put the game beyond Amur’s reach, despite a late push from Andrei Martemyanov’s men.
Bison slip up despite early lead
Dinamo Minsk 1 Severstal Cherepovets 2 (1-0, 0-2, 0-0)
Severstal came from behind to snap Dinamo’s three-game winning streak. In the process, the Steelmen recorded back-to-back victories of their own for the first time in over a month.
Dinamo began the game with the confidence you might expect from a team on a winning run. The home team had the better of the first period – although Severstal gave the defense some work to do – and took a lead into the break. Sergei Kuznetsov got the opening goal midway through the session.
In the middle frame, Severstal improved. Not only did it spend rather more time on the attack, there was visibly more end product. That pressure produced goals late in the period. Mikhail Ilyin tied the scores in the 33rd minute, then Danil Aimurzin scored on the power play to give his team the lead. Aimurzin was selected for the All-Star Game last week; today he showed why with a goal and an assist to help decide a tight game.
The third period saw Dinamo back on top, but struggling to break down the Severstal defense. The visitor made little commitment to attacking play, preferring to close out the game. Strong discipline meant no power play chances for Minsk and rather too many of the home team’s goal attempts were hopeful rather than focussed. It all added up to a 2-1 final score in the Steelmen’s favor.
200 goals for Gusev, Dynamo on top
HC Sochi 2 Dynamo Moscow 5 (1-2, 1-1, 0-2)
Nikita Gusev scored his 200th KHL goal, becoming the 11th player to reach that landmark in the league’s history. His effort proved to be the game-winner for Dynamo, lifting the Blue-and-Whites to the top of the overall standings. The Muscovites have 37 points, one ahead of city rival Spartak and two clear of Eastern Conference leader Lada.
The teams traded early goals when Jeremy Bracco got his first since joining Sochi. That cancelled out Dmitry Rashevsky’s opener for Dynamo. However, the visitor took a lead into the intermission thanks to Jordan Weal’s effort in the 14th minute. Weal’s goal was created by Gusev, who picked the perfect moment to fire a pass to his team-mate at the back door.
Dynamo was good value for its lead, but could not maintain that advantage in the middle frame. Kirill Gotovets and Andrei Pribylsky followed each other into the box and the five-on-three advantage saw Marat Khusnutdinov bring Sochi level. Soon afterwards, Bracco almost got his second of the game, but young goalie Maxim Motorygin had the answer this time.
Sochi’s power play was curtailed when Danila Galenyuk went to the box, and once Dynamo had the man advantage the visitor restored its lead. Gusev added to his earlier assist with the power play goal, finishing off a neat interchange that involved Weal and Cedric Paquette.
That was a landmark moment for Gusev and fittingly it proved to be the winner. Sochi came close to tying it up through Artur Tyanulin late in the second, but ran out of gas in the third. Weal potted his second of the night on the power play, with Gusev collecting his third point of the night on the play. Then Rashevsky finished what he started, scoring last-minute empty netter to complete the win.
Goldobin’s treble fires Spartak past Neftekhimik
Spartak Moscow 6 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 (2-0, 2-1, 2-0)
Beaten in its previous game at Sibir, Spartak was out to prove that the setback was merely a blip. Alexei Zhamnov’s team returned to Moscow to face a Neftekhimik team whose recent form is more encouraging than its league standing, and swiftly returned to the kind of freescoring hockey that lifted it to the KHL summit. A hat-trick for Nikolai Goldobin moved the KHL’s scoring leader to 20 goals for the season.
It took less than four minutes for the Red-and-Whites’ top line to open the scoring. Ivan Morozov and Pavel Poryadin combined to set up Goldobin for his 18th goal of the season. Goldobin saw his nine-game productive streak stall in Novosibirsk last week, but proved that it was a temporary stumble early in this game.
Midway through the first period, Spartak doubled its lead on a power play goal from Joey Keane. That was the second of the season for the American defenseman and it gave Neftekhimik a tough task to get back into the game. The stats did not favor the visitor either, with just three shots at Patrik Rybar in the opening frame.
After the intermission, the Wolves showed a little more. However, Spartak extended its lead midway through the stanza with Goldobin on target again. A five-on-three power play got Neftekhimik on the scoreboard in the 37th minute through Andrei Belozyorov. However, Maxim Tsyplakov restored the three-goal cushion six seconds after emerging from the penalty box.
Goldobin completed his hat-trick early in the third with another power play goal. That strike moves him to 20 for the season and ended any thoughts of a fightback from the visitor. Midway through the third, Andrei Loktionov added a sixth.
Ak Bars’ experience helps to stop SKA
SKA St. Petersburg 2 Ak Bars Kazan 3 (2-1, 0-2, 0-0)
Ak Bars bounced back from two defeats to claim a tight verdict in St. Petersburg. The visitor had to come from behind after a strong first period from SKA, but got the win thanks to goals from two players facing one of their former clubs.
SKA made a fast start to the game and was close to opening the scoring in the second minute when Daniil Zhuravlyov deflected a shot onto his own post. Zakhar Bardakov also posed an early threat, but the opening goal came at the other end when Nikita Dynyak steered a backhanded effort past Artemy Pleshkov in the home net.
The home team was undaunted and responded with a tying goal midway through the frame. Andrei Chivilyov collected his first point since arriving from Neftekhimik when he set up Arseny Gritsyuk and the youngster put a powerful wrister beyond Timur Bilyalov. Just before the siren, SKA went in front when Vasily Glotov converted a cross-ice feed from Mikhail Pashnin. That was a deserved lead for a good first period from SKA, which dominated much of the play and left Ak Bars struggling to create chances for its forwards.
In the middle frame, however, Ak Bars turned the game around. There are several players in Kazan who have played for SKA in the past, and two of them were on target to see the visitor into the lead. Dmitrij Jaskin got the tying goal after 26 minutes, putting away the rebound after Evgeny Svechnikov went close on the wraparound. Then came a power play, the first of the game after Stepan Starkov’s foul, and Dmitry Kagarlitsky quickly took advantage. Slava Voynov, another ex-SKA player, fired in a point shot and Pleshkov could only push the puck directly to Kagarlitsky in front of the net.
That proved decisive. SKA, as expected, dominated the third period. Ak Bars had just four shots on goal but, with a lead, did not need them. Instead, it was all about defensive effort: 11 blocked shots to protect Bilyalov’s net, 14 saves from the goalie to preserve that lead. Dynyak could have finished the job a few second early, but he hit the post with the empty net at his mercy. However, SKA could not make anything of that reprieve and fell to a second straight loss.
