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Four points for Barach, rare win for Red Star. November 10 round-up
Vityaz forward Derek Barach enjoyed his best game in the KHL to date. He had four assists to help his team to a 5-3 win over Severstal. Kunlun won its first game in regulation since Sep. 6, coming from behind to beat Barys 2-1. In the day’s back-to-back games, Avtomobilist avenged its loss at Amur, but Sochi suffered another reverse at Dinamo Minsk. Lokomotiv edged Sibir 2-1 and Torpedo blanked Admiral.
Revenge win for Motormen
Amur Khabarovsk 2 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 (0-1, 2-1, 0-1)
After Amur’s beat Avto 5-1 yesterday, the visitor claimed revenge 24 hours later. That denied the Tigers a chance to move into the playoff places in the East.
The visitor clearly learned from its failings. The opening goal came early through Stepan Khripunov and throughout the first period the Motormen spent more time on the attack and got more shots at Dmitry Lozebnikov’s net. That said, Amur was far from out of the game and Vladimir Galkin was well-supported by a defense that blocked seven shots.
In the second period, Amur got some opportunities on the power play and gradually that helped the home team get back into the game. Kirill Slepets tied the scores with his second goal in two days, only for a defensive lapse to present Khripunov with his second of the night. However, it took just three minutes for Jan Drozg to tie the game once more.
In the third, Amur found itself on the PK for the first time. The home team held on, but allowed Stephane Da Costa to score with the teams back at full strength. The Frenchman started the play with an interception in center ice and finished it off to claim the winning goal.
Torpedo blanks Admiral
Admiral Vladivostok 0 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 (0-1, 0-1, 0-1)
The Sailors could not build on Wednesday’s win over Lokomotiv, failing to score against Torpedo. The visitor recorded back-to-back road wins despite the absence of scoring leader Vasily Atanasov. His place was taken by Denis Yan.
It didn’t take long for the visitor to get ahead. In the fifth minute, Maxim Letunov fired home a shot from the center of the zone. Admiral responded by putting some serious pressure on Adam Huska’s net. Giovanni Fiore was particularly lively, and Denis Golubev also had a good chance.
However, even when Admiral was on top, the Torpedo trio of Letunov, Nikolai Kovalenko, and Vladislav Firstov was a constant threat for the visitor. At the start of the second period, that line produced the second goal of the game, with Firstov on target after a point shot from Anton Silayev. With a two-goal advantage, Igor Larionov’s men were far more comfortable in the game and they managed the remaining time comfortably enough. Admiral found it hard to create chances, particularly in the third period, and Huska’s goal was rarely troubled. Late in the game, Kovalenko added an empty-netter to wrap up the win.
Railwaymen edge past Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 (1-2, 0-0, 0-0)
Neither of these teams came into today’s game in great form. Sibir and Lokomotiv each lost three of their previous four games and were eager for signs of improvement here. Home goalie Anton Krasotkin also had plenty of motivation for this game: he learned his hockey in Yaroslavl and spoke of how much he wanted to get a win over his first club.
Unfortunately, Krasotkin allowed a goal off the second shot he faced, with Maxim Beryozkin finding the net from the blue line. Sibir responded quickly to that setback when Andy Andreoff got clear and beat Daniil Isayev at the other end. The game remained even, but the visitor went to the locker room with a 2-1 lead at the intermission. Alexander Polunin was the scorer, converting a power play after Nikolai Prokhorkin went to the box.
In the second period, the Railwaymen looked to finish the game off. For a full five minutes, Sibir could not get out of its zone. However, the home team did not allow any more goals even if it rarely looked like tying the game.
The third frame was a similar story, but now Lokomotiv was happier to play out time rather than press for a third goal. Sibir managed to raise its tempo in the closing stages but despite coming close to forcing overtime the home team had to accept a 1-2 loss.
Wood gives Dragons the edge
Barys Astana 1 Kunlun Red Star 2 (1-0, 0-0, 0-2)
Kunlun made it back-to-back wins for the first time since Sep. 6, and recorded its first regulation time victory since that early-season date. The Dragons came from behind to win at Barys, leaving the home team on an unhappy run of seven losses in eight games.
Things started well enough for the Kazakhs. A couple of early power plays helped Barys to gain the early initiatives and Kirill Savitsky opened the scoring midway through the first period. However, it was never a comfortable advantage. Red Star twice hit the piping and the home team could not find a way to increase its lead at the other end.
Early in the third period, Kyle Wood made the first of two decisive contributions when he got behind goaltender Jeremy Smith to clear a shot off the goal line. A few minutes later, Brandon McMillan’s power play goal tied the scores. Then, in the 57th minute, Wood produced the game winner, striding forward from the blue line to fire home from the top of the right-hand circle.
Slow start gives Severstal too much to do
Vityaz Moscow Region 5 Severstal Cherepovets 3 (2-0, 2-1, 1-2)
Severstal came close to recovering from 0-4 in this game, but Vityaz took the verdict thanks to two goals from Scott Wilson.
Half of the action was all about the home team. Vityaz scored early, and scored often: Vladislav Tsitsyura made it 1-0 on 1:24 and it was 4-0 in the 27th minute. Ruslan Pedan and Nikolai Timashov extended the lead before Derek Barach completed a hat-trick of assists when Wilson got his first of the game.
The Steelmen replaced starting goalie Konstantin Shostak after the third goal, and at 0-4 things began to change. Ilya Ivantsov pulled one back in the second period, and the third period saw Kirill Pilipenko and Ivan Podshivalov drag it back to 3-4. However, Podshivalov got overexcited and was ejected from the game for slashing on 56:26, handing Vityaz a power play that would run until the hooter. That helped Wilson seal the deal with an empty-net goal; Barach collected his fourth assist on that late play.
Back-to-back wins for the Bison
Dinamo Minsk 6 HC Sochi 2 (2-0, 3-2, 1-0)
Sochi suffered a seventh successive loss, and its second in two days in Minsk. After last night’s narrow 2-1 verdict for Dinamo, this was a far more open game. However, that did little to help the visitor, which trailed throughout and finished on the wrong end of a lopsided scoreline.
Dinamo broke the deadlock in the 13th minute, with Vyacheslav Osnovin giving the home team the lead. That goal opened the floodgates, and the Bison would score four in the space of little over 10 minutes either side of the intermission. Yegor Borikov added a second in the first period, then power play goals for Nick Merkley and Sam Anas threatened to turn proceedings into a rout.
Despite its difficulties, Sochi persevered. The visitor even managed to make a game of it with a couple of second-period tallies of its own. Gleb Koryagin and Artur Tyanulin gave Dinamo something to worry about, but Anas potted a fifth for the home team to calm any nerves. That goal also ended Maxim Tretyak’s evening, with Nikita Bogdanov replacing him in goal.
Bogdanov was beaten just once, when Yegor Ignatenko made it 6-2 at the start of the third period. After that, there was no further scoring. Dinamo moves four points clear of ninth-placed Sochi and tightens its grip on a top-eight position.
