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SKA claims key victory. November 20 round-up
Monday’s big game saw SKA record a second victory of the season against CSKA and make it six wins on the bounce. Metallurg can beat that streak, with a 4-1 verdict against Sibir making it eight in a row for Andrei Razin’s team. Fellow Eastern hot shot Lada won 3-1 at home to Dinamo Minsk, while Torpedo defeated Barys 4-2.
Eight in a row for Metallurg
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (1-0, 2-0, 1-1)
Magnitka posted an eighth successive victory, and found it rather less stressful than last week’s overtime win.
Sibir, beaten at Kunlun last time out, arrived in Magnitogorsk with injury problems. David Nemirovsky was missing Nikolai Prokhorkin, Georgy Belousov and Yegor Alanov, not to mention long-term injury absentee Trevor Murphy. All in all, the visitor went into battle with a short bench and found itself under pressure from the start.
The opening frame was almost a personal triumph for Sibir’s goalie Anton Krasotkin. At times, he alone stood between Metallurg and the opening goal. The visitor managed to kill three penalties against a generally effective home power play. However, Krasotkin was beaten by a Makar Khabarov effort right on the hooter.
Metallurg continued to find Krasotkin a challenge in the middle frame. However, in the 33rd minute, Roman Kantserov doubled the home lead. Unlike his colleagues, he elected not to attempt a deke on the goalie but, instead, slipped a precise shot below his pads. Then, after neutralizing the home power play, Sibir failed with its own numerical advantage. Artyom Zagidulin made several big saves, then a breakaway saw Dmitry Silantyev pot a shorthanded tally to make it 3-0. That was his first KHL goal in his 14th KHL appearance.
Despite having a comfortable lead, Metallurg approached the third period as if the game was in the balance. However, that did not prevent Sibir from getting a goal back when Artyom Zhukov took advantage of a power play. Taylor Beck’s shot saw Zagidulin lost his stick, presenting Zhukov with the chance to make it 1-3. With Nemirovsky’s reputation as a comeback king, Magnitka had to approach the closing stages carefully. However, the final word went to Nikita Mikhailis, who found the empty net to wrap up the win.
Lada on top against Dinamo
Lada Togliatti 3 Dinamo Minsk 1 (1-0, 2-0, 0-1)
This was the second meeting between these teams this season, with Lada taking an OT verdict in Minsk last time out. The key player that night was Troy Josephs, who scored two goals, but he was unavailable for the home team tonight. Andrei Altybarmakyan returned to the team.
It wasn’t long before Lada opened the scoring. After 62 seconds, Dmitry Kugryshev squeezed in a shot from a tight angle. It wasn’t an effort that should have posed too much difficulty for Alexei Kolosov in the visitor’s net, but it got behind him. After a fast start, neither team was able to maintain that tempo and the rest of the first period brought no goals and few scoring chances.
The second period saw another early goal for the home team. A breakdown on the slot from the Dinamo defense invited Alexei Ozhgikhin to score from close range. After that, Lada continued to fore the pace and made it 3-0 in the 34th minute when Ostap Safin struck on the power play. Lada’s forward extended his productive streak to six games, with 8 (2+6) points in that team.
At the start of the third, Dinamo replaced Kolosov with backup goalie Dylan Ferguson. That may or may not have influenced the next goal, which saw Sam Anas reduce the deficit in the 47th minute. However, the Bison could not build on that success. Lada calmly closed out the remainder of the game to secure its first home win over Dinamo since 2008.
Back-to-back wins for Torpedo
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 4 Barys Astana 2 (1-1, 3-0, 0-1)
The home team’s recent form has been patchy, but Igor Larionov’s players managed to build on victory over Dynamo last time out with a follow-up success against struggling Barys. The Kazakhs lost five of their previous six and fell away in the second period here.
The teams made a lively start. Torpedo grabbed the opening goal after just 108 seconds thanks to Sergei Goncharuk. However, Barys hit back right away through Arkady Shestakov. Subsequently, the host had the better of the play but never established a level of superiority that suggested the game would be a formality.
In the second period, things slowed down. By the midway point, the teams had shared just eight shots on goal. However, just on the halfway stage Vasily Atanasov converted one of those attempts into a 2-1 lead for Torpedo. That set up a 10-minute burst of home dominance which yielded two further goals. Late in the frame, Maxim Letunov added a power play goal then, in the final second before the hooter, Vladislav Firstov made it 4-1.
With a solid advantage to hold in the final frame, Torpedo did a good job of shutting down the Barys attack. In the first 10 minutes, the visitor managed just two shots at Adam Huska in the home net. Thus it was somewhat against the run of play when Rudolf Cerveny pulled one back for the Kazakhs in the 52nd minute. Hopes of a serious fightback took a blow when the visitor was reduced to three skaters and while Torpedo did not score with its two-man advantage, it ate up plenty of game time to leave Barys battling against the clock. The final stages saw Torpedo defending four against six, but there was no further scoring.
SKA wins in the west’s big rivalry
SKA St. Petersburg 2 CSKA Moscow 1 (1-0, 1-0, 0-1)
When these two meet, it usually defines the race for the Western Conference summit. In recent years, these old rivals have dominated the Conference final in the playoffs and typically they’ve occupied the first two spots in the regular season standings.
This time, things are different: today’s winner would open a gap over its opponent, but only to get a grip on fifth place in the standings. Both the defending champion and last time’s regular season leader have failed to match their usual standards this term.
That said, there were signs that things might be getting back to normal. CSKA won its last three games before traveling to Petersburg, while SKA was defending a five-game hot streak. In the early stages, the home team’s record was under pressure. CSKA made the brighter start and might have gone in front in the sixth minute when Pavel Karnaukhov set up a dangerous shooting chance for Sergei Plotnikov. His effort beat Nikita Serebryakov, but went wide of the post.
Gradually SKA got into the game and the home team got in front in the 15th minute. Vladimir Alistrov stripped Andrei Svetlakov of the puck and fed Vasily Glotov in the center of the zone. Glotov strode forward and fired over Ivan Fedotov’s glove into the far corner.
Early in the second period, CSKA had a couple of good chances to tie the game, helped by Andrei Chivilyov’s visit to the box. However, when Chivilyov returned to the game he added a second goal for SKA. Alistrov was involved again, picking up the pieces after Fredrik Claesson lost possession in his own territory. He quickly moved the puck wide for Chivilyov, whose wrister beat Fedotov to the short side.
CSKA had a great chance to get back into the game when Valentin Zykov barged into Prokhor Poltapov’s back and took a 5+game penalty. However, despite some good looks on the power play, the visitor could not reduce the deficit before the second intermission.
Early in the third, SKA could have made the game safe on a power play. But CSKA hung in there to keep the game alive until the very end. With 80 seconds left, Maxim Mamin finally beat Serebryakov as the visitor played six-on-four to force home its power play advantage. Sergei Fedorov called a time-out in search of the game-saving play, but there would be no further late dramatics as SKA preserved its winning streak.
