Dynamo hits the front again, Sochi ends skid. November 26 round-up

A 4-1 win at Dinamo Minsk puts Dynamo Moscow back on top in the Western Conference. In the east, Sochi recovered from 0-2 to defeat Amur and win its first game in regulation for a month. Severstal took a shoot-out verdict from Admiral after a 4-4 tie in Vladivostok.

Sochi recovers to win at Amur

Amur Khabarovsk 2 HC Sochi 5 (2-0, 0-3, 0-2)

HC Sochi picked up a rare victory – the first in regulation time since Oct. 27 – after coming from behind to defeat Amur. The Leopards avenged a 1-3 loss to the Tigers on home ice and rebounded after losing in Vladivostok by a similar margin last time out.

However, Sochi did it the hard way. Amur jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Yegor Korshkov opened the scoring midway through the session with a backhand shot that was deflected past Mikhail Berdin. Close to the intermission, Vladislav Barulin doubled the lead to claim his second goal in successive games.

Sochi turned the game around in the second period. Amur took two penalties, 54 seconds apart, and the visitor scored twice on the power play. Jesse Graham banged home the first, then Jeremy Bracco showed his skills to put the second on the top shelf. The home team then killed yet another penalty, only to fall behind just as it returned to full strength. This time, Timur Khafizov was on target.

In a bid to save the game, Amur started the third period on the front foot. Sochi struggled, and contributed to its own problems on one occasion when Mikhail Berdin was over-ambitious in his attempt to play the puck. Gradually, the visitor got to grips with its defensive task and found Amur’s final six-man surge worked in its favor. Bracco found the empty net to claim his second of the night, then Ansel Galimov followed to suit to make the final score 5-2.

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Steelmen rebound to claim SO win

Admiral Vladivostok 4 Severstal Cherepovets 5 SO (2-2, 1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

Severstal suffered a 2-6 mauling at Amur in its previous game, and head coach Andrei Kozyrev described it as his team’s worse performance of the season. In response, he reshaped his combinations and forged a new first line of Nikita Korostelyov, Ivan Podshivalov and Dmitry Moiseyev.

The Steelmen also made a bright start to the game, regularly testing Sergei Ivanov in the home net even before Adam Liska opened the scoring in the fourth minute. The visiting captain added a second on his team’s first power play of the day, prompting Leonids Tambijevs to call a time-out. The Admiral coach found the right words in those 30 seconds. Within a couple of minutes, Nikolai Chebykin pulled one back. Then came two efforts against the posts before Nikita Anokhovsky tied the game before the intermission.

That break came at the wrong time for the home team, hurting Admiral’s momentum. Severstal, meanwhile, benefitted from a chance to regroup and restored the lead 20 seconds into the second period. Korostelyov created the chance and Podshivalov finished it off. The puck was in the net again shortly afterwards, but this time an offside call wiped out the play. Nonetheless, Vasily Demchenko came into the home net for his Admiral debut in place of Ivanov. Once again, Tambijevs’ move paid off: Admiral stabilized, then tied the game thanks to a virtuoso effort from Alexander Gorshkov late in the frame. That was his 45^th for the club, setting a new record. At the start of the third, he raised the bar even higher when he put the Sailors in front for the first time in the game after Anton Berlyov’s pass presented him with an open net.

However, the lead did not last long. Ruslan Abrosimov tied it up at 4-4 and sent the game to a shoot-out, where Danil Aimurzin got the decider for Severstal.

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Dynamo returns to Western summit

Dinamo Minsk 1 Dynamo Moscow 4 (1-0, 0-2, 0-2)

With a win on the road at its Belarusian namesake, Dynamo Moscow moved two points clear of Spartak into first place in the Western Conference. The Blue-and-Whites are just a point behind overall KHL leader Metallurg following Sunday’s success.

This was the teams’ second meeting in Minsk in the space of two weeks. The Muscovites came out on top in the first encounter, edging a 2-1 verdict on goals from Nikita Gusev and Brennan Menell.

Today’s game had much in common with the earlier edition. It was a hard-fought battle from both teams, interspersed with some dangerous chances. Minsk struck first, opening the scoring in the ninth minute when Yanni Kaldis got away from his marker and fired the puck to the slot, where Roman Gorbunov redirected it home. Moscow was close to tying it up on a power play, but Gusev saw his shot hit the post and bounce to safety.

In the second period, Minsk got its own power play chance, including a spell of brief five-on-three play. However, the visitor was able to tie the game on the penalty kill thanks to a blistering breakaway from Artyom Ilyenko. The same player was involved again a few minutes later as Igor Ozhiganov put the Muscovites in front. The Bison should have tied the game, but after Alexander Volkov got past visiting goalie Ilya Konovalov he somehow managed to shoot against the bar, handing Alexei Kudashov’s team a reprieve.

The home team had another big opportunity when Cedric Paquette – who played for Minsk last season – took a double minor that was divided by the second intermission. Paquette was saved by his team-mates and then returned to pot a power play goal midway through the session. Gusev, who scored on his previous visit here, assisted on that goal and moved to 551 career points in the KHL, ranking him fifth in the league’s history.

Gusev added another helper as Yegor Petukhov made it four, and a forgettable finale for Minsk was finished when Vitaly Pinchuk saw his goal overturned following a bench challenge for interference on Konovalov.