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Wins for chasing pack in the West. November 27 round-up
Second-placed Spartak snapped its three-game skid with a 4-1 road win at Avtomobilist and moves to within a point of Dynamo at the top of the West. Right behind, Lokomotiv edged a 3-2 verdict at CSKA to stay in touch with the Conference leadership. Elsewhere, Sibir defeated Kunlun by the same 3-2 scoreline, Traktor took a 2-1 verdict at home to Torpedo and Vityaz scored five on Barys.
Revenge win for Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Kunlun Red Star 2 (1-0, 1-2, 1-0)
After losing in OT in Mytishchi when these teams last met, Sibir got revenge with a 3-2 verdict on home ice. The host shrugged off the absence of leading scorer Taylor Beck (illness) to tame the Dragons.
Red Star arrived after a 1-0 win over Ak Bars and, unusually, head coach Viktors Ignatjevs kept the same team, with only starting goalie Matt Jurusik representing a change. The Dragons made a lively start, only to be hit by Sibir on its first meaningful attack of the game. Vladimir Mikhalyov got on the counter, and the 18-year-old potted his second goal in the KHL with a shot that deflected off an opposition skate.
The visitor continued to compete hard and began the second period with a flurry of shots at Anton Krasotkin’s net. Then came a fight between Luke Lockhart and Maxim Sushko, with the Sibir man picking up an extra penalty for his foul on Tyler Wong. The power play saw Teemu Pulkkinen tie the scores with a one-timer from the slot. Soon after, Wong almost carved out a second goal for Kunlun, but fell as he shaped to shoot and squirted his effort wide of the mark.
Sibir restored the lead on the power play, with Sergei Dubakin adding to the two goals he scored in Mytishchi. This time, Red Star hit back right away with Pulkkinen getting his second of the night, assisted once again by Brandon McMillan.
Early in the third, Artyom Mikheyev put the home team in front for the third time. This proved decisive. Red Star, perhaps tired after the schedule asked it to play a solitary road game in Siberia among a run of home games in Moscow Region, found it hard to maintain the initiative and Sibir held on to take a third successive victory.
Vityaz moves up the standings, Barys continues to struggle
Barys Astana 2 Vityaz Moscow Region 5 (1-2, 0-1, 1-2)
A five-star show in Kazakhstan lifted Vityaz off the foot of the Western Conference. The win puts the visitor just four points outside of a playoff spot. Barys, meanwhile, remains in difficulty. This was a fourth loss in six, and the gap to eighth-placed Sibir is a daunting 13 points.
Yet Barys could hardly complain about the start to its game. Inside two minutes, Kirill Savitsky put the home team in front. Following an OT win over Neftekhimik last time, there were some signs of confidence around the arena. A home power play followed, complete with some promising play in the Vityaz zone. Then it all went wrong. David Sklenicka thumped in a shot that went straight to Ivan Savchik. The Czech defenseman failed to win back possession and Savchik’s shorty tied the scores.
The visitor did not attack all that much, but it made the most of its opportunities. Derek Barach’s one timer caught Eddie Pasquale out of position to give Vityaz the lead; in the first period his team managed two goals from seven shots, which shows some impressive scoring efficiency.
In the second period, the tempo dropped but Vityaz still managed to create chances. Once again, Pasquale made an unwanted contribution, advancing from his net only to give the puck away and present Alexander Daryin with an empty net. The home team’s attempts to recover were unconvincing, with Maxim Dorozhko having little trouble fielding long-range efforts.
Pasquale somewhat redeemed himself with a great save late in the frame, denying Scott Wilson from close range to keep Barys in contention.
Not that it mattered. Wilson got his goal early in the third, and Alexander Yaremchuk made it 5-1 within a minute. Arkady Shestakov got a late consolation for the home team, but the points were already on their way to Vityaz.
Narrow verdict gets Traktor back on track
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1)
Both teams needed something of a reset after disappointing recent results. Traktor recalled Danil Yurtaikin and handed a first appearance of the season to Alexander Kirpichnikov, while Torpedo welcomed back Nikita Artamonov.
It took less than three minutes for Traktor to open the scoring, who converted a great pass from Mikhail Kotlyarevsky. Torpedo responded with a similar play, but could only find Zach Fucale’s post. Both teams favored a passing game which produced an appealing spectacle, but there was no further scoring in the first period.
The tempo remained high in the second, but the shooting tended to be wayward. Traktor failed to test Ivan Kulbakov for the first 10 minutes of the frame, despite seeing plenty of the puck. At the other end, Torpedo looked more threatening but could not finish its chances as the two goalies performed strongly.
Traktor doubled its lead at the start of the third. It was credited to Vitaly Kravtsov, but he’d have a hard time telling anyone he planned the deflection that took the puck away from Kulbakov. Torpedo fought to the last and, after deploying a sixth skater, finally beat Fucale. Artamonov got the assist as Vasily Atanasov stretched his productive streak to five games.
Spartak bounces back after three-game skid
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Spartak Moscow 4 (0-0, 0-2, 1-2)
Spartak’s scintillating form hit the skids with three straight losses, and head coach Alexei Zhamnov made big changes. Nikolai Goldobin and Pavel Poryadin were placed on separate lines, with Yegor Filin elevated to the first line in place of the KHL’s points leader.
At first, the changes had little apparent effect. Avtomobilist made the better start, frustrating Spartak in center ice and launching swift, dangerous counters. Those raids tended to finish with the puck flashing across the slot, while Spartak managed just one shot in the first 10 minutes.
Gradually, the visitor improved and got the game away from its net. But it was still a long way from testing the home defense until Goldobin and Poryadin were reunited.
However, it was Filin who broke the deadlock with a goal in the 26th minute after Michal Cajkovsky released him down the flank. Soon after, Avto lost Jesse Blacker, who was injured while trying to block a shot and did not return to the game. That did not prevent the home team from creating more chances, but the best of them saw Alexei Makeyev’s one-on-one denied by Andrei Kareyev in the visitor’s net. Spartak was more effective: Alexander Belyayev’s defense-splitting pass released Nikita Susuyev for his first of the season.
The home team was denied a goal late in the first by a great save from Kareyev, but finally reduced the arrears in the 53rd minute thanks to Stephane Da Costa. The Frenchman put away the rebound from a Nikita Tryamkin shot to revive its hopes of saving the game. However, those hopes were extinguished late on. Avtomobilist went for a sixth skater, but allowed two empty net goals as Filin got his second and Goldobin wrapped up a 4-1 verdict.
Railwaymen on top in Moscow
CSKA Moscow 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 (0-2, 2-0, 0-1)
Lokomotiv recorded a third successive victory to tighten its grip on third place in the Western Conference. CSKA managed to get back from 0-2 to tie this game, but could not secure the win that would have moved the defending champion to within a point of the top four.
The first period could hardly have gone better for the visitor. Alexander Polunin opened the scoring in the third minute, putting away the rebound from a Pavel Kraskovsky effort. That play started with CSKA goalie Ivan Fedotov failing to adequately clear the puck from behind his net and having to scramble back into position as Lokomotiv regained possession on the blue line.
The home team created chances, but could not take them. At the other end, Lokomotiv showed how it should be done in the 15th minute when Maxim Beryozkin doubled the lead.
In the second period, it was a different story. Now, CSKA got its forwards working and clawed back that two-goal deficit. Pavel Karnaukhov halved the deficit after three minutes, inspiring a surge of home offense. Midway through the frame, that resulted in Andrei Svetlakov getting on a rush down the left. He danced away from Dmitry Simashev and beat Daniil Isayev at the second attempt to tie the game.
Stung back into action, Lokomotiv threatened to regain the lead late in the middle frame. Beryozkin was close to grabbing a second goal, but narrowly failed to connect as the puck skipped provocatively off the back boards. Moments later, a ricochet off Fredrik Claesson’s skate clipped the post as the Muscovites lived dangerously.
Loko started the final frame on the power play, and managed to convert the chance eight seconds before Svetlakov returned to the game. Beryozkin played the puck out from behind the net and found Artur Kayumov on the doorstep to make it 3-2. There were further scoring chances at both ends, but CSKA’s closest attempt was halted by the crossbar as Lokomotiv held on for the win.
