Last-gasp thriller in Ufa, Red Star stuns Avto. December 2 round-up

Salavat Yulaev salvaged its game against Spartak in dramatic circumstances, tying the game with a short-handed goal in the last minute before claiming a shoot-out verdict. Lada also took a shoot-out win at Sibir, while Kunlun Red Star thumped Avtomobilist 5-2 to close to within a point of a playoff place.

Lada grabs morale-boosting win

Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Lada Togliatti 3 SO (0-0, 1-0, 1-2, 0-0, 0-1)

Lada arrived in Novosibirsk on a run of six losses from seven games. Moreover, the Motormen were without several leading players, including import forwards Troy Josephs and Scott Kosmachuk. In addition, defenseman Georgy Solyannikov was unavailable after taking an injury in the previous game at Salavat Yulaev.

Sibir was without teen sensation Vladimir Mikhalyov, who is involved in the Junior Hockey League’s Challenge Cup game this weekend. He was replaced by fit-again Georgy Belousov. Anton Khudobin replaced the injured Anton Krasotkin as starting goalie.

The teams took time to settle in the game, but after a cautious five minutes, Sibir was the first to show. Maxim Sushko had a good chance on an odd-man rush and the home team enjoyed some promising spells of possession in front of Alexander Trushkov’s net. At the other end, Lada improved as the game progressed, with Andrei Altybarmakyan and Ostap Safin firing wide from decent positions.

In the second period Lada failed to convert the first power play of the game. The visitor has the weakest PP in the league this season and continued to struggle with a man advantage. Later in the frame, Vladimir Butuzov showed how it should be done when he scored off Sibir’s first power play.

After failing to score on an authentic power play, Lada tied the game midway through the third on a delayed penalty. Taylor Beck’s foul sent Trushkov scurrying to the bench, and the visitor’s six skaters engineered a scoring chance for Dmitry Kugryshev. Beck redeemed himself with an assist as Timur Akhiyarov restored Sibir’s lead but that lasted just a couple of minutes before Mislav Rosandic made it 2-2 when he followed up the rebound from his own shot.

That sent the game to overtime, and then to a shoot-out. Kugryshev added to his goal in regulation with the decisive attempt to give Lada a much-needed victory.

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Late drama saves Salavat Yulaev

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3 Spartak Moscow 2 SO (0-1, 1-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Salavat Yulaev saved the game in dramatic circumstances before going on to take a shoot-out victory. The home team looked to be in trouble when it fell behind in the 58^th minute. Worse followed when defenseman Nicolas Meloche took a penalty that would leave his team short-handed for the remainder of regulation time.

Yet Viktor Kozlov’s team found a path to salvation. After killing 1:11 of Meloche’s penalty, Salavat Yulaev called goalie Alexander Samonov to the bench and played five-on-five with an empty net. A desperate remedy for a desperate situation ... and it worked! With 31 seconds left, Alexander Chmelevski shot from the point and Ivan Drozdov redirected the puck as it flew to Andrei Kareyev’s net. Drozdov’s touch took it away from the goalie and into the net to force overtime.

Reprieved at the death, Salavat Yulaev went on to dominate overtime. Samonov sat out most of the extras as Kozlov looked to repeat his earlier empty-net success, but on this occasion Spartak kept its goal intact even if it could not find a chance to win it at the other end. Then, in the shoot-out, Chmelevski had the only successful attempt to give the home team a narrow verdict and hand the Red-and-Whites a fourth defeat in five games.

Earlier in the game, Spartak led twice. Alexander Belyayev opened the scoring midway through the first period, and that advantage held until the 37^th minute. Chmelevski, who was at the heart of most of the positives for Salavat Yulaev, cancelled that one out off a Drozdov assist, with Ivan extending his productive streak to three games on the play.

Late in the third, Ansel Galimov restored Spartak’s lead and the Muscovites seemed to be heading back to the top of the Western Conference. However, the home team had other ideas and reeled off a fourth successive victory to return to the top four in the East.

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Family affair for Red Star

Kunlun Red Star 5 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 (2-0, 1-1, 2-1)

The Dragons scored an impressive victory over Avtomobilist, improving to four wins from the last five games and moving to within a point of the playoffs in the West.

This game was very much a family affair for the home team. With two pairs of brothers on the line-up, Red Star had goals from Tyler and Austin Wong, while Parker and Spencer Foo had a goal and an assist between them. That was enough to end a run of nine successive regulation time losses against Avtomobilist – a sequence that had a painful goal differential of 48-8 in the Motormen’s favor.

Today was very different. It started with the Wong family taking control of the first period. Elder brother Tyler opened the scoring, and soon after that Austin made it 2-0. That was only his second goal in the KHL after the summer recruit makes his recovery from injury.

Midway through the third, Parker Foo added a third for the home team, chasing goalie Evgeny Alikin from the net. Vladimir Galkin replaced him and Avtomobilist finally stepped up a gear. The visitor made it a one-goal game with markers either side of the intermission from Ilya Ovchinnikov and Alexander Sevostyanov.

However, it could not complete the fightback. Instead, Colin Campbell added to his earlier assist to make it 4-2. Then, a couple of minutes later, Spencer Foo’s helper contributed to Jack Rodewald’s tally. It’s the first time the Dragons have scored five on Avtomobilist in the KHL, and the first time since Sep. 2019 that they’ve taken a point from this opponent.