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Barys stuns Avangard, Spartak moves three points clear. December 28 round-up
Spartak Moscow is three points clear at the top of the KHL standings. The Red-and-Whites won 4-1 in Minsk, while closest chaser Dynamo lost 0-4 at Lada. In the east, it was a similar story: second placed Avangard suffered a heavy loss, going down 1-5 at basement club Barys, while the leader Metallurg enjoyed a big win on the road at Ak Bars. Elsewhere, there were wins for Traktor, Severstal, Avtomobilist, Salavat Yulaev and Lokomotiv in a busy day of KHL action.
Traktor eases past Sibir
Sibir Novosibirsk 0 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 (0-1, 0-2, 0-0)
Traktor shrugged off the absence of leading forwards Vladimir Tkachyov and Maxim Shabanov to secure a third win of the season over Sibir. The 3-0 scoreline keeps Alexei Zavarukhin’s team firmly in touch with the race for a top-four finish in the Eastern Conference.
This was an action-packed encounter from the start, with the teams producing plenty of shots and hits in the first period. Traktor had a slight edge on the play and converted that into a sixth-minute goal after Sibir coughed up the puck in its own zone and Vitaly Kravtsov set up Semyon Der-Arguchintsev for the opener.
Early in the second, Kravtsov scored Traktor’s second after intercepting a wayward pass from Ziyat Paigin. Meanwhile, the home team’s defensive problems proved contagious: the offense, which looked threatening in the first, failed to create much of a threat for Zach Fucale in the second. Instead, it was Traktor that scored the third goal when Nikita Tertyshny got his first since November to convert a power play in the 35th minute.
That pretty much settled the outcome and the third period was calm. Increasingly, it felt like the teams were going through the motions, with Sibir unable to find any weakness in the Traktor defense.
Barys shoots down high-flying Hawks
Barys Astana 5 Avangard Omsk 1 (1-0, 0-0, 4-1)
Struggling Barys handed high-flying Avangard a shock defeat in Astana. The visitor, which dominated yesterday’s trade deadline deals, handed a debut to one of its high-profile new arrivals in the shape of Nikolai Prokhorkin. However, he could not prevent his new colleagues from slumping to a heavy loss.
While Mikhail Kravets changed things up to accommodate Prokhorkin, his opposite number Oleg Bolyakin stuck with largely the same team that beat Sochi in its previous game. He was content to tweak the bottom six after that overtime success.
There wasn’t much fluent hockey on view in the first period. The tempo was sluggish and although Avangard tried to seize the initiative, the visitor struggled to test Eddie Pasquale in the Barys net. Prokhorkin had a couple of eye-catching moments on his debut, but it was the home team that got the only goal of the session when Daniil Apalkov scored in the 12th minute.
The second period saw the Hawks improve, but they were still unable to get their offense clicking. Once again, Prokhorkin came closest to scoring with a vicious shot that crashed into Pasquale’s helmet. At the other end, Barys had three power play chances without managing to extend its lead.
At the start of the third, the home team again had a man advantage and this time it led to a goal. Pontus Aberg, lively throughout, contributed an assist as Kirill Savitsky reacted first to a bouncing puck and stuffed it home. That lifted Barys, who continued to press and got a further reward when Anthony Camara added a third in the 44th minute. The Avangard bench challenged the play, unsuccessfully, and the visitor found itself back on the PK as Camara celebrated a goal in his fourth successive game.
Barys could not convert that power play, but just a few seconds after Avangard got back to full strength, Alikhan Omirbekov made it 4-0. That prompted a change of goalie with Pavel Khomchenko replacing Andrei Mishurov. Soon after that change, the Hawks got a power play and Khomchenko returned to the bench, only to see David Sklenicka put a fifth goal into the empty net. There was small consolation in Mikhail Gulyayev’s late goal, which robbed Pasquale of a shut-out, but this was very much Barys’ day.
Dynamo humbled in Togliatti
Lada Togliatti 4 Dynamo Moscow 0 (2-0, 2-0, 0-0)
It was billed as Nikita Gusev’s 600th game in the KHL, but it turned into a disappointment for Dynamo. The Blue-and-Whites hoped to return to the top of the standings, but instead suffered a heavy loss against a Lada team that tightened its grip on a top-four place in the East.
Gusev has 52 points this season but he and his colleagues were silenced by Lada today. That owed much to great work from goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky, who stopped 38 shots. In front of him, the home defense blocked a further 25 attempts to leave Dynamo frustrated.
While one offense was left wondering how it failed to score, the other proved clinical with far fewer chances. Lada had barely half the attacking possession that Dynamo enjoyed, but scored four times from 20 shots on Maxim Motorygin. The Motormen also went two-for-two on the power play, highlighting their ability to make the most of their chances.
The opener came from the first power play of the game, with Mikhail Fisenko given the freedom of the slot as he redirected Maxim Mineyev’s point shot past Motorygin. Shortly after, Fisenko found himself in the box but Dynamo could not take advantage, and after he returned Lada doubled its lead just before the intermission. Yegor Babenko battled hard behind the net and emerged to fire the puck to the danger zone for Evgeny Groshev to double the lead.
In the second period, Dynamo’s power play again fluffed its lines before Lada added a third goal. Once again Babenko and Groshev combined, with the latter getting his second and Lada’s third midway through the game. Then came the home team’s second power play and, three seconds later, a fourth goal. This time, Ostap Safin found a way past Motorygin, leaving Dynamo with too much to do.
That rendered the third period largely academic. Dynamo asked a few questions early on, helped by another power play. But Podyapolsky had the answers and hopes of an unlikely fightback quickly subsided. With little of note on the ice, the party got started in the crowd as a Mexican wave circled the arena to celebrate a memorable Lada victory.
Vovchenko’s treble sinks Ak Bars
Ak Bars Kazan 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 (0-1, 0-2, 1-1)
Ak Bars has been in the headlines this week – but the Kazan club would surely prefer to be making the news for different reasons. The noisy exit of Damir Zhafyarov, combined with a run of three losses in four games, generated plenty of uncertainty around the team ahead of the visit of Eastern Conference leader Metallurg.
The Zhafyarov trade turned into a blockbuster: he joined Avangard, the Hawks released Igor Geraskin to Metallurg and, in turn, Semyon Koshelev moved from Magnitogorsk to Kazan. Neither Koshelev nor Geraskin featured in today’s game.
However, Daniil Vovchenko certainly did. The former Severstal forward was going nowhere this season until he moved to Magnitogorsk and rejoined head coach Andrei Razin. On Christmas Eve he potted his first goal of the campaign and today he added a hat-trick. Vovchenko opened the scoring right at the end of the first period. He reacted fastest after Robin Press attempted to fire in a point shot, broke his stick and sent the puck squirting off Danila Yurov into the forward’s path.
That goal, which came on the power play, was a deserved reward after Metallurg dominated the first period. There was more to come in the second. Arkhip Nekolenko doubled the lead in the 23rd minute, putting away the rebound from Roman Kantserov’s shot. Then, late in the frame, Vovchenko got his second power play marker of the night when he converted a no-look feed from Alexander Petunin to make it 3-0. Although Amir Miftakhov made several big saves to keep Ak Bars in some kind of contention, he was replaced during the second intermission as Timur Bilyalov entered the game.
There was a flicker of resistance from Ak Bars when Artyom Lukoyanov pulled a goal back in the 46th minute. However, it was perhaps characteristic of the home team’s problems that this, too, came from a Metallurg error: Denis Zernov lost control of the puck and Lukoyanov took advantage to beat Ilya Nabokov.
But there would be no big fightback. Instead, Metallurg improved its position at the top of the table with a 4-1 victory, rounding off a good day when Vovchenko got his third of the night. Once again, he fired home from the left-hand circle after Alexander Petunin’s feed found its way through traffic to reach him.
Loko holds off Torpedo’s late rally
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 (0-2, 0-2, 3-1)
In terms of points per game, Lokomotiv is the strongest team in the KHL right now. Today, Igor Nikitin’s team again showed its class with victory on the road at Torpedo. Going into the game, both teams had identical records of five wins from six. However, there was little sign of any similarity between them on the ice as the Railwaymen steamed to a fourth straight success.
The key passage of play came midway through the first period. Torpedo was already on the PK when Alexei Kruchinin joined Oleg Li in the box. Lokomotiv took advantage: although Li got back on the ice, Andrei Sergeyev scored during the five-on-four. Then, seconds after Kruchinin returned, Nikita Cherepanov doubled the lead.
In the closing stages of the frame, Torpedo had two power play chances of its own but could not beat Daniil Isayev. Although the stats from the first period suggested a fairly even game, the scoreboard told a different story.
After the intermission, the visiting PP struck again. This time, Denis Alexeyev was the scorer, putting away a rebound after a point shot rebounded off the boards. Going into this game, Torpedo had the best PK in the league. However, Lokomotiv had little respect for that statistic and grabbed a third power play goal before the second break when Yaroslav Likhachyov fired home from the right-hand circle.
By now, the stats were beginning to match the scoreline and it was little surprise that Lokomotiv extended its lead through Stepan Nikulin early in the third. Then came a fight between Pavel Kraskovsky and Daniil Bokun. It wasn’t the most eye-catching bout, but Bokun’s contribution re-energized his Torpedo team-mates. Midway through the final frame, a five-on-three advantage for the home team brought two goals: Sergei Goncharuk and Igor Larionov Jr made the scoreline respectable, and even offered an outside chance of a fightback.
That chance looked even more realistic when Nikita Shavin made it 3-5, then Likhachyov took a holding penalty in the 54th minute. For once, Lokomotiv’s usual composure when defending a lead seemed to be deserting it, but the visitor recovered to kill the penalty and see out the closing minutes without undue alarm.
Third-period fightback gives Severstal the edge
Severstal Cherepovets 3 Kunlun Red Star 1 (0-1, 0-0, 3-0)
The home team had to wait until the third period, but managed to turn this game around and hand KRS a fourth consecutive defeat. In doing so, Severstal opens a 12-point gap over ninth-placed Kunlun and is now just a point behind last year’s champion CSKA.
Red Star knew that this game was a good chance to start closing on the top eight after suffering three losses after the international break. The visitor certainly looked the part in the first period, matching Severstal on both sides of the puck and taking the lead after 15 minutes. Luke Lockhart pulled off a beautiful wrist shot from the left-hand circle as Gemel Smith picked up his second assist in two games following his move to the Dragons.
In the second period, Severstal began to see more of the puck, but Red Star worked hard to limit the shots at Jeremy Smith’s net – 10 blocked shots in the middle frame alone helped to preserve that 1-0 lead. But the pressure told at the start of the third. Vladimir Grudinin tied it up within a minute of the restart, then Severstal moved in front on Alexander Skorenov’s goal after 44 minutes. The Belarusian forward has found the net in each of his last three games.
Kunlun remained in the contest until the very end, but when Jeremy Smith left his net late on, Severstal finished the job. Mikhail Ilyin’s empty net goal wrapped up a 3-1 win to keep his team on track for a playoff spot.
Vityaz denied at the death
Vityaz Moscow Region 2 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 SO (1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
After snapping its losing streak with a 6-4 win over Dinamo Minsk last time out, Vityaz was close to another win against Avtomobilist. However, a last-minute goal from Nikita Tryamkin saved the Motormen in regulation and the visitor went on to take the shoot-out.
Early in the game, Avtomobilist got a five-on-three power play and Stephane Da Costa opened the scoring. That lead did not last long: a penalty for Andrei Obidin brought a tying goal for Ivan Vorobyov, adding to his double on Dinamo.
In the second period, Vityaz went in front thanks to Jeremy Roy’s effort. That goal looked like it might be the winner, but on 59:29, with Avto playing six-on-five, Tryamkin got a dramatic equalizer.
Overtime could not separate the teams and for a long time the shoot-out was scoreless. However, Anatoly Golyshev gave the visitor the edge when he converted the eighth attempt, then Derek Barach fired wide to give Avtomobilist the verdict.
Spartak’s triumphal march continues
Dinamo Minsk 1 Spartak Moscow 4 (0-0, 1-3, 0-1)
Spartak enhanced its position at the top of the KHL standings with victory in Minsk. After second-placed Dynamo suffered a heavy loss in Togliatti, the Red-and-Whites took advantage to hand the Bison a fourth successive loss.
The first period was goalless. Dinamo made the brighter start, enjoying more possession and asking some questions of its former goalie Patrik Rybar. However, Spartak got into the game as the action progressed and even had the puck in the net off the final play of the frame. However, Dmitry Vishnevsky’s effort was whistled off: it found the top corner just after the hooter sounded.
Nothing daunted, Spartak continued to press at the start of the second, and Maxim Tsyplakov put the visitor in front. He used his body to protect the puck on the boards and battled his way to the slot to fire in a shot that deflection off Kodie Curran’s skate and past Yegor Velmakin in the home net.
However, Rybar took a penalty almost immediately after that goal, and Dinamo tied it up on the power play. Sam Anas broke down the right and fired in the puck, Alexander Volkov steered it into the net to make it 1-1 in the 23rd minute.
The action did not let up. In the 26th minute, Mikhail Maltsev scored his first goal for Spartak, restoring the visitor’s lead. Nikolai Goldobin set up Pavel Poryadin at the back door, and when his shot was saved, Maltsev reacted first to convert the rebound. The chances kept coming at both ends, but the last action of the frame saw Poryadin finish off a well-worked move involving Maltsev and Goldobin to make it 3-1 at the intermission.
Dylan Ferguson replaced Velmakin in the Dinamo goal for the third period. He was quickly into the action and faced a penalty shot from Tsyplakov in the 44th minute. However, the Spartak man could not get his second of the game, forced to shoot wide of the target. Instead, Shane Prince got Spartak’s fourth, scoring on his former club midway through the final stanza.
Spartak bounced back from a shoot-out loss at Torpedo last time and made it eight games with at least one point.
Salavat Yulaev outscores struggling Sochi
HC Sochi 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 6 (2-2, 1-2, 1-2)
Sochi found itself in another high-scoring game, but fell to a ninth successive loss after a 10-goal thriller against Salavat Yulaev. While the Leopards have scored a respectable 24 goals in that run, they’ve also allowed 43 – a GAA of almost five.
The home team led twice in the first period, but could not hold on either time. Matvei Michkov, returning after sustaining an injury on Dec. 1, got his first goal since Nov. 16 to open the scoring. However, he saw Gleb Kuzmin cancel that one out barely a minute later. Then Artyom Pimenov’s power play goal made it 2-2 after Anton Sagadeyev briefly restored Sochi’s lead.
Early in the second, another power play saw Josh Leivo put Salavat Yulaev up for the first time. Artur Tyanulin hit back for Sochi, but goals either side of the second intermission put the visitor in control. Alexei Vasilevsky restored the lead, then Alexander Chmelevski struck 23 seconds into the third period to establish a two-goal lead.
Kirill Rasskazov kept home hopes alive, but Ufa was not about to let this one slip. Leivo set up Ivan Drozdov to make it 6-4 in the 55th minute and the visitor held that advantage to the end.
