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SKA, Metallurg make flying starts to 2024. January 3 round-up
The KHL is back in action, and the first games of 2024 provided plenty of incident. SKA was the day’s big winner, thumping Vityaz 6-1. Metallurg opened a four-point lead at the top of the East thanks to a shoot-out win at Sochi and Avangard’s loss at home to Salavat Yulaev. In the Urals derby, Avtomobilist recovered from 1-3 to beat Traktor; in Yaroslavl, Barys rallied from 0-2 to edge Loko in a shoot-out. Severstal defeated Amur 4-2.
Murphy kicks off 2024 with a bang
Sibir Novosibirsk 4 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (0-0, 3-1, 1-0)
Canadian defenseman Trevor Murphy celebrated 2024 with two goals to lead Sibir to victory over Admiral. Murphy, like his team, will be hoping for a better time in the new year: he spent much of the season injured, and in his absence Sibir found itself battling to stay in the top eight in the Eastern Conference.
Murphy’s goals came in the second period, finally seeing off the visitor’s resistance. Yet this game might have been very different were it not for some strong goaltending from Anton Krasotkin in the first period. Admiral outshot its host 15-3 but could not force a breakthrough. The teams went to the intermission without a goal.
Sibir got its breakthrough early in the second when Taylor Beck converted his team’s first power play of the game. That was the Canadian’s 300th point in the KHL, but it did not build a lasting lead. Admiral hit back after 26 seconds as Alexander Gorshkov tied the scores almost immediately.
Then came Murphy’s big contribution. First, he fired in a shot from the left-hand boards while visiting goalie Vasily Demchenko was heavily screened and unable to react. It was a similar story in the 36th minute when another effort through traffic opened a 3-1 advantage.
Leonids Tambijevs tried to kickstart Admiral’s game by shuffling his lines in the third period. However, that did not yield the key to Sibir’s defense. At the other end, Andy Andreoff added a fourth to complete a comfortable win for the home team in its first action of 2024.
Little joy on home debuts
Avangard Omsk 2 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 (0-2, 2-2, 0-0)
The new year brought a first chance for fans in Omsk to see Avangard’s new-look line-up. Nikolai Prokhorkin and Damir Zhafyarov, two of the highest-profile trades on deadline day, made their home debuts. However, there was no return for Vladimir Tkachyov who remains ill.
Despite the new faces in Avangard colors, it was Salavat Yulaev that made the early running. The visitor was consistently ahead of the game and got its reward late in the session. Danil Bashkirov opened the scoring after 15 minutes. Then Valentin Pyanov took a penalty and Ivan Drozdov doubled the lead just before the hooter.
Salavat Yulaev continued to threaten at the start of the second, but Avangard scored against the run of play. The Hawks managed a rare spell of attacking possession and Mikhail Gulyayev’s shot was smartly tipped in by Nikita Kholodilin.
Home joy was short-lived – Ufa restored its two-goal lead 30 seconds later. Salavat’s imports got on the counter and Josh Leivo dished off the puck for Alexander Chmelevski to make it 3-1.
The action kept coming thick and fast. A home power play saw Pyanov get it back to 2-3, atoning for his earlier foul that cost Avangard a goal late in the first. Zhafyarov got an assist on that one, adding to his debut goal in Togliatti on Dec. 30. However, Sibir was again quick to double its advantage and Alexander Sharov put his team up 4-2 in the 29th minute.
With a lead to defend, a fire-fight of a game was not in Salavat’s interests. The visitor learned from what had gone before and tightened up its play. Possession was the top priority, although once Ufa had the puck it was happy to explore the Avangard zone in depth. There was no further scoring, but Avangard was left hanging on by the second intermission.
The break offered a chance for the home team to regroup, but that chance was not taken. Salavat Yulaev continued to take good care of the puck, albeit now with less offensive intent. As the clock ticked down, Avangard found it hard to carve out the chances it needed to save the game and it wasn’t until the dying moments that Zhafyarov’s burst from the corner gave Alexander Samonov a serious question to answer.
Avto battles back, Macek scores twice
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 (1-3, 3-0, 0-0)
A memorable Ural derby saw Avtomobilist recover from 1-3 to defeat Traktor. After failing to score at SKA in the previous game, the Motormen were happy to welcome back Stephane Da Costa and Brooks Macek, a pair at the heart of much of their most productive offense this season.
Traktor arrived on the back of a heavy loss in Astana and Alexei Zavarukhin reworked his lines ahead of this latest battle against his cousin Nikolai. Alexander Rykov, a forward who has torn it up in the VHL this season, got his chance with a slot on the fourth line.
The game got off to a fast start. In the second minute, a Traktor rush had Evgeny Alikin scrambling to freeze the puck. While he struggled, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev’s shot bounced into the net off a home skate. Right after that, though, Yegor Popov took a double minor for high sticking and Avtomobilist tied it up on the power play. Macek, always potent on the power play, found the net after 15 seconds.
The visitor seemed to have control of the game by the first intermission. Midway through the frame, Anton Burdasov and Maxim Shabanov combined to set up Artyom Shchuchinov’s first goal in the KHL. Then, late in the session, Rykov was among the assists as Alexander Sharov made it 3-1.
It was an even game in the second period until Avtomobilist pulled a goal back in the 28th minute. Macek got his second of the night when Curtis Valk picked him out at the back door. A couple of minutes later, the scores were level: Artyom Kashtanov’s inviting diagonal caught Zach Fucale in no-man’s-land and Stepan Khripunov took advantage. Next, with the teams playing four-on-four, Avtomobilist got in front. A fantastic pass from Alexei Byvaltsev found Alexei Makeyev in space on the slot and he completed a comeback from 1-3 down to 4-3 up in the space of four frantic minutes.
After so much scoring in the first half of the game, the rest proved relatively uneventful. Avtomobilist defended deep, denying Traktor space to threaten Alikin’s net. The third period was goalless and the home team claimed the verdict.
Barys rallies to claim SO win
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 4 Barys Astana 5 SO (2-1, 0-2, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Lokomotiv’s reputation for reliable hockey took a blow in a 5-3 win over Torpedo last time out. Today, once again, the Railwaymen found their scoring form but suffered from defensive frailties. Barys took advantage, dragged the game to a shoot-out and claimed a fourth successive victory.
Everything started well enough for the home team. Goals from Alexander Polunin and Alexander Yelesin opened a 2-0 lead inside 10 minutes. However, right on the intermission Barys got one back through Anthony Camara and that changed the momentum.
The second period saw the visitor get ahead. Goals from David Sklenicka and Joey LaBate made it 3-2 to Barys and raised more questions about Loko’s usually reliable defense. And the visitor may feel it had enough to win the game in regulation. Although Alexander Volkov tied it up midway through the first, Camara’s second of the game restored the Kazakhs’ lead in the 58th minute. There was barely a minute left to play when Loko, playing with an extra skater, salvaged the game thanks to Rushan Rafikov’s tying goal.
The might have deflated Barys, but instead the visitor dug in. Lokomotiv could not convert a power play in overtime and again struggled to score in the shoot-out. Kirill Savitsky and Evgeny Rymarev converted their attempts for the visitor, while Eddie Pasquale won each of his duels on his return to a former club.
Sochi blows 2-0 lead, falls to Magnitka in OT
HC Sochi 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 OT (2-0, 0-2, 0-0, 0-1)
Metallurg improved its position at the top of the Eastern Conference, but only after coming from behind to edge past Sochi. The home team failed to win a single game in December. Today, though, it jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first period and held on to force a tie in regulation. That was worth a first point since Dec. 23 but could not lift the Leopards off the foot of the Western Conference.
Sochi controlled much of the first period, outshooting Magnitka 15-4. However, it needed the first power play of the game to produce the breakthrough goal. Makar Khabarov fouled, and Michal Kristof converted the PP in the 14th minute. Late in the frame, Matvei Michkov doubled that lead. His unassisted effort makes it three points in as many games for him following his return from injury.
Metallurg saw a pathway back into the game in the second period as Sochi began to pick up penalties. Eventually, that led to Danila Yurov finding the net, assisted by debutant Igor Geraskin. The former Severstal man, who arrived last week from Avangard, soon had another point with a helper on Vladislav Yeryomenko’s tying goal.
The third frame was goalless, but after a minute of the extras Metallurg took the win when Denis Zernov beat Nikita Bogdanov to settle the outcome.
Amur’s fightback falls short
Severstal Cherepovets 4 Amur Khabarovsk 2 (1-0, 1-1, 2-1)
Amur headed west during the New Year break, arriving in Cherepovets to start its latest road trip more than a day before the game. However, the Tigers were without forward Alex Broadhurst, who is still recovering from illness. Severstal also had players missing, including goalie Konstantin Shostak.
In an even first period, Severstal made the big breakthrough with a power play goal. Adam Liska opened the scoring in the 12th minute. That lead increased early in the second thanks to Nikita Korostelyov, who brought up 100 KHL points with his team’s second goal of the game.
After that, Amur got back into contention as Severstal suffered penalty troubles. Power play goals either side of the second intermission saw Dmitry Shevchenko and Ivan Mishchenko tie the game at 2-2. Shevchenko’s goal makes this his most productive KHL season to date.
After allowing two power play goals, Severstal had cause to be nervous when a too many men penalty gave Amur the initiative once more. This time, though, the PK hung in there and after Korostelyov served that minor, he returned to the game to score his second goal and restore the home lead. Mikhail Ilyin added a fourth in the 58th minute, making the final score 4-2.
Glotov’s hat-trick sinks Vityaz
SKA St. Petersburg 6 Vityaz Moscow Region 1 (2-0, 2-0, 2-1)
After a strong finish to 2023, SKA began 2024 in same fashion. A dominant 6-1 win over Vityaz moves Roman Rotenberg’s team up to third in the West, level on points with second-placed Lokomotiv. Today’s thumping of Vityaz showed impressive discipline: SKA completed 60 minutes without taking a single penalty.
Vasily Glotov was the star man. He hit a hat-trick to pace his team’s victory. Glotov opened the scoring in the fifth minute and SKA never looked back. Sergei Tolchinsky doubled that lead midway through the first period and from that point on it was a question of how many.
In the second period Nikita Kamalov extended the lead, adding a goal to his assist on Tolchinsky’s tally. Then Glotov scored again to put the result beyond any possible doubt.
Ivan Vorobyov got one back for Vityaz at the start of the third, but Zakhar Bardakov soon made it 5-1. Glotov completed his treble midway through the frame with a power play goal to wrap up a good day for SKA.
