Big win for Dynamo, Avangard survives Lada fightback. January 6 round-up

Saturday’s two KHL games brought plenty of goals. Dynamo Moscow had the bulk of them, beating KRS 7-1 to put a two-game blank run behind it. Avangard jumped to a 4-0 lead over Lada, but ended up hanging on for a 5-3 victory in the Eastern Conference.

Blue-and-Whites overwhelm Red Star

Dynamo Moscow 7 Kunlun Red Star 1 (2-0, 0-1, 5-0)

After failing to score in its two previous games, Dynamo made up for lost time with a seven-goal blast at home to Kunlun. Although visiting goalie Jeremy Smith performed wonders in the first two periods to keep his team alive in this game, he had no answers in the third as the Blue-and-Whites racked up five unanswered goals to record a crushing victory.

In the opening frame, Dynamo had 22 shots at Smith. The breakthrough came midway through the session when good work on the slot enabled Cedric Paquette to open the scoring. Nikita Gusev had a helper on that one, and would go on to pick up more points. A couple of minutes later, Brennan Menell doubled the lead with a power play tally and things looked bleak for Red Star. Turner Ottenbreit’s fight with Vladislav Mikhailov helped inject some energy into the visitor, but it remaine 2-0 until the intermission.

In the second period Dynamo continued to have the better of the game but was unable to add to its lead. Late in the frame, the Dragons threatened a fightback when Brandon McMillan’s one-timer just made it over the line inside Maxim Motorygin’s near post.

However, Kunlun’s hopes were ruthlessly crushed in the third. Gusev scored early to restore that two-goal advantage, then a power play goal from Jordan Weal triggered a collapse from the visitor. Weal’s marker was the first of four in less than seven minutes: Gusev got his second goal and fourth point of the game, Yegor Petukhov and Igor Chernyshov also found the net. Dynamo convincingly snapped a three-game skid and returns to third in the West, two points behind Lokomotiv and Spartak.

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Lada’s fightback falls short

Avangard Omsk 5 Lada Togliatti 3 (3-0, 1-1, 1-2)

The Hawks made a flying start to the game, but had to hold off a big fightback from Lada before claiming the win. After jumping to a 4-0 lead, Avangard saw its lead eaten away before a Nikolai Prokhorkin goal made the game safe.

Inside the first minute, Vladimir Tkachyov celebrated his return to the team with the opening goal. On the rush, he brought the puck over the blue line, made for the center of the zone and caught Lada goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky on the wrong foot with a wrister to the top corner.

There was more to come in the first period: Valentin Pyanov doubled the lead, then Reid Boucher’s power play snipe in the last minute took him to 32 goals for the season. That sets a regular season record for Avangard, beating Roman Cervenka’s haul in 2010-2011.

After a tough first period, Lada replaced Podyapolsky with Alexander Trushkov. That didn’t make much immediate difference, and Artyom Chmykhov added a fourth for Avangard in the 23^rd minute. However, when Tkachyov took a couple of penalties, the home momentum slowed. Lada gained a foothold in the game and Andrei Altybarmakyan pulled a goal back just before the second intermission.

The third frame saw the fightback in earnest. Pavel Kulikov got Lada’s second shortly after the restart, then a five-on-three power play saw Troy Josephs make it 3-4. Avangard’s top line was no longer enjoying the success it had early in the game and, as has been the case throughout the season, there wasn’t much backup from the remaining forwards. That didn’t change until the closing moments when a simple counterattack opened up the Lada rearguard. Nikita Kholodilin fired the puck to the slot and Prokhorkin was ready to get the touch beyond Trushkov and seal the win.

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