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Advantage Amur in playoff race. February 14 round-up
With a second win in successive days over Traktor, Amur moves two points clear in the race for eighth place and holds its playoff destiny in its own hands. At the foot of the Eastern Conference, Barys snapped an 11-game losing streak with victory at Admiral and moved to within three points of today’s opponent. In the west, Severstal dented Spartak’s hopes of challenging for first place, while Sochi downed Torpedo.
Barulin leads Tigers to victory
Amur Khabarovsk 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 (1-1, 2-0, 1-1)
The Tigers opened up a two-point gap over Neftekhimik in the race for a playoff place. The two teams have both played 63 games, and today’s win gives Amur a clear advantage as the regular season enters its final days.
Wednesday’s victory over Traktor, a second in two days, was led by two goals from Vladislav Barulin. He also collected an assist, moving to six points from two games against Traktor.
Yet the visitor, which is still looking to secure its own playoff spot, took the lead early in the game. Amur’s bright start was undermined when Stanislav Bocharov took a penalty. Traktor could not convert the power play, but Bocharov had barely returned to the game before Sergei Telegin fired in a shot from the blue line that Igor Bobkov failed to see through traffic.
However, the home team continued to press and tied the game thanks to good work from Jan Drozg on the slot. That made it 1-1 at the first intermission, although Amur could point to a 17-8 advantage in shots on goal to suggest that it had the better of the play.
Early in the second, Amur got in front when Barulin and Yegor Korshkov sent Bocharov on the counter. Then came a flashpoint when Viktor Baldayev looked to avenge a big hit from Charles Robinson. Ilya Karpukhin stepped up to fight on behalf of Traktor’s import and the incident ended with the visitor on the power play. Baldayev, as well as his fighting and roughing penalties, also sat out a minor for interference.
That power play came to little of note, and back at full strength Amur extended its lead with a one-timer from Barulin.
Midway through the third, Barulin struck again with another goal on the counterattack. He might have had a hat-trick, but a third goal was ruled out for interference on goalie Zach Fucale. Traktor kept pushing, and Robinson potted a late consolation goal for the visitor, but this was definitely Amur’s day.
Barys snaps losing streak
Admiral Vladivostok 2 Barys Astana 3 (0-2, 0-1, 2-0)
After 11 successive losses, Barys finally got a win. Avenging yesterday’s loss in Vladivostok, the Kazakhs withstood a home fightback to take a 3-2 verdict. The result reduces the gap between the two teams to three points, with the Sailors currently hovering just above the basement.
For the first 10 minutes, Admiral looked set to repeat Tuesday’s triumph. The home team had several good chances, including a penalty shot that Giovanni Fiore was unable to convert against Eddie Pasquale. But when it seemed a home goal was inevitable, Barys landed a sucker punch. The Sailors gave up possession in center ice and Evgeny Rymarev took advantage to open the scoring on the backhand. Five minutes later, the Barys imports combined to double that lead, with Pontus Aberg setting up Anthony Camara.
In the second period, Admiral changed goalies and sent Sergei Ivanov into the game in place of Vasily Demchenko. Ivanov was not exactly busy for long periods as the home team dominated. Indeed, in 10 minutes Barys managed just one shot on target. Yet, once again, the visitor found the way to goal with Rymarev scoring his second of the night in the face of all that pressure on Pasquale’s net.
At the start of the third, Demchenko returned in place of Ivanov. That might have inspired the home offense – finally, Admiral got on the scoreboard thanks to a power play tally from Alexander Gorshkov four minutes into the finale. Late on, the Sailors replaced Demchenko with a sixth skater and, using that extra man, pulled a second goal back thanks to Dmitry Zavgorodny. However, hopes of completing the comeback were scuppered when Libor Sulak’s foul put Barys on the power play for the final moments.
Steelmen shoot down Spartak
Severstal Cherepovets 4 Spartak Moscow 2 (0-0, 2-1, 2-1)
Severstal halted Spartak’s four-game winning streak and, in doing so, put a hole in the Muscovites’ hopes of topping the Western Conference. With four games left to play, Spartak trails SKA by five points. Meanwhile, this game could prove to be a rehearsal for the playoffs, with the teams currently in fourth and fifth places.
The first period was mostly notable for the lack of breaks in play. There were just seven stoppages in total and at one point the teams played over 10 minutes without a whistle.
After that goalless opening frame, Severstal jumped to a 2-0 lead at the start of the second. The Steelmen went ahead in the 22nd minute when Danil Aimurzin’s shot flashed narrowly wide and rebounded off the boards for Nikita Sedov to score. Ninety seconds later the host doubled the lead when Alexander Skorenov scored from the slot.
Spartak responded by calling a time-out and gradually got back into the game. Midway through the session, the Red-and-Whites got on the power play and Ansel Galimov halved the deficit. In the remainder of the second period the visitor looked the livelier team but Severstal held its lead until the intermission.
In the third, both teams created chances early on. However, the next goal went to Severstal in the 48th minute, when Ivan Podshivalov drilled the puck to the back and enjoyed the luck of the bounce as it deflected off a Spartak player and into the net. The visitor hit back quickly, again with the aid of a deflection. This time it was a Yegor Zaitsev point shot that found the net via an inadvertent contribution from a defenseman.
That ensured the game would remain alive until the last seconds. However, Spartak’s attempt to force the pace late on went badly astray. Goalie Andrei Kareyev barely made it to the bench before his team-mates lost possession and Nikita Rozhkov found the empty net to complete the scoring.
Sochi edges past Torpedo
HC Sochi 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 (0-0, 2-0, 1-2)
Although Sochi cannot make this year’s playoffs, the Leopards are still keen to avoid a repeat of last season’s basement finish. Today’s win over Torpedo moves the team up to ninth, a point ahead of Kunlun Red Star and four in front of last-placed Vityaz. The result also keeps Sochi ahead of Barys in the overall KHL standings.
For Torpedo, meanwhile, the end of the season is proving a little concerning. Igor Larionov’s team secured its playoff spot some time back, but now finds itself on a run of just two wins in nine games. With playoff hockey fast approaching, fans in Nizhny Novgorod will be hoping that this is evidence of their favorites conserving energy, rather than losing focus.
The first period could be used to support either theory. Torpedo outplayed Sochi, outshooting the host 13-4 and spending more than twice as long on the attack. So far, so focussed. Except that the execution was lacking: all that pressure failed to produce a goal and home team made it unscathed to the intermission.
Then the pattern of play reversed in the middle frame. Now Sochi was banging in the shots – and with impressive accuracy. Of 23 attempts, 20 were on target. Better still, two of them beat Ivan Kulbakov. Nikolai Chebykin opened the scoring early on, then Daniil Seroukh doubled the lead on 38:47. Seroukh moves to six goals this season, four of them in the last six games. Tonight was the first time he scored in a Sochi victory.
The visitor attempted to fight back in the third period, and a power play goal from Denis Yan in the 49th minute put the game back in the balance. However, it took just a couple of minutes for Sochi to re-establish a two-goal advantage, Seroukh the provider this time as Timur Khafizov scored the host’s third.
That wasn’t quite the end. Torpedo’s 20-year-old forward Arseny Varlakov potted his first KHL goal to keep the game in the balance until the final moments. And those final seconds produced more drama as Seroukh went to the box for tripping. Torpedo called a time-out and played the last 10 seconds with six skaters against four. However, Sochi held on to take the win.
