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Sixth straight win for Tigers, Traktor secures playoff spot. February 16 round-up
Traktor became the sixth team in the east to secure its playoff spot, thanks to a 3-2 win at Admiral. Also in the Far East, Amur took another step towards clinching its own playoff berth. A 4-1 success against Barys gives the Tigers a three-point lead over ninth-placed Neftekhimik. The only game in the West saw Sochi move up to ninth place with a win over Torpedo.
Sixth straight win for Tigers
Amur Khabarovsk 4 Barys Astana 1 (3-0, 1-0, 0-1)
Amur is hitting its best form of the season at just the right time. Today’s victory over Barys was the sixth in a row for Andrei Martemyanov’s team, and it gives the Tigers a three-point advantage over ninth-placed Neftekhimik in the race for a playoff spot in the East. Barys, already out of playoff contention, snapped its 11-game losing streak in the previous game at Admiral, but proved unable to build on that success.
The home team started fast – record-breakingly fast. It took just nine seconds for Stanislav Bocharov to beat Eddie Pasquale. The earliest goal the Tigers had scored in a KHL game previously took 21 seconds as Dmitry Tarasov opened the scoring against Atlant back in Sep. 2012. Meanwhile, Bocharov extended his hot streak to three games and soon added an assist as Dmitry Shevchenko made it 2-0 in the sixth minute.
Late in the frame, Barys got a power play after Alex Broadhurst’s foul. However, it took just 10 seconds for Amur to get on the counter and grab a short handed goal thanks to Kirill Slepets. The play began with Igor Bobkov making a pad save at the other end, rather summing up the visitor’s luck.
The third goal also saw Pasquale leave the game in favor of Andrei Shutov. The second period was more even but even without a clear advantage in the game, Amur managed to extend its lead when Broadhurst reacted well on the rebound.
That effectively ended the game, although midway through the third Barys managed a consolation goal. Evgeny Rymarev was the scorer, while Roman Starchenko’s assist was his 200th in KHL play.
Traktor secures playoff spot
Admiral Vladivostok 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 (2-1, 0-0, 0-2)
After five straight losses, Traktor finally secured the win it needed to confirm its playoff place. Although there was little danger of Chelyabinsk missing out, there was a sense that the team was getting nervous as the finishing line came into sight. Today, though, despite trailing 0-2, Traktor got the job done.
In response to that skid, Alexei Zavarukhin swapped up his lines. In Vladivostok, his first trio was Jack Rodewald, Danil Yurtaikin and Charles Robinson, while Alexander Rykov joined Maxim Shabanov and Vladimir Tkachyov on the second. Vitaly Kravtsov replaced Anton Burdasov on the third, with the latter scratched.
Although Traktor made a decent start to the game, the visitor was disrupted by a too many men penalty. Admiral could not find a power play goal, but rode the momentum to take the lead through Giovanni Fiore after the teams returned to full strength. Exactly a minute later, the Sailors doubled the lead. Daniil Gutik skilfully got past Grigory Dronov and set up Pavel Makhanovsky with the simplest of chances.
In response, Traktor posed some questions on its first power play of the game but Vasily Demchenko came up with the answers. Late in the frame, the visitor reduced the deficit when Ilya Karpukhin seemed to catch Demchenko unaware to score from a less than threatening situation.
The middle frame continued in similar vein, albeit with the goals. Traktor was keen to control possession around Admiral’s net, while the Sailors were happy to strike on the counter. One of those breakaways should have brought a second goal for Fiore but, with Zach Fucale beaten, he fired over the top. At the other end, Robinson and Yurtaikin were close to tying the scores but there was no change before the second intermission.
At the start of the third, the pressure on the home net intensified. At first, another power play tightened the screws but the home PK continued to work flawlessly. Then, Traktor finally tied the game at equal strength: Vladimir Zharkov got a perfect touch on Mikhail Kotlyarevsky’s point shot. It looked like that might take us to overtime, but in the last minute Traktor found a winner: Demchenko gave up a big rebound and Kravtsov pounced to make it 3-2 with 28 seconds left.
Leopards move up to ninth in the West
HC Sochi 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1)
The race for ninth place in the Western Conference might be meaningless in terms of the playoffs, but it has plenty of value for Sochi and Kunlun Red Star. Although neither team will make post season, both are enjoying their best points returns since 2020 and each is eager to finish as high up the standings as possible.
Today’s win for Sochi returns the Leopards to ninth, one point ahead of the Dragons, who play tomorrow against a Vityaz team that could also play a part in the race. However, the result also adds to the questions around Torpedo, which suffered a third successive loss and its eighth in 10 games. Hardly ideal form for a team looking to make an impression in the playoffs after reaching the second round last time.
Penalty trouble put Torpedo on the back foot here. The visitor was called for too many men in the second minute, and Nikolai Kovalenko sat for high sticking after six minutes play. That handed Sochi the initiative and a third home power play saw Kirill Rasskazov open the scoring. Torpedo then got a chance to play five-on-three, but could not capitalize and the Leopards preserved the lead until the intermission.
After the break, another power play brought another goal for Rasskazov as Sochi doubled its lead in the 37th minute. However, at the start of the third, a home penalty handed Torpedo a lifeline and Sergei Goncharuk needed just four seconds to punish Artyom Volkov’s trip. That brought the game back to life. However, in recent games Sochi forward Daniil Seroukh has hit a purple patch. Today he scored for the fourth game in a row, making it 3-1 in the 59th minute and putting the game beyond Torpedo.
