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Amur closes on playoff place. February 18 round-up
Amur was the big beneficiary of Sunday’s action. The Tigers’ win over Barys, coupled with Neftekhimik’s OT loss at Severstal, improves Andrei Martemyanov’s hopes of leading the team to the playoffs. Sibir, meanwhile, is now out of the race. At the top of the table, SKA’s hard-fought 4-3 win over Torpedo consolidates its leadership. Sunday’s other games brought victories for Admiral over Traktor and Avtomobilist over Sochi.
Tigers tighten grip on playoff spot
Amur Khabarovsk 2 Barys Astana 1 (1-0, 1-1, 0-0)
With a seventh successive victory, Amur enhanced its advantage over Neftekhimik in the playoff race. In the process, Sunday’s result ended Sibir’s chances of making the top eight.
Up against the Eastern Conference’s basement team for the second time in three days, the Tigers dominated the first period. However, despite a shot count of 24-9 and 7:32 on the attack, the home team found it hard to get past Andrei Shutov. That fast start was fuelled by early penalties for Anthony Camara and Samat Daniyar, but the opening goal had to wait until 14 seconds before the intermission. Kirill Slepets got the marker his team’s effort merited, firing home Kirill Panyukov’s feed.
Amur continued to push in the second period and was rewarded with a further goal, this time from Alexander Khokhlachyov. He was first to react to the rebound from a Yefim Gurkin point shot and that gave the home team some breathing space. Barys then pulled one back late in the middle frame when Joey LaBate scored on the power play with an impressive redirect on a Pontus Aberg shot.
In the final frame, the visitor finally managed to get the play away from its net. Barys enjoyed more puck possession but still struggled to create clear-cut scoring chances. Amur had few opportunities to extend its lead – after 41 shots on goal through 40 minutes, it managed just seven more in the third period – but the game drifted to its conclusion with little by way of a fightback from the Kazakhs.
Sailors thump Traktor
Admiral Vladivostok 6 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (1-0, 4-0, 1-1)
Traktor secured its playoff spot with victory in Vladivostok on Friday. Maybe the visitor celebrated that success a bit too hard – today’s game was a blow-out in the Sailors’ favor.
The home team made a fast start with Alexander Shevchenko opening the scoring after 63 seconds. Not a bad way to mark your 300th KHL appearance. That was the only goal of the first period, but the home team took complete control of the game in the second session.
That middle frame brought four unanswered goals. Anton Berlyov was the star of the show, scoring a hat-trick to take the game away from Traktor. That was Berlyov’s first hat-trick in the KHL and it included a short-handed goal. Dmitry Zavgorodny was also on target in the midst of his colleague’s feats. Alexander Gorshkov stretched his productive run to six games with a helper on Berlyov’s third.
With the game won, the third period did not have the same intensity. Nonetheless, Kirill Petkov added a sixth goal early in the stanza before Charles Robinson deprived Sergei Ivanov of a shut-out with a consolation effort for the visitor.
Motormen outpace Sochi
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 HC Sochi 1 (0-0, 1-1, 1-0)
Although the Motormen gave a couple of leading players a break for this game, the home team still took the verdict against Sochi. The result matters relatively little: Sochi cannot make the Western playoffs, while Avto has only an outside chance of moving into the top four and beginning its post season on home ice.
The early stages saw the home team enjoy a territorial advantage, but the best chance came when Sochi’s Matvei Michkov produced an individual rush that narrowly failed to produce a goal. Avtomobilist was getting steadily more dangerous, but neither side could break the deadlock before the intermission.
In the second period it took some time for the game to liven up. That all changed in the 27th minute as the teams traded quickfire goals. Michkov put Sochi up, but 30 seconds later the scores were level: Anatoly Golyshev’s willingness to chase saw him produce a great assist for Stephane Da Costa to tie the game.
After that, Avto took control, as evidenced by a 13-2 shot count in the home team’s favor. However, it wasn’t until late in the game that Stepan Khripunov got the winner with a redirect on Alexander Sevostyanov’s point shot.
Severstal fightback hurts Wolves’ playoff push
Severstal Cherepovets 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 OT (1-2, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Neftekhimik dropped a valuable point in its battle to beat Amur to eighth place. Despite leading 2-0 against Severstal, the Wolves could not hold on to that advantage and fell in overtime.
The early stages went well for the visitor. Although Severstal enjoyed more possession, Neftekhimik matched the host shot for shot and proved far more effective with the chances it created. Vladimir Bryukvin opened the scoring after 11 minutes and Dmitry Sokolov doubled that lead seconds after Christian Jaros’s penalty expired. However, 13 seconds after that goal, Ilya Pastukhov sat for interference and Severstal converted that power play four seconds later through Mikhail Ilyin.
In the second period, the pattern of play was similar. The Steelmen had far more of the puck, but Neftekhimik kept Severstal to the perimeter for long spells. Once again, the home PP made the difference, Kirill Pilipenko tying the game in the 35th minute.
Severstal was close to getting ahead midway through the third when it took a video review to confirm that a chance did not cross the line. The final frame saw the home team create a bit more, but not enough to escape overtime.
In the extras, Neftekhimik had a great to win it when Danil Aimurzin gave away a penalty shot. He was reprieved when Andrei Belozyorov failed to scored, and fully exonerated by Jaros’s winner.
Torpedo blows 3-1 lead, loses at SKA
SKA St. Petersburg 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 (1-0, 0-2, 3-1)
The new SKA Arena remains an impregnable fortress. However, a fourth successive home win was hard work against a Torpedo team that led 3-1 early in the third.
Previously, no visiting team had managed more than one goal here. So when Andrei Pedan put SKA 1-0 in front midway through the first period, the home crowd of 21,284 fans could reasonably expect a straightforward afternoon.
However, Torpedo had not read the script. Overpowered in the first period, the visitor hung in the game and trailed by just one goal despite a 17-3 shot count in SKA’s favor. Then, in the middle frame, Torpedo started on the long road back. No longer was the play heading exclusively towards one net. The visitor was asking questions, and eventually finding answers. Nikolai Kovalenko tied the scores on the power play in the 36th minute and when Stepan Falkovsky returned to the box a couple of shifts later, Bobby Lynch gave the visitor the lead.
After a strong finish to the second period, the visitor began the third in similar fashion. Denis Yan’s goal made it 3-1 on 41:20 and chased Pavel Moisevich from the net. Johan Mattsson replaced him and the Swede, who has struggled with injury for so long, did not allow a goal as SKA began its fightback.
At the other end, the home offense suddenly clicked. Nikolai Polyakov and Marat Khairullin struck within a minute to tie the scores. Then, midway through the session, Polyakov set up Maxim Fedotov for the game-winner. SKA consolidates its position at the top of the standings, Torpedo continues to struggle with indifferent results at the end of its regular season campaign.
