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Neftekhimik loss hands Amur the last playoff spot. February 20 round-up
After a 1-2 defeat at Dinamo Minsk, Neftekhimik had to abandon its hopes of making the playoffs. As a result, Amur is confirmed as the 16th and final participant in 2024’s post season. As things stand, the Tigers will start off the playoffs at Avangard, which returned to the Eastern summit with a 4-2 win over Avtomobilist. In the West, leader SKA suffered its first loss since moving to its new arena. Severstal proved to be an unwelcome guest and won 3-0. Elsewhere there was high-scoring win for Spartak, which trailed 0-3 before sinking Torpedo 7-3. Sibir beat Lada 3-0, and Kunlun Red Star moved in front of Sochi with a 4-0 success.
Sibir signs off with home win
Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Lada Togliatti 0 (2-0, 1-0, 0-0)
There was little more than pride at stake in Sibir’s final home game of the regular season. The host could not make the playoff. However, with this being the final game at the new Sibir arena for this campaign, there was a clear desire to finish strongly. Lada, meanwhile, rested its import forwards Scott Kosmachuk and Troy Josephs. Having secured a playoff spot, it seems that the Motormen are not greatly worried about scrapping for sixth place rather than seventh or eighth and will focus on staying healthy ahead of post season.
Sibir, by contrast, went with pretty much the strongest available team and made a bright start to the game. After killing an early penalty, the home side dictated much of the subsequent play and built a 2-0 lead in the first period. Ilya Mikheyev opened the scoring in the 11th minute with an effort that survived bench challenge for offside. Lada killed the subsequent delay of game penalty, but allowed Georgy Belousov to double the lead in the 15th minute. There might have been more had the post not saved Lada after a Vladimir Butuzov effort beat Vladislav Podyapolsky.
Denied on that occasion, Butuzov found the target early in the third to convert the rebound following a shot from Belousov. That made it 3-0 and completed the scoring in the 24th minute. From that point on, the home team continued to dominate the game without adding to the scoring.
Hawks back on top in the East
Avangard Omsk 4 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 (1-0, 3-0, 0-2)
The Hawks went back to the top of the Eastern Conference, moving ahead of Metallurg thanks to Tuesday’s victory over Avtomobilist. Avangard brought Slovak forward Tomas Jurco back into the team and he responded with two goals to pace the victory.
Avtomobilist started the game with a dangerous attack, but Pavel Khomchenko snuffed out the threat. On the next play, Jurco opened the scoring, effectively responding to a loose puck in front of Vladimir Galkin’s net. Not long after that, though, the goalscorer had to return to the locker room after blocking a shot at the other end.
However, Jurco missed just one shift while he got himself patched up, and Avangard continued to have the better of the game through the first period. The visitor had a good chance late in the frame when Brooks Macek broke clear, but he fired straight at Khomchenko.
In the middle frame, Jurco proved his fitness with a second goal. This time, he redirected Nikolai Prokhorkin’s shot to double the home lead. That heralded a good second stanza for the host, with further tallies from Valentin Pyanov and Ivan Nikolishin taking the game away from the Motormen. At the other end, it was hard to imagine how Alexei Makeyev and Anatoly Golyshev failed to convert Avto’s clearest chance of the game, but the visitor went to the second intermission still seeking a way past Khomchenko.
In the third period, Evgeny Alikin took over from Galkin in the visitor’s net. Avangard managed to keep Avtomobilist at arm’s length at the start of the session, but gradually came under more pressure. Goals from Makeyev and Andrei Obidin a couple of minutes apart offered a way back for Avto. The home team had to run down almost eight minutes with a two-goal lead and managed to do that without suffering further damage. It might have been different if Sergei Shirokov had scored with a late effort that hit the crossbar, but the puck flew to safety and Avangard closed out the win.
Neftekhimik’s playoff hopes end
Dinamo Minsk 2 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 (1-0, 1-0, 0-1)
This game was a must-win for Neftekhimik. Only victory would maintain hopes of pipping Amur to the last remaining playoff spot. For Dinamo, by contrast, eighth place – and no higher – is already certain in the west; Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team is now looking to play itself into top form ahead of a playoff test against the conference leader.
However, if the Wolves had ample motivation, they also had to contend with a slump in form at the worst possible time. With just one win in five ahead of the trip to Belarus, Neftekhimik saw Amur roar in front in the playoff race. Dinamo, consistently inconsistent, was due a loss after winning its previous game but picked Tuesday to snap its sequence of alternate wins and losses. In doing so, it ended the visitor’s season with a week to go.
The first period was a cautious affair and the teams managed just 15 shots on goal between them. The only one that counted came a minute before the hooter, when Dinamo was on its first power play of the night and Rob Hamilton opened the scoring.
After that, the stats might suggest that Neftekhimik stepped up its offense. After all, a shot count of 11-8 in the second period could point to a greater commitment to attacking play in an effort to chase the game. In reality, though, Dinamo had more time on the attack and made more attempts on goal. Neftekhimik worked hard at blocking shots and also showed some impressive accuracy at the other end – of 14 attempts, 11 forced Alexei Kolosov to intervene. But the only goal of the middle frame went to Vyacheslav Osnovin midway through the session.
That dealt a serious blow to Neftekhimik’s hopes, and it wasn’t until midway through the third that the visitor got a chance to respond. But when six seconds separated penalties for Janni Kaldis and Sergei Kuznetsov, the Wolves bit back. A time-out got the message across, and 17 seconds later Alexander Dergachyov halved the deficit and brought the game back to life. Dinamo managed to kill the rest of the penalty but faced a nervous few minutes of Neftekhimik pressure before it could secure the win.
Red-and-White rally swamps Torpedo
Spartak Moscow 7 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 (1-3, 5-0, 1-0)
After blowing a 3-1 lead at SKA on Sunday, Torpedo suffered a similar fate in Moscow tonight. Igor Larionov’s team was up 3-0 at Spartak after 14 minutes, but the home team roared back to take a convincing win.
Spartak’s early problems were partially self-inflicted. After Sergei Goncharuk opened the scoring on 4:02, a couple of quick penalties helped Maxim Letunov double the advantage during a five-on-three power play. Then Pavel Poryadin went to the box and Alexei Kruchinin added a third.
Alexei Zhamnov responded by replacing his starting goalie, Andrei Kareyev, with Dmitry Nikolayev. That change worked. Spartak stopped allowing goals (and stayed out of the box). At the other end, Ansel Galimov pulled one back before the first intermission.
The second period turned the game upside down. Spartak hit five unanswered goals, three on the power play, to establish a commanding lead. Nikolai Goldobin started it off with a power play goal on 28:17. That triggered a goal rush: Yegor Filin and Nikita Susuyev quickly built on that success to have Spartak in front by 29:36.
Now it was Torpedo’s turn to swap netminders, but Adam Huska’s arrival in the game was less successful. Within two minutes, he was beaten by a power play goal from Andrei Loktionov and just before the intermission another home PP saw Pavel Poryadin make it 6-3. Torpedo was on its way to a fifth successive loss – worrying form with the playoffs less than 10 days away.
The third period could hardly live up to that kind of action, and there was just one more goal in the game. It went to Spartak in the 56th minute, with Yegor Savikov fourth of the season getting the Red-and-Whites back on track after back-to-back losses.
Brosseau sets record in KRS romp
Kunlun Red Star 4 HC Sochi 0 (0-0, 4-0, 0-0)
Kunlun moved back into ninth place in the West, leapfrogging Sochi as the two teams battle for the highest position still open to them this season.
Neither team could find a breakthrough in the opening frame. Sochi had the better of the game at equal strength, but two penalties for Fyodor Kroshchinsky ensured that Red Star had its chances as well.
After that goalless opening, the Dragons blew Sochi away in the second period. Four unanswered goals in a five-minute burst settled the outcome here. Along the way, Devin Brosseau got his 22nd of the season, setting a new club record for goals in a regular season campaign.
Brosseau’s was the second goal of that salvo, arriving 25 seconds after Spencer Foo broke the deadlock. Parker Foo and Brandon McMillan added to the lead, chasing Mikhail Berdin from the visitor’s net as Maxim Tretyak came into the game. Impressively, the four goals came off just seven shots on target in the second period.
There was no further scoring in the third as KRS saw out its biggest win of the season. Sochi has a chance for revenge when the teams meet again on Friday; the Dragons will look to complete six wins in six games against the Leopards this season.
SKA suffers first loss at new home
SKA St. Petersburg 0 Severstal Cherepovets 3 (0-0, 0-1, 0-2)
Severstal became the first visiting team to win at the new SKA Arena, silencing another 20,000+ crowd with a shut-out success. The result also throws the race for the Continental Cup wide open: SKA remains on top, but it’s lead over Dynamo Moscow remains at just one point. Both teams have three games to play.
The Steelmen set out their stall to frustrate SKA’s offense from the start. In the first period, the visitor allowed just four shots at Alexander Samoilov’s net. True, there wasn’t exactly a storm of offense at the other end, but a goalless first period represented a steady start for Andrei Kozyrev’s team.
In the second stanza, Severstal began spending more time in SKA territory. Eventually, that got its reward thanks to Nikita Korostelyov’s goal late in the session. He moved in from the right-hand boards before firing in a wrister that bounce off Nikita Kamalov’s leg and into the net.
Midway through the third, SKA had a big chance to tie it up when a counterattack saw Marat Khairullin get clear. Khairullin has been in dangerous form of late, but this time he dinged the piping as the visitor held onto its slender advantage.
A few shifts later, that lead increased. A three-on-one break came to nothing, but the next play saw Korostelyov grab his second of the night after Alexander Nikishin’s catastrophically misplaced pass bounced off Adam Liska’s skate and onto his tape.
The home team responded by going gung ho. As early as the 57th minute, Johan Mattsson went to the bench as SKA threw everything into its quest for a fightback. However, Liska scored an empty net goal and Kirill Pilipenko thought he had a second before a video review spotted a high stick earlier in the play and whistled it off. That couldn’t change the final outcome, with Samoilov making 21 saves to complete a shut-out victory.
