Loko, Hawks move clear at the top. September 9 round-up

Lokomotiv and Avangard are the early leaders in the KHL standings. Both teams reeled off their third successive victories on Monday, and both did it against testing opposition. Avangard downed Ak Bars 4-1, before Loko edged SKA. There was drama in Moscow, where Dinamo Minsk blew a 2-0 lead and lost 5-2 at Spartak. Elsewhere, Amur got its first goals of the season in a 5-1 thrashing of Barys. Torpedo celebrated its first win of the campaign, ending Avtomobilist’s perfect start and Vityaz got the better of Sochi in a high-scoring game in Balashikha.

Three wins from three for Avangard

Avangard Omsk 4 Ak Bars Kazan 1 (1-1, 0-0, 3-0)

The Hawks recorded a third successive victory to fly to the top of the Eastern Conference. The visit of Ak Bars to Omsk should have been Avangard’s toughest test of the season so far. Instead, it produced the biggest win to date for Sergei Zvyagin’s team.

That seemed unlikely when the visitor made a flying start. Alexander Barabanov circled the net, sent the puck to the slot and, with the home defense out of position, Nic Petan scored after 19 seconds. Ak Bars continued to press, but got caught by a slick counter play from Avangard. Cole Kessels dished the puck off to Ilya Reingardt, whose one-time pass re-routed play to Alexander Filatyev in front of an open net. A couple of shifts later, a near repeat of that move was thwarted when Ak Bars managed to intercept the final pass.

Ak Bars had another big chance towards the end of the first period. Alexei Solovyov’s schoolboy error behind his net gave Ilya Safonov a glorious shooting opportunity, but Pavel Khomchenko made a big save to send the teams to the break at 1-1.

The middle frame was goalless. Ak Bars started better but couldn’t score. Later, Linden Vey could put the puck in the visitor’s net, but a bench challenge called that one back for a high stick.

It wasn’t until the third that Avangard really got a grip on proceedings. For a time, Timur Bilyalov stood between the home team and a second goal. But in the closing stages he was beaten. Filatyev got his second of the game in the 55th minute to make it 2-1, then Semyon Chistyakov found the empty net to seal the verdict. There was still time for Igor Martynov to add a fourth with 18 seconds left as Avangard finished well on top.

Amur ends goal drought in style

Barys Astana 1 Amur Khabarovsk 5 (0-2, 0-2, 1-1)

After failing to score for two games, Amur’s offense caught fire in Astana. A five-goal show secured a first victory of the season for the Tigers and deepened the problems for Barys. David Nemirovsky’s team has lost its first three games, all at home, and looks in need of an urgent boost.

A boost was exactly what Amur got in the second minute of this game. It wasn’t exactly the prettiest play you’ll see – Evgeny Grachyov crashing the net and Vyacheslav Gretsky picking up the pieces to score – but it was a huge relief for the visitor. The Barys defense, meanwhile, continued to look uncertain and it wasn’t a huge surprise when Cam Lee doubled the lead after 16 minutes. As if to prove that there’s no luck when you’re down, Lee’s point shot took a deflection to beat Nikita Boyarkin.

At the start of the second period, Barys took two penalties in a row. However, the home PK was impressive and Amur’s power play barely got into home territory. However, once the teams were back to equal strength, Kirill Slepets extended the lead. Will Butcher, attempting to turn out of trouble in the corner, slipped and lost possession, gifting an opportunity to the visitor. Next came a first goal for Devin Brosseau after he joined Amur from KRS in the summer. That one was created by Alex Broadhurst, who intercepted a pass to set up his team-mate.

In the third period, the teams traded goals. Kirill Panyukov had a consolation effort for Barys before Alexander Galchenyuk potted his first for Amur following his high-profile move from SKA. In addition, the visitor had two goals called back following video reviews as the Tigers’ offense bared its claws at last.

Motormen suffer first loss, Torpedo celebrates first win

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1)

This game turned the formbook upside down as the home team recorded its first victory of the season. Torpedo had lost its first two games, while Avtomobilist arrived in Nizhny Novgorod on the back of two wins from two.

The home team struck first, with Sergei Goncharuk opening the scoring in the eighth minute. Torpedo had the better of the play in early exchanges, but had to wait until late in the second to double its lead. Kirill Voronin made it 2-0 and Avto’s winning start was in real danger.

In its previous game, Torpedo led Ak Bars by the same 2-0 scoreline only to lose in a shoot-out. So when Danil Romantsev pulled a goal back for the Motormen at the start of the final frame, it was understandable that there would be some home nerves to contend with.

This time, though, there was no fold. Instead, Denis Yan made it 3-1 with seven to play and Igor Larionov’s team secured its first win of the season.

Barach hatty edges Vityaz past Sochi

Vityaz Moscow Region 5 HC Sochi 4 (4-1, 0-1, 1-2)

A hat-trick of goals from Derek Barach and a trio of assists from Ivan Chekhovich proved enough for Vityaz to edge past Sochi in an entertaining encounter.

This game got off to a flying start, with four goals on the board by 5:42. New Vityaz signing Chekhovich assisted on the first two as Barach and Frederic Gauthier extracted maximum reward from a double minor assessed against Michal Kristof. Back at equal strength, Jesse Graham got Sochi off the mark on 4:56. However, Alexander Daryin soon added a third for Vityaz, chasing Sergei Ivanov from the visitor’s net.

Replacement goalie Yegor Zavragin didn’t last all that long before Barach claimed his second of the day in the 12th minute. Chekhovich picked up his third helper on that play and Vityaz led 4-1 at the first intermission.

Sochi improved in the second period. There was no further scoring from the home team, and a Denis Vengryzhanovsky goal midway through the session meant that the visitor remained in contention going into the third.

A Sochi power play at the start of the final frame saw Sergei Popov make it a one-goal game. An improbable fightback was suddenly a real possibility. However, Vityaz regrouped and Barach completed his hat-trick to calm home nerves and restore something of a cushion. That goal proved necessary after the American forward received a penalty late in the game and Artur Tyanulin hauled Sochi back to 4-5 with almost three minutes on the clock.

Isayev denies SKA, Loko stays perfect

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 SKA St. Petersburg 0 (0-0, 0-0, 2-0)

A hard-fought battle in Yaroslavl saw Lokomotiv edge victory thanks to Byron Froese’s first goal in the KHL. The 33-year-old center, who joined from the Henderson Silver Nights in the summer, broke the deadlock on a power play at the start of the third period.

At the other end, Daniil Isayev recorded his second shut-out in successive games with 25 saves to frustrate SKA’s offense. From established star Evgeny Kuznetsov to hot prospect Ivan Demidov, none of the visiting forwards could solve Isayev, who continues to assert a reputation as one of the best goalies in Russia right now. It all added up to a third successive win for last season’s runner-up. The Railwaymen join Avangard at the top of the standings, the only teams with three wins from three.

A low-scoring game might have been very different if Lokomotiv had taken an early lead. Maxim Beryozkin was close, hitting the post with his redirect on Artyom Sergeyev’s second-minute shot. Instead, the game evolved cautiously with neither side creating many clear-cut scoring chances through the first 40 minutes.

At the start of the third period, Lokomotiv finally broke the deadlock. Froese got his first KHL goal to separate the teams. Froese redirected a Daniil But shot past Artemy Pleshkov. That power play goal also brought a first point of the season for Alexander Radulov, Loko’s highest-profile signing of the summer.

Later, the Railwaymen had to kill a five-on-three power play as SKA tried to turn the screws. The visitor’s best chance came with the teams already back to full strength, though, but Arseny Gritsyuk’s swift counterattack was not enough to beat Isayev.

The visitor’s hopes of saving the game took a big blow in the 57th minute when Nikita Zaitsev clattered into Georgy Ivanov. The home forward needed help to get off the ice, while the SKA defenseman was handed a major penalty – the first in the KHL this season. On the power play, But doubled the lead only for a bench challenge to see it called back for interference on Pleshkov.

However, it wasn’t long before Loko had a legitimate second goal with Beryozkin taking Martin Gernat’s pass and advancing to put the game out of reach.

Maltsev leads Spartak past Minsk

Spartak Moscow 5 Dinamo Minsk 2 (0-2, 4-0, 1-0)

Mikhail Maltsev triggered a big second-period turnaround as Spartak recovered from 0-2 to score four unanswered goals in the middle frame.

 The first period was great for Dinamo. The visitor got on the power play in the second minute, and opened the scoring in the eighth. Dillon Dube potted his first in the KHL following his summer move from Calgary Flames. Another Minsk power play brought a second goal midway through the session when Xavier Ouellet set up Roman Gorbunov.

However, even in the opening frame Spartak had more shots and more time on the attack. In the middle frame, that gap became a gulf as the Red-and-Whites roared back to take control of the game. Maltsev started it off with a power play goal early on. Then he tied it up in the 33rd minute during a spell of four-on-four play.

That ushered in goal rush that saw Adam Ruzicka and Pavel Poryadin score twice in the space of a minute to give the home time a big lead at the second break. Slovak forward Ruzicka, who also assisted on the tying goal, collected his first KHL points today. Last season, he and Dube were team-mates in Calgary.

Early in the third, Maltsev completed his hat-trick. That’s his first treble in the KHL: last season, arriving at Spartak in December on loan from Ontario Reign, he scored four times in 27 games and as a youngster with SKA he had just two goals before his departure for North America.