Abramov hat-trick paces CSKA, Lada downs Dynamo. September 10 round-up

There were just two games on Tuesday, but both were high scoring. Lada got its first win of the season with a 6-3 success against Dynamo, before Vitaly Abramov’s hat-trick helped CSKA to a crushing 8-2 victory over Sibir.

First win for Lada after hitting Dynamo for six

Lada Togliatti 6 Dynamo Moscow 3 (3-1, 1-1, 2-1)

After scoring just once in its first two games, Lada caught fire at home to Dynamo tonight. Head coach Oleg Bratash kept faith with the players who faced Lokomotiv and SKA in a tough start, and was rewarded with a six-goal show. Dynamo, on the road for the first time, handed a KHL debut to 17-year-old forward Ivan Ryabkin.

There was a fast start, with Lada opening the scoring in the third minute. Troy Josephs did well behind the net and set up Ostap Safin for the opener. However, Dynamo swiftly tied it up through Daniil Pylenkov’s angled shot. Instead of building on that, the Blue-and-Whites took a penalty and Yegor Chernikov reacted fastest to a deflection across the slot. 7:11 played, and Lada was up 2-1. There was more for the home team, with Vladislav Syomin jumping out of the penalty box and finishing off a solo rush not long before the intermission.

Lada continued to impose itself in the second period. Midway through the session, Safin picked out a superb pass from the wing to set up Magomed Sharakanov’s first ever KHL goal. That was the end of Maxim Motorygin’s evening in the Dynamo net, with Alexei Kudashov sending Hunter Miska into battle. Shortly after, Maxim Dzhioshvili pulled a goal back to keep things interesting going into the third.

Nikita Popugayev needed just 44 seconds of the final frame to increase Lada’s lead. His shot from a tight angle caught Miska by surprise. After that, the visitor pushed forward and Vladislav Podyapolsky was kept busy before finally Max Comtois beat him with four on the clock. That’s Comtois first in the KHL and it encouraged Dynamo to launch one last storm. However, instead of taking the fight to the finish, the Blue-and-Whites allowed an empty-net goal to Nikita Mikhailov and the game ended 6-3 for Lada.

Abramov powers CSKA win

CSKA Moscow 8 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (1-0, 1-1, 6-1)

A hat-trick from Vitaly Abramov led CSKA to an emphatic victory over Sibir. After a derby loss to Spartak and an uneven, although eventually high-scoring success against Admiral, this was the Muscovites best performance to date under Ilya Vorobyov, with a six-goal third period leaving the visitor reeling. Sibir, meanwhile, fell to a third successive loss and Vadim Yepanchintsev, in addition to the on-going struggles to score, might also be concerned at his team’s defensive collapse tonight.

CSKA’s start to the season might have lacked conviction at times, but Sibir’s lacked goals. A more confident attacking force might have made more of the chance that fell to Valentin Pyanov in the first minute, but as he bore down on goal he could not beat Dmitry Gamzin.

A couple of minutes later, Vitaly Abramov showed how it should be done. He ran onto Maxim Sorkin’s pass and got on a two-on-one rush alongside Fredrik Claesson. Abramov watched his team-mate’s advance closely, but with Denis Kostin anticipating a pass to the left, the forward fired in a shot to open the scoring.

That was the only goal of the first period, although Taylor Beck was close to an equalizer when he redirected a Trevor Murphy shot narrowly wide.

At the start of the second, Denis Guryanov attempted a lacrosse-style goal but couldn’t keep the puck on his stick. Soon after, CSKA got on the power play and almost immediately Abramov had his second with a redirect on Nikita Nesterov’s blast.

After that, Sibir began to come into the game. Sergei Shirokov pulled a goal back against one of his former clubs, then a double minor for Sorkin saw a good power play from the visitor. Gamzin had to be alert to deny Pavel Gogolev twice in dangerous situations.

At the start of the third, only the piping denied Georgy Belousov a tying goal for Sibir. Immediately after that near miss, CSKA responded with a quick double to take the game away. Abramov completed his hat-trick, exchanging passes with Prokhor Poltapov before firing beyond Kostin. A couple of minutes later, summer signings Ruslan Iskhakov and Guryanov combined for the latter to make it 4-1. Kostin left the game in favor of Anton Krasotkin, but CSKA had a lead that was too big to fail.

Although Yegor Martynov pulled a goal back for Sibir, CSKA immediately got another power play and Vladislav Kamenev added a fifth for the host. A short-handed goal from Poltapov added to Sibir’s misery before further tallies from Vladislav Provolnev and Iskhakov completed the rout.