Loko back on top, Barys wins at last. September 17 round-up

Lokomotiv returned to the top of the KHL standings with a 2-1 win over Lada. Meanwhile, Barys got its first success of the season at Avtomobilist and in doing so sent Gagarin Cup winner Metallurg to the foot of the table. Admiral matched a club record with a 7-1 win over Kunlun, Sibir celebrated 1,000 games in the KHL by beating Neftekhimik 5-2, while CSKA won its Moscow derby against Dynamo and Salavat Yulaev shot down Avangard 4-2.

Seventh heaven in home opener

Admiral Vladivostok 7 Kunlun Red Star 1 (2-1, 3-0, 2-0)

It was a great home opener for Admiral as the Sailors scored seven on Kunlun. Tuesday’s emphatic verdict amply avenged an OT loss on the road against the Dragons at the start of the season. Libor Sulak scored twice, Daniil Gutik had three assists and there were multi-point contributions from Pavel Shen, Giovanni Fiore, Mario Grman, and Jack Rodewald.

Admiral did early damage, scoring twice in the first six minutes. Yegor Petukhov opened the scoring in the fifth minute, claiming his fourth goal in two games against the Dragons. Then Sulak potted his first, prompting Mikhail Kravets to call a time-out and look to calm his troops.

Kravets’ intervention seemed to work, at least for the remainder of the first period. Kunlun slowed the Admiral offense and pulled a goal back through Brandon Yip on a five-on-three power play.

However, the visitor was caught napping again at the start of the second period as Sulak claimed his second and after that it was plain sailing for Admiral. Late in the middle frame, Shen and Artyom Nikolayev scored two in quick succession to take the game away.

Visiting goalie Jeremy Smith was replaced at the intermission by Konstantin Volkov but, once again, Admiral got a goal early in the third. This time it was former Dragon Jack Rodewald, adding to his helper on Sulak’s second. Stepan Starkov’s power play tally completed the scoring in the 54th minute. The 7-1 final score matches Admiral’s biggest ever KHL victory.

1,000th game brings win for Sibir

Sibir Novosibirsk 5 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 (1-0, 3-2, 1-0)

In its 1,000th KHL game, Sibir enjoyed a big win over Neftekhimik. The visitor came to Novosibirsk with a lead in the Eastern Conference, but three goals in six second-period minutes set Sibir on the way to victory.

The pre-game celebrations included birthday greeting for veteran Viktor Kartavykh, scorer of the first ever goal for Novosibirsk in Soviet championship play. He turns 88 on Thursday, almost coinciding with today’s millennium game.

Vadim Yepanchintsev’s team looks to be overcoming a slow start to the season. Back-to-back wins ahead of Tuesday’s game changed the mood around the team and that new-found confidence got a further boost when Vladislav Kara opened the scoring in the first minute. That goal was caused by a rare defensive lapse from Neftekhimik; another blunder followed seconds later – this time without costing a goal – and just 35 seconds into the game Oleg Leontyev called a time-out. That didn’t stop the flow of Sibir attacks, but the rest of the first period brought no further scoring.

Late in the opener, home defenseman Fyodor Gordeyev sat for tripping. The penalty carried into the second stanza and seven seconds after the restart Neftekhimik was level thanks to Vyacheslav Leshchenko. Then, on 22 minutes, the visitor went in front on an Alexander Dergachyov goal. Suddenly, it looked like the conference leader might be about to crash the home party.

That all changed as the game approached the midway point. Andy Andreoff put Sibir level in the 29th minute and a couple of minutes later Sergei Shirokov restored the home lead. When Andreoff added a power play goal in the 35th, he chased Filipp Dolganov from the net and gave Sibir a lead it would not relinquish.

Dolganov’s departure was a surprise: Neftekhimik’s early success this season owes much to excellent goaltending from him and his understudy Artyom Zagidulin. Today, though, Sibir enjoyed an unusual level of domination after falling behind. The home team outshot Neftekhimik 19-5 in the middle frame alone and finished with 40 shots on goal in the game. One of them found the net in the third, another power play tally seeing Kara claim his second of the game to beat Zagidulin. That made the final score 5-2, a convincing win for a Sibir team that is recovering fast after last week’s 2-8 mauling at CSKA.

Barys gets first success

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Barys Astana 2 OT (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)

Barys began its first road trip of the season looking to regroup. Four losses from four home games put head coach David Nemirovsky under pressure just two weeks into his first season with the club, and he responded by changing up every line. Will Butcher, Viktor Antipin and the entire fourth line were scrapped. Experienced forwards Damir Zhafyarov and Anton Burdasov were placed together, and 19-year-olds Aslan Zhusupbekov and Beibarys Orazov made their KHL debuts.

A new-look Barys grabbed an instant lead. On the first shift, Roman Starchenko robbed Nick Ebert of the puck in center ice and advanced down the wing to slice through the defense with a cross-ice feed for Kirill Savitsky to score. After that, the visitor had four minutes on the power play, threatening a second goal. Compared with those disappointing home games, this was a different animal: motivated, committed and ready to test any opponent.

In the second, Avtomobilist hit back. First we saw a lovely play from Maxim Denezhkin, skating around two opponents to score, only for an offside call to rule it out. A couple of minutes later the game was tied: a power play lasted just 12 seconds before Brooks Macek’s trademark shot from the circle saw Nick Merkley put away the rebound.

After that, the play was almost entirely in front of Nikita Boyarkin’s net. He made several big saves to deny the lively Macek-Valk partnership; together they managed seven efforts on target without beating the Barys goalie.

The third period also saw Avtomobilist on top. Stephane Da Costa came closest with a shot against the post from close range. At the other end, Barys struggled to get time in home territory and had to be content with long-range efforts. However, Avto also found it hard to generate clear-cut chances as the game went into overtime.

The extras didn’t last long. Barys launched a counter attack, Evgeny Alikin stopped the initial shot but Mike McLeod put the rebound into the open net. That secured a first win of the season for Barys, the last team in the KHL to do so in 2024-2025. The result also sends defending champion Metallurg to the foot of the overall standings with just one win in its first six games.

Ufa bounces back, maintains unbeaten home record

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 Avangard Omsk 2 (2-1, 1-0, 1-1)

The pre-game chat was about whether Avangard’s star forward Reid Boucher would make the team for the trip to Ufa after recovering from injury. After Salavat Yulaev allowed six goals in the previous game, it must have been tempting to boost the Hawks’ firepower, but in the event his return will have to wait. The only new face compared with the Sibir game was Alexander Yaremchuk on the third line.

Despite that heavy loss in Yekaterinburg, Viktor Kozlov had few options to change things up. He switched some positions, with Vladislav Yefremov going to the wing and Pyotr Khokhryakov playing in the center. On defense, Ildan Gazimov replaced Alexander Komarov.

The home team started well, peppering Pavel Khomchenko with shots. Avangard was fortunate not to fall behind after being reduced to three skaters, but the pressure continued with the teams at equal strength and Gazimov opened the scoring with his first KHL goal. A couple of minutes later, Artyom Pimenov doubled the lead with his first of the season.

That gave Avangard a jolt and the visitor came into the game more, helped by some home penalties. Late in the opening frame, Semyon Chistyakov converted a great pass from Linden Vey to make it a one-goal game at the first intermission.

The home team extended its lead in the second period when defenseman Alexei Vasilevsky finished off a long spell of pressure in the 28th minute. The other notable incident in the middle frame was more alarming for everyone: home forward Gleb Kuzmin took a big hit from Darren Dietz and flew head first into the boards; he had to be stretchered off the ice for treatment.

At the start of the final frame the teams traded penalties. In a spell of four-on-three play, Damir Sharipzyanov’s goal brought Avangard back into contention. But after Alexei Makeyev missed a glorious chance to tie the scores, Alexander Sharov raced onto Alexander Samonov’s stretch pass and made it 4-2. That was how it finished as Salavat Yulaev maintains its unbeaten home record.

Railwaymen return to top of table

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 Lada Togliatti 1 (1-0, 1-0, 0-1)

Loko returned to the top of the KHL standings after defeating Lada for the second time this season. The teams met in Togliatti on Sep. 5, with Yaroslavl winning 3-0. Today’s scoreline was tighter, but the outcome was the same: victory for the Railwaymen.

In truth, the 2-1 score flattered Lada a little. Lokomotiv dominated much of the game and could have been out of sight in the first period. The home team had 19 shots to six and had more than three times as much attacking possession. And all that came after a Daniil But penalty on 50 seconds gave Lada the early initiative. However, some stout defense from the Motormen limited Loko to a solitary goal from Pavel Kraskovsky in the ninth minute.

The second period was not greatly different. Lada saw more of the puck, but rarely managed to move it into areas that could discomfort Daniil Isayev. The home team continued to press and got a second goal in 37th minute through Alexander Radulov. He scored just as Troy Josephs returned to the ice at the end of the first Lokomotiv power play of the night.

Igor Nikitin’s team is famously well-drilled when it comes to protecting leads in the third period. Lada was restricted to just four shots in the final frame. However, the visitor did get a lifeline midway through the session when a penalty on Maxim Shalunov led to a power play goal for Andrei Altybarmakyan.

The final eight minutes were more tense than might have been expected, with Lada just one good shot away from tying the game. However, a penalty for Denis Barantsev robbed the visitor of time, and the home defense drew the venom from an attempted late surge.

Derby success for CSKA

CSKA Moscow 3 Dynamo Moscow 1 (0-0, 1-1, 2-0)

The first of four CSKA vs Dynamo derbies saw the Moscow giants in moderate form. The pair were down in sixth and ninth in the west, separated by a single point. Optimists in both camps could point to good things: Dynamo won its last game, scoring six on Dinamo Minsk to banish some early-season anxiety. CSKA, despite two losses, has been impressive in front of goal, racking up a 6-2 win over Admiral and an 8-2 thrashing of Sibir.

However, the home team also lost its last two games, blowing a 3-1 lead to fall to Torpedo in OT before going down 2-4 at Severstal. In response, head coach Ilya Vorobyov reshuffled every line except the Poltapov-Sorkin-Abramov combination that fired in those big wins. Ivan Prosvetov returned as starting goalie ahead of Dmitry Gamzin.

The first period turned out to be a cautious affair. Neither team was willing to risk much and there were just 11 shots on target through 20 goalless minutes. Dynamo’s under-fire goalie Hunter Miska produced the best stop of the opening frame to deny Nikita Sedov.

The middle frame was livelier. Both teams created some clear-cut chances before trading power play goals towards the end of the session. Nikita Gusev struck first, putting Dynamo up in the 35th minute with a blast from the right-hand circle. However, late in the session Brennan Menell sat for holding and Denis Guryanov tied the game just four seconds before the hooter. It was a playbook move from the face-off, with Sedov returning the puck to Pavel Karnaukhov, enabling the center to set up Guryanov with Miska isolated.

Despite that late lift, Dynamo started the third period looking more dangerous. However, the visitor could not take its chances and when Cedric Paquette got his second penalty of the game, CSKA took advantage. Ruslan Iskhakov finished off from the left-hand circle after the home team camped out in the Dynamo zone, ceaselessly probing from a weak spot.

Any doubt about the outcome was removed in the 58th minute when Vladislav Kamenev made it 3-1 for CSKA. The home team’s clinical finishing made the difference in an even game.