Traktor on top in the East, CSKA fires blanks again. October 5 round-up

Three of Saturday’s six games produced the same 4-0 scoreline. The most notable of them was in Moscow, where Traktor won 4-0 at CSKA. The home team failed to score for the second game in a row, while the visitor posted a fourth straight win to go top of the Eastern Conference. Sibir had a similar result at Avtomobilist, and Avangard scored four unanswered goals on Barys. Metallurg won 5-2 at Spartak as Andrei Razin’s revival continues, Lada edged Admiral in a shoot-out and Tony DeAngelo’s first KHL goal was not enough to save SKA from defeat at Severstal.

Hawks ease past lowly Barys

Avangard Omsk 4 Barys Astana 0 (0-0, 2-0, 2-0)

Bottom-of-the-table Barys suffered another heavy loss, going down 0-4 to Avangard. The home team now has two wins from three, bringing an end to its own skid. But the Kazakhs remain in trouble, with three losses from four under new head coach Vyacheslav Butsayev amid a shortage of goals.

Despite another defeat, Barys could at least point to some encouraging signs in the first period. The visitor kept Avangard at arm’s length during the opening stanza and was close to opening the scoring. However, Kirill Panyukov’s shot bounced off the post to safety and the game remained goalless at the first intermission.

The visitor also had a presentable chance early in the second period after recent signing Nikita Setdikov fired one in from the blue line. Mike McCleod was first to the rebound, but Pavel Khomchenko padded the shot away.

Then the Hawks set their own offense into the game. Alexei Makeyev opened the scoring with a shot on the turn in the 28th minute, then the home team got on the power play. That saw Semyon Chistyakov redirect a Damir Sharipzyanov shot past Johan Mattsson.

A two-goal lead flattered Avangard a little, but for Barys the sense of a game getting away was all too familiar. The third period saw the home team build its advantage. Another power play enabled Reid Boucher to make it 3-0 in the 48th minute, effectively ending the contest. And, late in the game, more ill-discipline from the visitor resulted in a third PP goal of the night, this time scored by Linden Vey.

Romanov ends Admiral’s resistance in a shoot-out

Lada Togliatti 1 Admiral Vladivostok 0 SO (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Admiral failed to score for the second game in a row, falling to a shoot-out loss after a goalless battle at Lada. The home team snapped a two-game skid after getting to the extras for the second game in a row.

For 65 minutes, this was all about the goalies. Vladislav Podyapolsky stopped 37 shots in the home net, while his opposite number Andrei Mishurov made the exact same number of saves at the other end.

The closest we came to a goal within the game was a penalty shot for Lada late in the first period. Dmitry Kugryshev took the attempt after he was fouled by Pavel Shen, but he could not win his duel with Mishurov.

That rather set the tone for the shoot-out, which saw 12 failed attempts before Ivan Romanov beat Mishurov in sudden death to set up the win for Lada.

Kostin celebrates first shut-out of season

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 0 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 (0-2, 0-0, 0-2)

Sibir celebrated its first shut-out of the season, snapping a two-game skid to defeat an Avtomobilist team that was the Eastern Conference leader ahead of today’s play.

Denis Kostin was the successful Sibir netminder, keeping Avto’s offense at bay. With 30 goals in its previous 12 games, the Motormen’s attack can be dangerous; today, though, it was silenced for the second game in a row after Tuesday’s loss to Lokomotiv.

At the other end, Sibir wasted little time in finding a way to goal. Trevor Murphy opened the scoring in the fourth minute, extending his productive streak to eight games. A power play goal from Valentin Pyanov doubled the lead in the first period.

The middle frame was goalless, but Sibir finished the job in the third. Nikita Korotkov’s first of the season made it 3-0 in the 44th minute and fellow Sibir academy graduate Alexei Yakovlev opened his account for 2024/2025 to wrap up a 4-0 victory. Victory lifts the visitor to fourth in the East, two points behind today’s host.

DeAngelo’s first goal can’t save SKA

Severstal Cherepovets 4 SKA St. Petersburg 3 (3-1, 0-1, 1-1)

Tony DeAngelo, the latest high-profile signing to arrive in Petersburg, got his first KHL goal today. But that wasn’t enough to secure victory for SKA as Severstal edged the verdict by the odd goal in seven.

DeAngelo struck after 55 seconds, giving his team a dream start in Cherepovets. But the home team responded well. Two goals in 35 seconds midway through the frame turned the game around with Alexander Skorenov and Alexei Kruchinin on target. Later, Skorenov potted his second of the night to make it 3-1 at the first intermission.

SKA remained a threat, though, and Vasily Glotov made it a one-goal game midway through the second period. Glotov has played just four games for SKA this season, but he is on four goals – two of them against Severstal.

In the third period, SKA battled hard to tie the game but was undone with two-and-a-half minutes left when Kruchinin scored his second to make it 4-2. Despite an instant response from Sergei Plotnikov, the visitor could not force a tie and Severstal got its revenge after a 5-8 loss in Petersburg at the end of September.

Another big win for Metallurg

Spartak Moscow 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5 (0-2, 2-1, 0-2)

Metallurg powered to a second big win in Moscow, following up its 7-0 success at CSKA with a convincing victory at second-placed Spartak.

Magnitka got off to a fast start, albeit aided by some wasteful Spartak finishing early on. The home team might have gone ahead in the second minute when Pavel Poryadin was left all alone in front of the net, but Ilya Nabokov pulled off the save. In response, Metallurg took the lead when Luke Johnson won a face-off and Pavel Akolzin took control to fire a shot past Dmitry Nikolayev.

A similar sequence of chances saw the visitor go up 2-0 in the seventh minute. It took the skate of defenseman Robin Press to deny German Rubtsov a certain goal, then Metallurg went down the ice and Nikita Mikhailis capitalized after Spartak got in a muddle on its own blue line.

However, the home team turned things around in the second period thanks to two power play goals in quick succession. Adam Ruzicka made it 1-2 midway through the game, blasting home a powerful shot for his fifth of the season. A couple of minutes later, Daniil Vovchenko went to the box and another Ruzicka effort dropped for Shane Prince to tie it up.

But Spartak caused its own problems, finding itself on a three-on-five PK. Valery Orekhov hit the post before Mikhailis got his second of the game. That’s a double double for the Kazakh forward, who also scored two on CSKA on Thursday.

With a lead to defend going into the third, Metallurg was content to allow Spartak to hold the puck on the perimeter. That faith in the team’s defense was justified, and the visiting counterattack proved dangerous as well. Vovchenko made it 4-2 in the 45th minute and late in the game Akolzin claimed his second to take it out of the home team’s reach.

Traktor blanks CSKA, moves clear in the East

CSKA Moscow 0 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 (0-1, 0-1, 0-2)

It was another difficult day for the Muscovites. After going down 0-7 against Metallurg during the week, Ilya Vorobyov’s team was looking to rehabilitate itself. But Traktor is enjoying its time in the capital and today’s win completed a sweep of successes against Spartak, Dynamo and CSKA.

In the first period, the home team looked the livelier of the two teams. However, for all CSKA’s possession, it struggled to carve out clear scoring chances as Traktor dug in and defended well. And, when Christian Jaros went to the box, the visitor converted the first power play of the game in the 19th minute. Nikita Tertyshny got the puck in the right-hand circle and picked his moment to unleash a shot through traffic to beat Ivan Prosvetov. That was all that separated the teams at the intermission.

In the middle frame, another Traktor power play was inches away from a second goal. Andrei Svetlakov’s shot crashed against the post with Prosvetov struggling to reach it. However, no sooner did Fredrik Claesson emerge from the box than Traktor made it 2-0. Buddy Robinson’s one-timer left Prosvetov with no charge and put CSKA in serious trouble.

The home team looked for a way back and it took a big save from Zach Fucale to deny Vitaly Abramov when he got through on goal. Immediately after that, a penalty for Tertyshny offered the home side a chance to reduce the deficit but once again Traktor held firm.

CSKA needed the first goal of the third period, but instead it went to Traktor’s Marsel Ibragimov in the 47th minute. That effectively killed off the game, especially given how solid the visiting defense looked. Another power play goal, this time for Robinson, completed the scoring. Traktor moves to four consecutive wins and goes clear at the top of the east; CSKA has not scored in its last two games.