SKA smashes Red Star, Traktor consolidates lead. October 23 round-up

The day’s highest-scoring game was at Kunlun, where SKA avenged a home defeat to the Dragons with a crushing 8-0 victory on the road. CSKA also scored heavily as it snapped a four-game skid, Yegor Afanasyev’s first goals of the season pacing a 7-0 win over Amur. Traktor moved eight points clear in the East thanks to a 4-3 verdict over Avangard, coupled with Avtomobilist’s loss at home to Dynamo. Barys recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season at Sibir.

Signs of progress for Barys

Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Barys Astana 3 (0-1, 1-0, 0-2)

After a rough start to the season, Barys is onto a third head coach and an almost import-free roster. And it might have found the answer to its problems. Galym Mambetaliyev’s team followed up Monday’s win in Minsk with another success on the road at Sibir. That’s the first time this season that the Kazakhs have enjoyed back-to-back victories. Today’s game was also the first win by more than a single goal, and only the second time Barys scored three in a game.

The first period saw another rare achievement for Barys in 2024-2025: the team scored only it second power play goal of the season. Where the now-departed foreign legion repeatedly failed, home-grown defenseman Adil Beketayev succeeded, opening the scoring in the seventh minute. Although Sibir had the better of the first period play, the visitor held its lead to the intermission.

In the second, Sibir raised its game and, as Barys ran into penalty trouble, the home team drew level. The visitor blocked repeated shots at Nikita Boyarkin’s net but could do nothing when Maxim Karpov redirected a Vladislav Kara effort towards the target. Later, Pavel Gogolev had a great chance to put Sibir ahead after Barys got caught on a line change. However, he failed to convert his one-on-one rush and the game was tied after 40 minutes.

In the final stanza, Ivan Nikolishin – a relatively new addition to the ever-changing Barys roster – caught an opposing player as he tried to clear the zone. He took the chance to set up Anton Burdasov for a trademark shot to make it 2-1. And Nikolishin added his first goal of the season with an empty-netter to secure victory in his third appearance for the Kazakhs. He also moved to three points for the season – all of them coming in games against Sibir.

Kadeikin’s double paces Traktor’s win

Avangard Omsk 3 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 (1-1, 0-1, 2-2)

Traktor opened up an eight-point lead at the top of the Eastern Conference thanks to a hard-fought win at Avangard. The Hawks’ stuttering start to the season continues, with Sergei Zvyagin’s team currently lying in 10th, three points outside the playoff places.

The teams traded early goals in this one. Alexander Kadeikin put Traktor ahead in the third minute, but Pavel Koledov tied it up within 90 seconds. That kind of scoring sequence would become a leitmotif for the game, but not until the third period.

Before that, we saw a good tempo to the game, but few goals. It remained 1-1 until midway through the second period, when Traktor regained the lead on its first power play of the night. Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, who emerged from the penalty box to set up Kadeikin’s opener, was the scorer this time with a one-timer from the circle off Grigory Dronov’s feed. This time, Avangard had no swift response, and Traktor took its 2-1 lead to the second intermission.

One unusual feature of Kadeikin’s play this season is his habit of getting goals in pairs. Prior to this game, he found the net eight times, and had three ‘doubles’ in that collection. Today, he moved those numbers to 10 and four after potting a power play goal midway through the third period. However, Avangard’s Alexei Makeyev quickly pulled one back to keep the game very much alive. The crowd in Omsk saw a similar scoring sequence for the third time in the game right at the end: Vladimir Tkachyov – the fully fit Chelyabinsk one, not his injured Avangard namesake – scored into an empty net, and Semyon Chistyakov produced an immediate reply that was too late to save the game for the Hawks.

Dynamo digs deep to get past Motormen

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Dynamo Moscow 2 (0-2, 1-0, 0-0)

Despite almost a week’s rest, Avtomobilist was unable to bring any of its injured players back into the team. Instead, young Konstantin Khremkin was tasked with centering Brendan Leipsic and Nick Merkley in only his second KHL game.

Rested, and seemingly fresher than Dynamo, which had played twice since the Motormen’s last game at Vityaz, the home team looked bright in the opening shifts. Yet it was the Blue-and-Whites who jumped into the lead, converting the first power play of the game within 16 seconds of Sergei Zborovsky going to the box. Nikita Gusev was the scorer, with a shot that deflected off Vladimir Galkin’s pads.

The next shift saw Maxim Motorygin produce a double save to keep Dynamo in front and after that the visitor took the initiative. Simplifying the attacking play paid off, and traffic in front of Galkin helped Artyom Chernov fire a shot beyond the goalie’s glove. That brought Evgeny Alikin to the home net and he was soon called into action as the Muscovites kept up the pressure.

Just before the intermission, Avtomobilist got its first power play and, at the start of the second period, the home team converted it. Nick Ebert’s point shot dropped perfectly for Anatoly Golyshev to score from a meter out. Now Avto got on top, producing a couple of dangerous solo rushes and having the lion’s share of possession. However, this did not lead to a lot of work for Motorygin, who was well protected by his defense.

In the final stanza, it was clear that Dynamo was tiring. However, the home team was unable to take advantage. Not even a penalty on Cedric Paquette in the closing stages – a particularly needless O-zone foul from the Canadian – could save the Motormen. The visitor dug deep and deprived Avtomobilist of clear scoring chances as it secured a 2-1 victory.

Ending a skid in style

CSKA Moscow 7 Amur Khabarovsk 0 (4-0, 1-0, 2-0)

After losing four in a row, CSKA did not have much margin for error in this game. However, although recent results were disappointing, Ilya Vorobyov’s team could point to a decent return of goals, plus the fact that all four games went to overtime. Cut out the defensive lapses, it seemed, and CSKA would be back on the winning trail.

Against Amur, that’s exactly what happened. Naturally, a fast start helped. Prokhor Poltapov opened the scoring after 14 seconds, setting the tone for a powerful first period. Yegor Afanasyev doubled the lead in the eighth minute. Then Maxim Mamin potted a third two minutes later, chasing Igor Bobkov from the Tigers’ net. Dmitry Lozebnikov took over, but allowed a power play goal late in the frame as Afanasyev turned provider for Ruslan Iskhakov to make it 4-0.

The scoring slowed in the middle frame, but that Afanasyev-Iskhakov partnership clicked once again late in the session. Afanasyev got his second of the game, this time on the power play, as the former Predators forward enjoyed his best performance of the season so far.

In the final frame, Vitaly Abramov scored his 10th goal of season and Mamin got his second of the night to complete a 7-0 final score. However, CSKA might place more significance on securing a shut-out for Ivan Prosvetov after allowing 16 goals in the previous four games. Amur fell to a fourth successive loss and failed to score on CSKA for the second time this season after losing 0-3 at home a month ago.

Hat-trick for Plotnikov, four assists for Demidov

Kunlun Red Star 0 SKA St. Petersburg 8 (0-3, 0-4, 0-2)

SKA moves up to second in the Western Conference after brushing aside Kunlun. Three goals from Sergei Plotnikov led the way for the visitor, which was rarely troubled after a dominant first period.

Plotnikov opened the scoring after five minutes, then Zakhar Bardakov doubled the lead on nine. Vasily Glotov added a third before the intermission, and in the 26th minute Plotnikov got his second. Ivan Demidov claimed his third assist of the night on that play as SKA chased starting goalie Kyle Keyser from the game. Red Star sent out Konstantin Volkov in his place: at the start of his career, Volkov was on Petersburg’s books but never got on the ice for SKA in the KHL.

Volkov may have preferred to stay on the bench here. With SKA in rampant form, he was beaten twice in two minutes by Alexander Nikishin and Valentin Zykov. And that was within five minutes of entering the game. There was some relief for the home team when Plotnikov took a tripping penalty, but the SKA penalty kill ensured there was no further damage.

Plotnikov finished the game with a hat-trick, and Demidov got his fourth assist in the third period as SKA posted its biggest win of the season so far. KRS suffered its worst loss since Oct. 2021.