SKA wins game of the day, leaders pick up victories. October 25 round-up

Spartak hosted SKA looking to take second place in the West. But despite a good start the Muscovites blew a 2-0 lead and lost 2-5. The keeps SKA five points behind Western leader Lokomotiv, which won 5-0 at home to Amur. CSKA also got a win after a tough game against Kunlun: the Dragons came from 1-3 to force overtime but fell in the extras. Traktor moves 10 points clear in the East, but needed a last-minute goal to take Lada to overtime before winning in Togliatti. Ak Bars jumped up to fifth in the East with a 2-0 win over Admiral, and Dinamo Minsk edged Vityaz 2-1.

Late goal preserves Traktor’s winning run

Lada Togliatti 1 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 OT (1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 0-1)

They say that winning in adversity is the mark of a champion team. On today’s evidence, Eastern Conference leader Traktor might be the real deal. Benoit Groulx’s team was the hot favorite on arrival at Lada but found itself in a battle against a team looking to force its way into the playoff picture.

The home team was boosted by the return of Vladislav Podyapolsky, Yegor Morozov an Nikita Popugayev. Traktor also had changes and gave back-up goalie Sergei Mylnikov a rare start.

It took some time for either side to get into its game. However, Lada was close to opening the scoring in the 15th minute when Magomed Sharakanov let fly from the blue line. His shot hit the crossbar, bounced off Mylnikov’s back and sparked a scramble on the paint as Lada tried to force it over the line. However, a video review determined that Traktor had kept it out.

The visitor was less fortunate in the last minute of play. At one end, Ilya Karpukhin fired a shot through heavy traffic only for Podyapolsky to make a difficult save. Then play went down the ice and Mikhail Fisenko fired home a shot on the turn to send the home team into the intermission with a 1-0 lead.

That lead endured until the final minute. However, just as Lada was anticipating its first home victory over Traktor in nine years, Maxim Shabanov struck to save the visitor. That effort forced the game into overtime, and Karpukhin settled the outcome to give Traktor a fifth straight win.

Semyonov, Bilyalov lead Ak Bars to victory

Ak Bars Kazan 2 Admiral Vladivostok 0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

After just one win in five games, Ak Bars was down in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. However, a return home gave Anvar Gatiyatulin’s team a boost and a 2-0 victory over Admiral saw his team leap up to fifth, just two points behind second-placed Avtomobilist. It’s a tight section right now, as Admiral found as it dropped down to eighth.

In a tight conference, this was a tight game. Ak Bars was without first-line center Nic Petan, who picked up an injury in the game at Traktor earlier in the week. His replacement, Kirill Semyonov, turned out to be the difference maker here.

Semonyov opened the scoring in the 13th minute, taking advantage after Admiral was caught on a line-change. Indeed, the forward had two chances to score, hitting the post with his first effort before beating Andrei Mishurov at the second attempt.

However, the Sailors did not sink without trace. In their previous game they had rallied from 0-3 to beat Spartak in overtime. Today, with a one-goal deficit, the game was very much alive. However, Timur Bilyalov was in fine form in the home net. He finished with 29 saves to keep the visitor at bay. Ak Bars might have scored a second at the start of the final frame, but Mitchell Miller’s power play effort was whistled off following a bench challenge. Late on, Semyonov put a legitimate second goal into an empty net to wrap up the win.

Five-star Loko sinks Amur

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 Amur Khabarovsk 0 (0-0, 2-0, 3-0)

The league leader eased to a straightforward victory over Amur, but the Tigers’ problems in front of goal continued. Beaten 7-0 on Wednesday, Andrei Martemyanov’s team again failed to score tonight. Amur is just one point clear of Barys at the foot of the Eastern Conference after a fifth successive defeat.

Lokomotiv, meanwhile, has no such problems. Igor Nikitin’s men made it four wins in a row. Indeed, the Railwaymen have lost just two of the last 13 games and hold a five-point lead over SKA at the top of the Western Conference.

Today it took some time to get control of the game. The first period was even, with few scoring chances. However, in the second Lokomotiv dominated, outshooting Amur 18-7. More importantly, Maxim Beryozkin made the breakthrough in the 33rd minute, banging in Byron Froese’s feed to the slot. Soon after, Artur Kayumov doubled the lead, giving the scoreline a look that better reflected the balance of play.

It was hard to see a way back for Amur, and midway through the final frame Loko took the game away. Rushan Rafikov extended the lead on a power play and three minutes later teenager Yegor Surin scored his second career goal to make it 4-0. Another youngster, Daniil But, added a fifth to complete the rout.

Khenkel’s late strike ends Dorozhko’s resistance

Dinamo Minsk 2 Vityaz Moscow Region 1 (0-1, 1-0, 1-0)

It’s still early in the season, but this game had implications in the Western playoff race. A Vityaz victory would lift the home team ahead of Dinamo and into the top eight, while success for the home would open a three-point gap and give Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team some breathing space. When the teams met in Balashikha, Dinamo won 5-1. This game proved much tighter.

In the first period, Dinamo asked more questions of visiting goalie Maxim Dorozhko. However, his 16 saves kept the home offense at bay. At the other end, a five-on-three power play helped Vityaz to get ahead. Ivan Chekhovich set up Dmitry Buchelnikov for the opening goal midway through the session.

The middle frame brought more Dinamo dominance but it took a long time for a goal to follow. Finally, in the last second before the hooter, the home power play delivered: Roman Gorbunov’s strike changed the mood in the arena as the teams went into the deciding frame locked at 1-1.

Again, Dinamo dominated. Again, Dorozhko defied the odds. The Vityaz goalie ended the game with 47 saves. However, he did not end it as a winner: with four minutes on the clock, defenseman Kristian Khenkel fired in the game-breaker to give Minsk the verdict.

Red Star rallies but falls in OT

Kunlun Red Star 3 CSKA Moscow 4 OT (1-1, 0-1, 2-1, 0-1)

CSKA blew a 3-1 lead as a seemingly routine win over Kunlun turned into a real battle. The home team recovered to force overtime, but Ruslan Iskhakov’s goal eventually gave the Muscovites the verdict.

After a crushing 0-8 loss to SKA, Kunlun produced an improved performance but could not avoid a fifth successive defeat. CSKA, meanwhile, built on its 7-0 drubbing of Amur with another victory and moves into fourth place ahead of Torpedo.

The visitor got in front early in the game thanks to Denis Guryanov’s sixth-minute goal. However, the Dragons hung around and managed to push CSKA into penalty trouble. Late in the first, the home team was on a five-on-three power play and Rourke Chartier tied it up, getting to the back door to deflect Colin Campbell’s diagonal feed into the net. Campbell was back in action for the first time since Sep. 17, when Chartier scored his last goal. That also came on a five-on-three power play, but could not save KRS from defeat.

And history repeated itself here. Despite Chartier’s effort, CSKA proved too strong. Ilya Vorobyov got his players to cut out the fouls in the second period and was rewarded with a Konstantin Okulov goal to restore the lead. The same player made it 3-1 early in the third, getting clean through on Konstantin Volkov’s net, firing a shot wide then collecting the rebound and finding the target billiard-style via the goalie’s pads.

That might have been the end of the story, but Red Star rallied strongly. Adam Clendening reduced the deficit midway through the session, then Jayden Halbgewachs tied it up on 56:47. In recent seasons, the Dragons have made something of a habit of snatching OT wins against CSKA and another surprise seemed possible.

However, this time Vorobyov’s team did not yield. Iskhakov scored the decider after two minutes of the extras, denying Red Star a famous fightback win.

SKA wins battle at Spartak, moves four points clear of rival

Spartak Moscow 2 SKA St. Petersburg 5 (2-0, 0-3, 0-2)

This was a battle for second place in the Western Conference, and it lived up to its billing as the day’s top game. Spartak was hoping to move ahead of SKA but could not build on a bright start. The visitor recovered from 0-2 to reel off a sixth successive victory and remain in contact with table-topping Lokomotiv.

The game began with Spartak on top. Although SKA outshot the home team 12-9 in the first period, the Red-and-Whites played the better hockey and created the clearer chances. In the seventh minute, only the post denied Mikhail Maltsev an opening goal. Then Evgeny Kuznetsov talked his way into a double minor penalty midway through the frame and, after Pavel Poryadin could not convert a great opportunity, he found the net from the next face-off. Ivan Morozov won possession before setting up Poryadin in front of the net and this time Yegor Zavragin had no chance.

SKA tried to find a way back in the first period, but ended the session down 0-2. Yegor Filin’s backhanded feed to the slot took a deflection off Vydrenkov and slipped through Zavragin’s defenses. Spartak began the second period with another shot against the post, but after that the game changed.

The visitor responded by forcing Dmitry Nikolayev into a string of big saves before Kuznetsov made amends for his earlier penalty by getting SKA on the scoreboard in the 26th minute. Moments later, Zakhar Bardakov tied the scores and the next shift almost brought a goal for Vasily Glotov after Adam Ruzicka gave away the puck in a dangerous area. Spartak head coach Alexei Zhamnov tried to calm things down with a time-out, but when Morozov went to the box midway through the session, Glotov converted the power play to put his team ahead for the first time. At that point, in the 31st minute, the shot count for the second period was 12-1 in SKA’s favor.

Any doubt about the outcome evaporated when SKA continued its dominance at the start of the third. Sergei Plotnikov followed up Wednesday’s hat-trick by scoring the fourth goal tonight. With an earlier assist, he moves to 8 (5+3) points from four games. Then Danila Galenyuk added a fifth before Plotnikov and Alexander Pashin indulged in a minor skirmish midway through the final stanza.