SKA slips up in Ufa, Tigers remain toothless. November 2 round-up

Saturday’s top action saw Salavat Yulaev take a 4-2 verdict at home to SKA. The win puts Viktor Kozlov’s team into the top four in the East, while the visitor suffered a second successive loss. Amur’s problems continue: the Tigers failed to score for a fifth game in a row, setting an unwanted KHL record at home to Admiral. Sochi also fired blanks on home ice, losing 0-4 to Spartak.

Goal drought continues for Amur

Amur Khabarovsk 0 Admiral Vladivostok 5 (0-4, 0-1, 0-0)

The Tigers remain toothless: this was an unwanted record five games without a goal in the KHL for Amur, and the total drought is up to 3:07:13, 10 minutes short of the longest ever.

Under the guidance of interim head coach Viktor Kostyuchyonok, Amur returned from a dismal road trip but enjoyed no home comforts as Far East neighbor Admiral took complete control in the first period. Jack Rodewald opened the scoring after 54 seconds and the Sailors never looked back. Vyacheslav Osnovin doubled the lead while Amur saw its best chances spurned by Vladislav Barulin and Arnaud Durandeau. Late in the opening stanza, Admiral padded its lead with two more goals: Rodewald got his second of the game before Dmitry Sokolov sent the teams to the intermission at 4-0.

The home team responded by sending Dmitry Lozebnikov into the net in place of Igor Bobkov. However, he was beaten at the start of the third as Dmitry Zavgorodny made it five. The winner was clear, but there was still 38 minutes to see if Amur could finally get a goal. There were chances, notably for Oleg Li in the second period, but Vasily Demchenko kept his goal intact. He finished with 37 saves as the Sailors cruised to victory.

Salavat inflicts another loss on SKA

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 SKA St. Petersburg 2 (1-0, 2-1, 1-1)

SKA suffered a second successive loss, with the exertions of a seven-game winning streak catching up with Roman Rotenberg’s team. Salavat Yulaev, meanwhile, improved to four victories from five games and goes into the top four in the East.

The visit of the stellar Petersburg roster drew a capacity crowd to Arena Ufa and the home team relished that atmosphere. There was a further boost in the return to action of Alexander Samonov in goal after he missed some recent games due to injury.

That ensured Salavat Yulaev started the game on the front foot. Josh Leivo’s early set-up almost presented Danil Alalykin with an instant opener. SKA had its chances too, with Alexander Nikishin and Tony De Angelo demonstrating the attacking potential of the visiting D-core. However, the opening goal went to Ufa midway through the frame: on the first power play of the game, Denis Yan’s wrister was too hot for Yegor Zavragin to hold and Yegor Suchkov put away the rebound.

SKA tied it up early in the second period on a Zakhar Bardakov goal. But the home team rode that punch and quickly restored its lead thanks to Leivo’s 11th goal of the season. And the Canadian turned provider just before the intermission, setting up Artyom Pimenov to make it 3-1 on his return to the line-up.

When SKA finds itself behind in a game, Rotenberg has a reputation for pulling some unlikely moves. And we saw that again here. Despite losing Evgeny Kuznetsov to a 10-minute misconduct penalty, the visitor got on a power play in the 52nd minute and the head coach gambled on playing six-on-four. It worked! Mikhail Grigorenko found the net to make it a one-goal game.

Late on, and still down 2-3, SKA called Zavragin back to the bench and hoped that lightning might strike twice. However, this time Sheldon Rempal found the empty net to seal the win for Salavat Yulaev.

Spartak proves too strong for Sochi

HC Sochi 0 Spartak Moscow 4 (0-1, 0-2, 0-1)

Spartak goes back to third in the Western Conference after easing past Sochi. The Leopards had shown some recent signs of progress, but this represented a third straight loss as Sergei Zubov’s team stays at the foot of the Conference standings.

In an even first period, Sochi’s problems came on the penalty kill. While Spartak stayed out of the box through the first 20 minutes, the home team twice found itself a man down. The second of those instances brought the opening goal from Andrei Mironov and that separated the teams at the intermission.

The middle frame also looked fairly even in terms of play. The teams had almost the same amount of attacking possession and Sochi even outshot Spartak 10-9 while the Muscovites’ defense blocked six further attempts. However, two goals in 40 seconds took this game away from the host. Ansel Galimov made it 2-0, then 23-year-old defenseman Roman Bychkov scored his first in the KHL to add a third.

After that, Spartak was on top. The visitor outshot Sochi 14-4 in the final frame and Alexander Pashin added a fourth and final goal to complete a convincing win. Goalie Dmitry Nikolayev stopped 24 shots for his second shut-out of the season.