Unwanted record for Amur. November 5 round-up
Despite scoring at last, Amur Khabarovsk set a new record KHL goal drought. The Tigers went 358:38 without scoring before Evgeny Grachyov found the way to the Avangard net late in today’s game. However, the Hawks held on for a 2-1 victory in Khabarovsk on a good day for visiting teams. All four games in the east ended in road wins, and they were all tight. Salavat Yulaev and Ak Bars needed shoot-outs to dispose of Sibir and Barys respectively, while Metallurg defeated Admiral in overtime.
Tigers get a goal at last but can’t snap losing streak
Amur Khabarovsk 1 Avangard Omsk 2 (0-0, 0-2, 1-0)
At last, Amur scored. However, Evgeny Grachyov’s 52nd-minute strike for the Tigers came too late to save this game, and too late to prevent his team setting an unwanted recorded for the longest goal drought in KHL history.
Sunday’s 0-5 loss at home to Admiral was the fifth game in a row in which Amur failed to score. Grachyov stopped the clock on that sequence at 358:38 – just short of six hours without a goal. The previous record was 307:02, set by Spartak in the 2012-2013 season.
However, Amur’s goal came with the team already down by two. Avangard, itself struggling in 10th place in the East, came under intense pressure in the first period. Pavel Khomchenko made 15 saves as Amur tried hard to get that long-awaited tally. The visitor was limited to just five shots at the other end.
The second period continued in similar vein, with Amur banging in shots at every opportunity. However, after the midway point Nikolai Prokhorkin changed things in the Hawks’ favor. Promoted to center the first line following the departure of Linden Vey last week, Prokhorkin’s face-off win set up Semyon Chistyakov for the opening goal in the 33rd minute. Then the center scored his first since returning to Omsk, shooting the puck from behind the net and seeing it bounce off Dmitry Lozebnikov’s pads and into the net. Avangard had two goals from 11 shots at the second intermission, Khomchenko had 32 saves.
That provided a foundation for Avangard to take control of the game and the third period saw a more even contest. Perversely, with Amur generating less offense, the home team got its goal. Less proved to be more as a rare spell of sustained pressure ended with Grachyov stuffing the puck past Khomchenko. A couple of shifts later, Kirill Slepets was so close to getting a second, but saw his shot hit the post. Avangard had to kill a penalty late on, with nerves affecting the visitor as it looked to close out a much-needed win, but the Hawks hung on to send Amur to a ninth successive loss.
Johnson’s double snaps Metallurg’s skid
Admiral Vladivostok 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 OT (0-1, 1-1, 1-0, 0-1)
With just one win in five games, Metallurg arrived in Metallurg with head coach Andrei Razin switching up his attacking combinations. The defending champion was without leading scorer Nikita Mikhailis, while Canadian center Scott Wilson was absent again. Admiral, buoyed by back-to-back wins, had hopes of further success, but two goals from Luke Johnson made the difference in Vladivostok.
Johnson opened the scoring late in the first period, enjoying a helpful bounce to beat Vasily Demchenko in the home net. That gave Magnitka a slender lead at the end of an even opening stanza, and the visitor doubled its advantage early in the second. Razin restored the Denis Zernov – Pavel Akolzin partnership from last season and they combined for the second goal. Just 13 seconds after the restart, Akolzin’s pass sent Zernov clear and he outwitted Demchenko.
However, this year’s Admiral has shown that it is capable of fighting back from these situations. In the 26th minute, Nikita Soshnikov pulled a goal back after Metallurg’s defense got pulled out of position. Then the home team caught a break: Yegor Yakovlev’s penalty shot beat Demchenko but came back off the post.
Admiral drew level with a power play goal from Jack Rodewald midway through the third period. Now Metallurg had to contend with psychological challenges, having blown a lead against Sibir in the previous game. Admiral’s Dmitry Zavgorodny had a great chance to put the home team in front, but he could not take it and the teams were tied at the end of regulation.
The key moment in overtime was a penalty for Libor Sulak. The four-on-three power play saw Magnitka grab the winner when Johnson redirected a Robin Press shot to claim his second of the night.
Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3 SO (1-0, 1-2, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Salavat Yulaev recorded a fifth win in six games after taking a shoot-out verdict at Sibir. The home team was unable to build on last week’s spectacular fightback to defeat Metallurg and fell to defeat at the start of its latest home stand. Although Sibir remains in the top eight, recent form is a worry for Vadim Yepanchintsev’s team with just one win in seven.
Recent form notwithstanding, there were just three points between the teams at the start of play. And the first period was fairly even as well. Salavat Yulaev had more shots, but that was partly due to more time on the power play. Sibir, meanwhile, got the only goal when Fyodor Gordeyev fired through traffic after five minutes.
Salavat trailed until midway through the second period. Then former Sibir man Alexander Sharov continued his habit of scoring on his former club. His assist on Sheldon Rempal’s equalizer moves him to five points in five games against his previous employer. It also represented a birthday bonus as he turns 29 today. Five minutes later, Grigory Panin’s point shot gave Ufa the lead. Salavat Yulaev’s captain also became the oldest player to score for the club in the KHL, aged 38 years, 347 days.
The visitor’s lead seemed set to survive until the intermission. However, Gordeyev had other ideas and tied it up with his second of the night, 12 seconds before the intermission.
At the start of the third, Nikita Korotkov dinged the piping as Sibir began to get on top. However, neither team could find a winner in regulation, nor in overtime. It came down to a shoot-out and, for the third time this season, Sibir missed out: Alexander Chmelevski and Yegor Suchkov were on target for the visitor.
Battling Barys forces Ak Bars to a shoot-out
Barys Astana 1 Ak Bars Kazan 2 SO (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
The Barys revival under Galym Mambetaliyev continues. At home to Ak Bars, the Kazakh team picked up a point and now has seven out of a possible 10 over the last five games. That’s good enough to move two points clear of Amur at the foot of the overall KHL standings, and to within two points of Sochi, currently in last place in the Western Conference.
However, it wasn’t enough to take the win today. Ak Bars claimed a shoot-out verdict to remain third in the east, a point clear of Salavat Yulaev and just one behind Avtomobilist. Today’s victory meant that Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men bounced back from Friday’s shoot-out loss to Lokomotiv.
The visitor made a bright start and went in front in the third minute on a goal from Dmitry Katelevsky. Ak Bars enjoyed more possession in the opening frame, but in terms of scoring chances the game was fairly even. That was also the pattern in the second period: Ak Bars again had a noticeable advantage in terms of attacking play, but the shot count was almost equal.
Late in the second stanza, Barys tied the game. Ansar Shaikhmeddenov, 22, marked his return to the KHL with his first goal of the season. The forward has spent much of the past three seasons dividing his time between Barys and its Kazakh League farm club Nomad. He earned a recall to the senior team today, having previously featured under David Nemirovsky early in the season.
In the third period, home goalie Nikita Boyarkin came to the fore. He stopped 18 shots as Ak Bars tried to turn dominance into goals and win the game in regulation. Boyarkin prevented that, and finished with 40 saves through 60 minutes.
He remained unbeaten in overtime, but Ak Bars had his number in the shoot-out, scoring its first three attempts. At the other end, Timur Bilyalov won all three duels to bring a swift end to proceedings.
