Good day on the road for Moscow. November 17 round-up

Sunday brought road wins for two Moscow clubs. CSKA blanked Ak Bars to claim a 3-0 win in Kazan, while Dynamo survived a big fightback to take a shoot-out verdict in Chelyabinsk. Elsewhere, Vityaz thrashed Severstal 7-1 on the road, Barys won 7-1 at Sochi and Kunlun Red Star delivered the only home win of the day, 3-0 over Dinamo Minsk.

Two late goals can’t save Traktor

Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Dynamo Moscow 4 SO (0-2, 1-1, 2-0, 0-0, 0-1)

Despite scoring twice in the last five minutes to force overtime, Eastern Conference leader was unable to complete its fightback and defeat Dynamo. The visitor took a shoot-out verdict to record a third successive victory and climb to third in the East.

It was a big day for two of Dynamo’s imports – and two players who haven’t always made the greatest of impressions since coming to the KHL this summer. Goalie Hunter Miska put on a superb display, stopping 48 shots in regulation before winning the shoot-out. And forward Max Comtois had a hand in all three Blue-and-White goals (1+2), finding the net for the first time in over a month in his best performance to date for the Muscovites.

Comtois got things started in the 12th minute when he put away the rebound from Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi’s shot. Four minutes later he set Artyom Mikheyev away on an odd-man rush as his team-mate doubled the lead.

Traktor had cause to feel hard done-by. The home team had a clear edge in the first period but found itself down by two. Midway through the second period, Maxim Shabanov started to put things right, winning a puck battle on the boards and driving into the center of the zone to score. Then Shabanov had a good chance to tie it up on the power play, but Miska kept him out. Back at full strength, Dynamo restored its two-goal lead. Comtois outfought Steven Kampfer behind the net and set up Mikheyev’s second of the game.

The third period saw even more attacking pressure from the home team. Dynamo was almost non-existent as an offensive force, but for a long time the visiting defense held – despite having to kill a couple of penalties. However, when Mikhail Kotlyarevsky pulled a goal back in the 56th minute, bringing play over the blue line before beating Miska, Traktor got a vital boost. Within 90 seconds, the scores were level; Shabanov got his second of the game when the home press forced a defensive error.

Overtime was breathless with good chances for both teams. Semyon Der-Arguchintsev hit the post for Traktor, the Cedric Paquette saw a last-minute effort disallowed after he was ruled to have kicked Brennan Menell’s shot past Zach Fucale.

That meant a shoot-out, and this time Paquette was the game-winner. He and Nikita Gusev were on target for Dynamo, while only Vladimir Tkachyov could score for Traktor.

Prosvetov denies Ak Bars

Ak Bars Kazan 0 CSKA Moscow 3 (0-0, 0-2, 0-1)

These two met after winning their previous two games. But it was CSKA that extended its winning streak, closing the gap on the top four in the West and denying Ak Bars the chance to get closer to second-placed Avtomobilist in the East.

Neither team could make a breakthrough in the first period. There wasn’t much between them on the stats: Ak Bars had lsightly more attacking possession, but CSKA led the shot count 11-10.

After the intermission, CSKA had a more obvious advantage in terms of the play, but for a long time struggled to find a way past Timur Bilyalov in the home net. However, in the final moments of the frame the Muscovites scored not one, but two. Konstantin Okulov noticed Vladislav Provolnev getting forward to join the attack and set he defenseman up to shoot. His first effort was charged down, but the rebound went to Vladislav Kamenev, who found the open corner of Bilyalov’s net.

After his assist, Provolnev was encouraged to come forward again and scored himself just before the hooter. This time, Kamenev put up the screen as the D-man thumped in a point shot of Ruslan Iskhakov’s feed.

Ak Bars made a lively start to the third period, looking for a way to get back into the game. Semyon Koshelev tested Ivan Prosvetov after intercepting the puck on the blue, then a powerful Nikita Lyamkin one-timer flattened Denis Guryanov as he made the block. But CSKA did not buckle and, in the 48th minute, added a killer third goal. Vitaly Abramov chased a Christian Jaros feed down the left wing and cut inside for a deadly finish from the left-hand circle. That moves him to 21 (11+10) points for the season and ended home hopes of a revival. Prosvetov closed out the win, making 27 saves for his shut-out.

Savitsky’s double leads Barys to victory

HC Sochi 3 Barys Astana 6 (1-2, 2-2, 0-2)

For the second time in two games, Sochi experienced a rush of goals. However, unlike Friday’s 6-5 OT win over Kunlun, today’s result was less satisfactory: Barys skated off with a 6-3 verdict.

This game exploded into life late in the first period. Barys jumped into a 2-0 lead on goals from Alikhan Omirbekov and Kirill Savitsky. Just 26 seconds separated those two tallies as the visitor looked to take control.

However, Stanislav Bocharov’s trip put Sochi on the power play and the home team took advantage. Danil Mokrushev converted the power play on 16:43 to make it a one-goal game.

Early in the middle frame, Barys restored that two-goal advantage on the power play. Nikita Setdikov was the scorer and his effort survived a bench challenge for interference on home goalie Evgeny Volokhin. Sochi killed the delay of game penalty that followed an unsuccessful challenge and then embarked on a fightback. Two goals in three minutes either side of the midway mark saw Danil Avershin and Friday’s hat-trick hero Timur Khafizov haul the game back to 3-3.

But that was as good as the day got for Sochi. Kirill Panyukov restored the Barys lead in the 37th minute and third-period tallies for Anton Burdasov and Savitsky’s second of the game made the final 6-3.

Vityaz hits Severstal for seven

Severstal Cherepovets 1 Vityaz Moscow Region 7 (0-2, 1-3, 0-2)

Vityaz got off to a great start in this game. Yaroslav Busygin put the visitor in front after 63 seconds, then Vladislav Tsitsyura doubled the lead on 2:57. However, after that the home team took control of the play. The first period shot-count was 14-5 in Severstal’s favor, but Maxim Dorozhko kept the home forwards at bay.

After a fast start to the opening frame, Vityaz repeated the trick in the second. Ivan Chekhovich and Dmitry Buchelnikov extended the lead to 4-0 inside 25 minutes, bringing an end to Alexander Samoilov’s evening. His replacement in the home net, Konstantin Shostak lasted five minutes before Chekhovich potted his second of the game.

Nothing much was going right for Severstal and when the home team found the net midway through the game, the power play effort was whistled off for a high stick. Ironically, the consolation goal eventually arrived on the PK, with Danil Aimurzin netting a shorthanded effort in the 37th minute.

After 40 minutes, Vityaz had five goals from just 12 shots. In the final frame, the visitor added two more amid relatively little home resistance. Frederik Gauthier and Stanislav Yarovoi completed the rout.

Dragons blank Dinamo Minsk

Kunlun Red Star 3 Dinamo Minsk 0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0)

After leaking 16 goals in the past three games, Kunlun produced a shut-out to defeat Dinamo Minsk. The Dragons halted a four-game skid, helped by 37 saves from Jeremy Smith.

The visitor had every reason to feel confident ahead of this game. Dinamo hit Vityaz for six on Friday, while KRS allowed at least five in each of those previous three outings. Mikhail Kravets responded to that threat by scratching Adam Clendening and Martin Lefebvre, his first pair in the 5-6 OT loss at Sochi, and recalling Jake Chelios. Up front, he had to reshuffled his line-up to compensate for the loss of Nail Yakupov, traded to Avangard yesterday.

The new-look Dragons defense did its job in the first period, holding the game to 0-0. However, the home team may have felt it should have got in front after seeing two power plays come and go.

In the second period, Minsk began to dominate the play. However, there was no way past Smith and the opening goal went to Red Star late in the frame. It went to Colin Campbell, after a video review ruled that the puck deflected off his skate without a deliberate kicking motion.

Early in the third, Tomas Jurco doubled the home lead with a power play goal – two in two games now for the Slovak – before Tyler Graovac added a third into an empty net. In between, Dinamo pushed hard for a way back into the game but could not get past Smith.