Fast start for SKA, strong finish for Traktor. November 21 round-up

Three unanswered goals in the first period helped SKA to a 4-1 win over Traktor, returning Roman Rotenberg’s team to third place in the Western Conference ahead of Dynamo Moscow. Eastern Conference leader Traktor defeated CSKA 5-2 despite trailing twice in Chelyabinsk. Four goals in the third period turned that game around. Alexander Chmelevski produced a last-minute goal to save Salavat Yulaev at Lada; he went on to claim the shoot-out decider. Stephane da Costa also scored late on to get his team to a shoot-out, but Avtomobilist fell to Kunlun on home ice for the first time in seven years.

Kadeikin’s double helps Traktor extend its lead

Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 CSKA Moscow 2 (1-1, 0-0, 4-1)

The home team had to come from behind twice, but eventually secured a convincing win in the third period. Success over CSKA sees Traktor move five points clear of Avtomobilist at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Despite a shoot-out loss to Dynamo in its previous home game, Benoit Groulx’s team had picked up points in each of its last four and was improving its position at the top of the Eastern Conference. CSKA, meanwhile, was also in strong form, allowing just two goals as it won its last four games. With that kind of form, goalie Ivan Prosvetov got the start in goal, while Traktor defenseman Artyom Blazhievsky returned from injury in time to face his former club.

When the teams met in Moscow in October, CSKA could not score. Today it took just four minutes for the visitor to get past Sergei Mylnikov. Ivan Drozdov needed no second invitation after great work from Vladislav Provolnev to set him up. However, the lead was short-lived: Blazhievsky went coast-to-coast before putting his shot on the top shelf in the seventh minute. However, the fast start was deceptive; there was no more scoring and the teams got to the intermission with just nine shots on goal between them.

The middle frame was also goalless. It took place at a breathless tempo, almost without pause from start to finish. The home power play gave Traktor the edge, but neither team could find a way to end the stalemate.

Early in the third, the Muscovites stepped it up again and regained the lead. Maxim Sorkin’s power play goal inspired an instant response from Traktor and 40 seconds later Alexander Kadeikin stuffed home his first of the game. Another 34 seconds went by and Maxim Shabanov put the home team in front for the first time in the game.

Midway through the final frame, Traktor put the game beyond reach during a spell of four-on-four play. Andrei Svetlakov, another former CSKA man, added a fourth goal before Kadeikin potted his second of the night. That’s the fifth time the center has claimed two in a game this season, accounting for 10 of his 13 goals so far. The fifth goal also chased Prosvetov from the CSKA net. Dmitry Gamzin kept his goal intact for the remaining nine minutes, but there was no doubt about the final outcome.

Red Star gets rare win in Yekaterinburg

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Kunlun Red Star 2 SO (0-1, 0-0, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)

The Dragons won in Yekaterinburg for the first time since Sep. 2017 thanks in no small part to a big goaltending display from Kyle Keyser. The American stopped 38 shots in regulation and seven more in overtime before making a crucial stop to deny Stephane da Costa and settle the shoot-out in sudden death.

Red Star also created chances in a lively game and the visitor got in front late in the first period. A breakaway saw Sergei Zborovsky overloaded and as he skated desperately between Jayden Halbgewachs and Spencer Foo the forwards traded passes for Foo to open the scoring.

The second period was open, but produced no goals. Kunlun did not just sit back and defend, creating some good chances to add to its lead. However, goalies Keyser and Vladimir Galkin were on top of everything that happened.

In the final frame the game got cagey. Now Kunlun played more cautiously, defending its slender lead by forcing Avtomobilist to the perimeter. After two periods of regular chances, the third saw the goalies get a breather: the teams managed just 11 shots on goal between them.

Nonetheless, with three minutes to go Avtomobilist saved the game. Nick Ebert went behind the net and set up da Costa for the equalizer. In OT, the home time had almost three minutes on two separate power plays but could not score; at the other end, Ryan Merkley almost won it for KRS but saw his shot rebound off the bar.

The shoot-out was a long one. Brooks Macek and Red Star debutant Jan Drozg both scored two from three attempts before Luke Lockhart scored a third goal for the visitor. Keyser stopped da Costa’s next effort to seal a rare Dragons’ road win in the Urals. Avto drops a point further behind Traktor after a second successive loss. 

Chmelevski’s late strike saves Salavat

Lada Togliatti 1 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 SO (0-0, 0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

There was a similar scoreline in Togliatti, where Salavat Yulaev took a shoot-out win following a 1-1 tie. This time, though, a late equalizer was the springboard to victory as Alexander Chmelevski turned the game around for the visitor.

Lada had lost its previous four games, largely due to its inability to score more than once in any of them. Home hopes of greater productivity were boosted by Troy Josephs’ return from injury. He joined Ostap Safin and another fit-again forward, Yegor Chernikov, on the third line. Ufa has its own attacking worries, with talismanic forward Josh Leivo unavailable due to illness.

That might explain why it took so long to break the deadlock in this game. Although Lada saw Mikhail Fisenko and Dmitry Kugryshev miss good early chances, Salavat Yulaev steadily claimed the initiative. The visitor ha 16 shots at Vladislav Podyapolsy in the first period, 18 in the second and 19 in the third. However, it had to wait until the last of those to solve the home goalie: Chmelevski saving the game with a power play tally 39 seconds before the hooter. That cancelled out Josephs’ goal at the start of the final frame, which had looked like it was going to be the winner before his 58th-minute foul opened the door for the Ufa power play.

Overtime could not separate the teams, although Podyapolsky moved to 54 saves in the game. His opposite number Alexander Samonov had a quieter time, with 28 stops through 65 minutes and he distinguished himself by denying Josephs and Ivan Romanov in the shoot-out. At the other end, the visiting forwards were flawless, converting all four attempts as Chmevelski put the verdict beyond reach. Salavat Yulaev celebrates a second win over Lada in 10 days; Lada laments a fifth successive loss.

Clinical finishing sees SKA sink Torpedo

SKA St. Petersburg 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (3-0, 0-1, 1-0)

The KHL’s two highest-scoring teams went head-to-head. SKA was looking to build on an upswing in form: since losing five in a row, the Petersburg club had two wins and an OT loss in Kazan. Torpedo, meanwhile, was on a run of tight games: with the exception of a 7-1 thrashing of Sochi, five of the last six were settled by a single goal, four of them in the extras.

There seemed little prospect of SKA getting dragged into a close battle after a powerful start from the home team. Although the first period was fairly tight in terms of shots and attacking possession, SKA made far more of its chances to lead 3-0 at the intermission. Sergei Tolchinsky opened the scoring in the fifth minute. In a difficult season for the two-time Gagarin Cup winner, that was his first point in seven games.

The first power play of the night saw Sergei Plotnikov double SKA’s lead midway through the session, assisted by Tony DeAngelo and Mikhail Grigorenko. The same trio combined again, this time at equal strength, for Grigorenko to score the third in the 15th minute.

Torpedo head coach Igor Larionov responded by swapping goalies at the intermission. Ivan Bocharov replaced Ivan Kulbakov and immediately things started to improve for the visitor. Slava Voynov, once a SKA player, pulled a goal back on 23 minutes. He joined the attack and got to the back door in time to put a rebound past Pavel Moisevich. Torpedo kept up the pressure through the middle frame, but could not add to that tally despite outshooting SKA 15-8.

In the third period Torpedo continued to create and miss chances. The visitor’s prospects were also hampered by penalties. SKA began the session on the power play and had two more spells with an extra man, eating into the time available for any fightback. Although the balance of play remained even, it was little surprise that Larionov’s last roll of the dice backfired. Bocharov went to the bench, one of the skaters coughed up the puck and Marat Khairullin scored into an empty net to seal the home win.