Cassels shoots Hawks into top eight. November 24 round-up

Avangard moved back into the playoff places in the East after Cole Cassels’ first goal of the season secured on OT win over Barys. The Hawks recovered a two-goal deficit in that game, and Admiral did the same to defeat Amur in the Far East derby. Avangard’s move into eighth place was helped by Sibir’s 1-3 loss at Metallurg. The only Western Conference team in action, Dinamo Minsk, lost at home to Avtomobilist in overtime.

Third-period flourish gives Admiral a derby win

Admiral Vladivostok 5 Amur Khabarovsk 3 (0-2, 1-0, 4-1)

Admiral recovered from two goals down to win this Far East derby against Amur. The visitor, which snapped its 14-game losing streak in the previous game, was looking to avenge a 0-5 drubbing in its first meeting with the Sailors this season. Boosted by that 3-0 win at Barys on Friday, the Tigers made just one change as defenseman Cam Lee returned to action. Admiral, beaten 2-1 by Avangard, also stuck with broadly the same line-up.

From the opening face-off, both teams were committed to attacking hockey. That brought an early goal when Ilya Talaluyev opened the scoring for the visitor in the second minute when he reacted first to a rebound on the slot. Then Amur had three unsuccessful power play attempts before Arnaud Durandeau increased the lead with a backhand finish two seconds before the intermission.

Losing a goal so late in the frame did not seem to do much psychological damage to the home team. The second period saw an improvement from Admiral and Stepan Starkov halved the deficit when he redirected Libor Sulak’s shot into the net. Then, six seconds into the third period, Yegor Petukhov tied the game at 2-2.

Having battled back once, the Sailors found they had to do it all again. Just three minutes after the tying goal, Evgeny Grachyov put Amur back in front. But that was the last contribution from the visitor. Two goals in little over a minute saw Nikita Soshnikov and Giovanni Fiore turn the game upside down. Admiral was up 4-3, its first lead of the day, and closed out the win with the help of a late empty net goal from Soshnikov.

Long-awaited goal puts Avangard in playoff spots

Barys Astana 2 Avangard Omsk 3 OT (1-0, 1-0, 0-2, 0-1)

Avangard, with goalie Nikita Serebryakov making his debut after a move from SKA, rallied from 0-2 to win in overtime. Cole Cassels got the winning goal, scoring his first in the KHL after moving to Omsk in the summer. The 29-year-old American had three assists through 23 games ahead of today’s game following his arrival from San Jose Barracuda.

Cassels’ goal also lifted his team back into the playoff places. Today’s success makes it back-to-back wins for the Hawks for the first time since the opening weeks of the season, helping the team up to eighth in the east ahead of Sibir.

Barys got an early lead when Ivan Nikolishin scored in the seventh minute. Nikolishin began this season with Avangard, but was traded to Astana after 11 games without a goal. There was, perhaps, a certain inevitability about him scoring today.

Despite falling behind, the Hawks had plenty of first-period play. The shot count was 12-7 in the visitor’s favor and Avangard had more than twice as much attacking pressure. However, Andrei Shutov kept Barys in front through 20 minutes.

And Shutov played a big role after the intermission, stopping 19 saves to deny Avangard’s offense. However, this was not just a Barys rearguard action. Both teams were happy to bang in shots from all angles, but the host showed greater precision. Fourteen of its 16 attempts were on target, and defenseman Adil Beketayev’s impressive rush doubled the lead in the 39th minute after getting away from Pavel Koledov and beating Serebryakov.

Avangard’s problems were not helped when Ryan Spooner took the first penalty of the game early in the third. But once he was back in the game, the visitor started its fightback. Nail Yakupov set up Nikolai Prokhorkin, claiming his second assist in three games since joining the Hawks. The home team dug in to defend its lead and almost succeeded. Reliable defense kept Avangard at bay, while at the other end Serebryakov was twice called upon to halt breakaways from Nikita Setdikov and Kirill Savitsky.

Those saves were even more valuable in the last minute when Cassels won an attacking face-off, the puck went to Prokhorkin and his wrister flew into the net while Cassels screened Shutov.

Avangard carried that initiative into overtime and Cassels confirmed his status as the star of the game by settling the outcome. Again, he won an attacking face-off and this time he finished off the attack with a shot into the open corner of the net.

Steelmen push Sibir out of top eight

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (2-0, 0-1, 1-0)

These teams met for the third time this month, and Metallurg claimed its second victory over Sibir. As a result, the visitor dropped out of the playoff places while Magnitka tightened its grip on fifth place in the East.

The bulk of the damage was done in the first period. Danila Yurov opened the scoring in the sixth minute, celebrating his recovery from injury by winning possession in center ice, driving into the danger zone and producing a fine finish. Late in the opening frame, Daniil Vovchenko doubled the lead by forcing the puck home during a scrummage on the slot. That snapped his 11-game wait for a goal and secured a 2-0 lead that did not entirely reflect the balance of play.

Metallurg might have extended its lead on a power play early in the second period, but Sibir held on and managed to reduce the deficit midway through the session. After keeping play in front of Ilya Nabokov’s net, the visitor put together a neat combination for Alexei Yakovlev to score. After that, there were chances at both ends. The post denied Yurov a second goal, while Sibir’s Anton Berlyov got into a great position only for Nabokov to make a big save.

Sibir’s previous visit to Magnitogorsk produced a dramatic fightback from 1-3 to win. In the third period, Vadim Yepanchintsev’s team tried to channel that energy once again. Nabokov was frequently called into action and the pattern of play suggested a tying goal was on the way. However, Metallurg stood up to the challenge and managed to restore its two-goal lead thanks to Denis Zernov in the 55th minute. That made the closing stages a little calmer. Sibir played the last three minutes with an extra skater but the closest we came to another goal was Alexander Petunin’s shot narrowly wide of the empty net.

OT goals ends Avto’s losing run

Dinamo Minsk 2 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 OT (1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-1)

After back-to-back losses, Avtomobilist made a great start to this game. Dinamo’s Vadim Moroz was assessed a tripping minor after 41 seconds, and Maxim Osipov converted the power play to give the Motormen the lead just 67 seconds into the game. Better still for the visitor, Xavier Ouellet took a high sticking call during that play, meaning another two minutes on the power play.

However, penalties proved to be the theme of the opening minutes. On 4:32, a roughing call send Andrei Obidin to the box and Alexander Volkov tied the game on Minsk’s first PP of the night. The opening frame brought three more penalties, but neither team could take advantage. Dinamo neutralized two more Avtomobilist power plays, but failed on its own chance late in the frame.

However, in the second period goalscorer Osipov went to the box for tripping and Brady Lyle put Dinamo in front. That goal added to his assist on Volkov’s equalizer, but had to survive a bench challenge after Avto claimed a home forward strayed offside early in the play. The challenge was dismissed, and Minsk went straight back on the power play but could not add to its lead.

Dinamo stayed on top until the 55th minute when Avtomobilist scored the game’s first equal-strength goal. It went to Obidin, whose first-period penalty saw Volkov tie the game.

Obidin’s goal sent the game to overtime, where the visitor grabbed the winner through Stepan Khripunov. He struck 14 seconds before the game would have gone to a shoot-out, putting the Motormen back on track after those two recent defeats.