Ak Bars edges CSKA, Dragons claim fourth straight win. November 25 round-up

Monday’s big game saw Ak Bars shrug off the absence of established goalies to claim a tight 2-1 verdict at CSKA. On a good day for visiting teams, Kunlun won 3-1 at Neftekhimik to record a fourth win in a row. Torpedo went to Moscow and hit Spartak for six, while there was a shut-out win for Salavat Yulaev at Severstal. The only home winner on the day was HC Sochi, whose three power play goals earned a 3-2 win over Lada.

Wolves defeated by Dragons

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 Kunlun Red Star 3 (1-1, 0-2, 0-0)

The Dragons roared to a fourth successive victory as Mikhail Kravets’ team enjoys its best run of form this season. For Neftekhimik, defeat on home ice meant wasting a chance to move up to sixth in the East and put more space between itself and the teams chasing a playoff spot.

Kunlun named an unchanged team after winning 4-1 at Traktor, and enjoyed an almost unchanged start. Once again, the visitor scored in the third minute. This time, Rourke Chartier found the net, adding to his two goals in Chelyabinsk.

The visitor had the better of the first period but could not build on the lead. Instead, a counter-attack brought Neftekhimik level through Nikita Khoruzhev midway through the stanza. It remained locked at 1-1 despite the Dragons’ early dominance.

In the second period the balance of play was almost completely reversed. Now Neftekhimik had the bulk of the possession, helped by a couple of early power plays. However, it was Red Star that posed the threat on the counter, and Spencer Foo found the net for the third game in a row to restore the lead. Then came an impressive power play strike from Adam Clendening to make it 3-1 at the second intermission.

There was no change in the third period. Jeremy Smith made 12 saves in the final session to preserve the Red Star lead. The pick of the bunch was a double stop to deny Vyacheslav Leshchenko and Bulat Shafigullin as Neftekhimik tried to force the issues in the closing stages.

Lada pays the penalty

HC Sochi 3 Lada Togliatti 2 (0-1, 2-1, 1-0)

Lada slumped to a sixth successive loss despite leading twice in Sochi. The visitor, was in with a chance of returning to the playoff spots in the East if it could win here, but failed to hold onto its leads and was undone by three power play goals.

Lada got the only goal of the first period. Ivan Romanov broke the deadlock in the 14th minute of an even session. Crucially, though, neither team visited the penalty box in that opening frame. When that discipline began to slip, things changed fast for the visitor.

The Motormen ran into penalty trouble after the break. Sochi had five power plays in the second period, culminating in a major penalty on Vladislav Syomin for cross checking. The first PP saw Sergei Popov tie the game at 1-1, the second brought another tying goal on 38:44, this time from Ilya Fedotov. In between, during a rare spell of five-on-five hockey, Evgeny Groshev briefly restored Lada’s lead.

Syomin’s penalty continued into the third period, but Sochi could not add any further punishment. However, Lada continued to get into trouble and in the 48th minute Daniil Seroukh put the home team in front for the first time on yet another power play. This time the guilty man was Andrei Altybarmakyan, who once played here for the Leopards.

And it finished 3-2. Lada was unable to generate enough of a storm in the closing stages and Sochi held on. The visitor missed its chance to return to the playoff spots in the East, the host remains three points adrift at the foot of the West.

Samonov blanks Severstal, keeps Ufa in third

Severstal Cherepovets 0 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 (0-1, 0-0, 0-1)

After scoring seven on Ak Bars last time out, Severstal found goals hard to come by at home to Salavat Yulaev. The visitor defended well, and goalie Alexander Samonov was in good form to bring a valuable win. Viktor Kozlov’s team was in need of a boost after losing two of the previous three games, and a 34-save shut-out was just the tonic.

The first period saw Severstal looking to play its familiar attacking game. The home team outshot Salavat 15-9 and dominated the attacking possession (7:38 vs 2:44). However, there was no way past Samonov. And Ufa made the most of the goalie’s good work by getting the only marker of the frame. It came on a breakaway in the 15th minute, with Alexander Chyornyi dishing the puck off superbly for 19-year-old Artyom Nabiyev to score his first KHL goal.

In the second period, Severstal continued to outshoot its visitor but by now Salavat had a larger share of possession. But early in the third, Mark Barberio’s double minor for high sticking saw the visitor double the lead. Not only that, but Nathan Todd quickly converted the first power play and the home team had to kill a further two minutes before resuming its efforts to get back into the game.

Those efforts were not helped by some solid defensive work from Salavat Yulaev. With a two-goal cushion, the visitor could afford to yield territory and focus on keeping the opposition to the perimeter. Severstal was held to just five shots through 14 minutes’ play in the third – hardly the stuff of stirring fightbacks.

Salavat Yulaev continued to clamp down on any scoring chances in the closing moments, affording Samonov some great protection. That helped the goalie record his third shut-out of the season.

Galimov’s shorty sinks CSKA

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

Ak Bars edged a tight verdict on the road at CSKA, rebounding from Saturday’s loss and closing the gap to the leaders in the Eastern Conference. For CSKA, it’s a second successive defeat after last week’s 2-5 reverse at Traktor.

Ak Bars was still without senior goalies Timur Bilyalov and Amir Miftakhov, both of whom went on the injured list last week. That meant that Anvar Gatiyatulin had to continue with untested youngster Maxim Arefyev, backed up by Gleb Nosov. That pair shared the net during a 5-7 loss at Severstal on Saturday. Meanwhile, CSKA had an absentee of its own. Slovakian defenseman Christian Jaros was named in Ilya Vorobyov’s first pair, but did not take to the ice at all during the game.

Young Arefyev negotiated the first period in Moscow without allowing a goal. And he helped his team take a lead into the intermission. Semyon Koshelev collected his 200th KHL point with a goal on the first power play of the night, scoring in the 13th minute. Admittedly, the visiting forward had some help: as he drilled the puck to the back door, it bounced off Colby Williams’ skate and into the net. At the other end, Arefyev stopped 12 shots to keep CSKA at bay.

In the second period, the home team finally beat the young goalie. Arefyev didn’t get much help from his defense, with Ivan Drozdov given plenty of time on the slot to pick his shot and score with a backhander. After that, CSKA had four power play chances in the middle frame. However, not only did the Muscovites fail to get in front, they allowed a short-handed goal as Artyom Galimov snaffled the puck in center ice and raced away to beat Dmitry Gamzin and put Ak Bars back in front.

That goal turned out to be the winner. Ak Bars began the third period with the idea that attack was the best form of defense. Galimov might have scored his second of the night early in the frame, and the early chances were all one way. CSKA responded with a dangerous attack that saw Kirill Dolzhenkov force a fine save from Arefyev. The youngster showed sharp reactions again as Ruslan Iskhakov immediately leapt on the rebound from an angled Denis Guryanov shot.

However, just as it seemed that CSKA was stepping up for a big finish, Kirill Semyonov got on a breakaway and forced Vladislav Kamenev into a foul to halt his rush. That two minute penalty spiked the home team’s artillery and helped Ak Bars close out a narrow victory.

Torpedo hands Spartak a hammering

Spartak Moscow 0 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 6 (0-1, 0-4, 0-1)

Torpedo halted Spartak’s four-game winning run, moving Igor Larionov’s team up to sixth in the West, level on points with CSKA. Spartak remains second behind Lokomotiv but will rue its failure to convert two penalty shots.

The visitor got a great start when Vladislav Firstov opened the scoring in the fourth minute. He picked up a rebound on the slot and beat Dmitry Nikolayev from close range after Dmitry Kagarlitsky won possession behind the net.

Spartak might have tied it up in the 17th minute when Alexander Pashin raced clear of the Torpedo defense. Firstov, the last man covering, could only foul the Spartak forward at the expense of a penalty shot. Pashin himself went to take it, but Ivan Bocharov got his pad down to make the save. The visiting goalie would go on to make 34 saves for his second successive shut-out.

Torpedo began the second period by killing a penalty, then stung Spartak with two quick goals. Igor Larionov and Sergei Goncharuk found the net less than a minute apart, chasing Nikolayev from the game and bringing Dmitry Kulikov to the net. The 23-year-old, making his third appearance of the season, was beaten after three minutes as Evgeny Svechnikov added a fourth.

Two days ago, Spartak recovered from 1-4 to beat Vityaz in overtime. However, going down 0-4 proved too much for the Red-and-Whites. Ansel Galimov followed Pashin in failing with a penalty shot midway through the second period. And late in the frame, Maxim Letunov added a fifth for the rampant visitor.

Things were quieter in the third period. With the game effectively over, the pace dropped. However, midway through the session Torpedo ensured that the scoring ended where it began, with Firstov finding the net to make the final score 6-0.