Loko spoils SKA’s homecoming, Barys stuns Dynamo. December 17 round-up

There was no happy housewarming for SKA in its first game of the season at the SKA Arena: a 22,800 crowd saw Lokomotiv edge a 3-2 verdict in the game of the day. CSKA defeated Kunlun Red Star by the same scoreline in Moscow, while Dynamo suffered an unexpected 0-2 loss at home to Barys. Vityaz won an exciting clash with Torpedo in a shoot-out after a 5-5 tie in Balashikha. Earlier in the day, there were road wins in the two Eastern Conference derbies. Avangard, with Dave Barr behind the bench for the first time, won 5-3 at Sibir; Admiral marked Leonids Tambijevs’ 200th game in the KHL with a 4-1 win at Amur.

Sailors cruise to derby success

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

This was the 200th time Admiral head coach Leonids Tambijevs had led a team into KHL action – and it ended with a convincing derby win.

The home team welcomed back Igor Bobkov after the goalie missed the past six weeks through injury. Admiral handed debuts to new signings Shane Prince and Nikita Susuyev.

The Tigers lost their last three games before the international break, but made a bright start on their return to action. Amur got a power play in the first minute of the game and took advantage to open the scoring through Alex Broadhurst.

However, Admiral has been in good form lately and didn’t take long to get back into the game. In the 10th minute Jack Rodewald missed a penalty shot, but just six seconds later Stepan Starkov tied the game. Then Starkov had an assist as Yegor Petukhov sent the visitor into the intermission with a 2-1 lead.

In the second period, Admiral extended its lead. Daniil Gutik was denied by a good save from Bobkov, but it wasn’t long before Petukhov scored his second with a backhand shot. A couple of minutes later, Nikita Soshnikov added a shorthanded goal, padding the lead and putting the Sailors into cruise control.

Amur continued to look for a way back and finished the game with a 38-22 advantage on shots. However, Andrei Mishurov was solid in the Admiral net and pulled off a notable save to deny Devin Brosseau a consolation goal. The visitor secured its fourth Far East derby win of the season to maintain its place in the Eastern playoff pack.

New regime makes winning start for Avangard

Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Avangard Omsk 5 (1-2, 2-1, 0-2)

Avangard had a new face behind the bench as it reeled off a third successive victory. Dave Barr, who joins the club as assistant to Guy Boucher, was the man in charge for this Siberian derby. Boucher himself jetted in last week to get to know the team, but had to return to Canada to tie up a few loose ends before taking on his new role permanently. Thus, after Sergei Zvyagin and Andrej Podkonicky, Barr becomes the third interim head coach before Boucher takes charge.

The game also marked a Hawks debut for Mike McLeod, who began the season with Barys before the rebuild in Astana. He carved out a good chance for himself on his first shift, outplaying Trevor Murphy in a one-on-one but failing to score.

However, it didn’t take long for Avangard to get in front. Damir Sharipzyanov surprised everyone with a solo rush on the Sibir net and the visiting captain opened the scoring in the fourth minute. Ten minutes later, another recent signing, Emil Galimov, doubled the lead.

Sibir hit back late in the first period with a power play goal from Georgy Belousov and that triggered a home fightback. The middle frame saw the host get in front. Murphy started with an assist as Vladislav Kara tied the game, then scored himself to make it 3-2. Sergei Shirokov’s helper on that goal makes him only the eighth player to reach 300 KHL assists.

After seeing its 2-0 lead wiped out, Avangard responded before the intermission. Ryan Merkley, who was involved with the KHL World Team as the weekend Channel 1 Cup, fired home a shot direct from the point to make it 3-3 at the second break.

Sibir played with impressive discipline and the home team’s first penalty of the game did not come until the 57th minute. However, it was a key moment in the game. Avangard powered up its momentum and Taylor Beck had barely got back on the ice when Nikolai Prokhorkin scored on his former club. It took some time for a video review to confirm that the puck had crossed the line but the goal stood and it turned out to be the winner. Late on, Semyon Chistyakov’s empty-netter wrapped up the verdict; Avangard moves three points clear of ninth-placed Lada, with Sibir two further points back.

10-goal thriller ends in shoot-out

Vityaz Moscow Region 6 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 SO (2-2, 1-3, 2-0, 0-0, 1-0)

There was no shortage of entertainment in Balashikha, where Vityaz and Torpedo shared 10 goals. The visitor led 5-3 going into the third period, but the home team battled back. After tying the scores in the last minute of regulation, Vityaz went on to take a shoot-out verdict.

This game wasted no time in delivering goals. Vityaz got up on 1:48 through Stanislav Yarovoi. By 4:40, it was 2-1 to the home team: Vasily Atanasov tied the game, but almost immediately Yegor Rykov restored the Vityaz lead.

But when Maxim Letunov tied it up once again on 12 minutes, the scales began to tip in Torpedo’s favor. It remained level until the intermission, but the middle frame saw the visitor get on top. Two goals in three minutes from Sergei Goncharuk and Bоgdаn Konyushkov opened a 4-2 lead. Ilya Arkalov brought it back to 3-4 in the 33rd minute, but Letunov’s second of the night quickly restored the two-goal cushion.

Vityaz pulled another goal back in the third period. Andrei Chivilyov finished off a slick tic-tac-toe move in the 48th minute. And there was a dramatic finish when the home team went for broke and tied it up 39 seconds before the hooter. Frederik Gauthier was the scorer, but it took a long review to confirm that there was no offside.

The game went into overtime, but neither team could settle it. In the end, the host prevailed in the shoot-out, with Alexei Makeyev providing the decisive marker. 

Barys snaps skid, stuns Dynamo

Dynamo Moscow 0 Barys Astana 2 (0-0, 0-1, 0-1)

Nikita Boyarkin was the star as Barys won its first game since Nov. 20. The Kazakh goalie stopped 39 shots to record his third shut-out of the season. At the other end, two goals from Anton Burdasov sent Dynamo to defeat.

After eight successive losses, Barys was nobody’s favorite to get a result at in the capital. Alexei Kudashov’s Blue-and-Whites had won three of the last four going into the international break and sat in third place in the Western Conference.

In the first period, as expected, the home team had the better of the play. However, Nikita Boyarkin kept his goal intact with 11 saves in a goalless opening stanza.

After the intermission, Burdasov stunned the home crowd when he put Barys in front 38 seconds into the session. After that, Dynamo continued to press and Boyarkin continued to deny: the Kazakh netminder made a further 12 stops to frustrate the Muscovites.

It was a similar story in the third. Boyarkin made another 16 saves, denying Maxim Dzhioshvili four times and Max Comtois three more. Dynamo sacrificed goalie Maxim Motorygin on 57:49, but the extra skater made no difference. Burdasov plundered an empty net goal to seal an unexpected win for the visitor. 

Sorkin’s double downs KRS

CSKA Moscow 3 Kunlun Red Star 2 (1-1, 1-1, 1-0)

The home team recorded a sixth successive victory, but was pushed all the way by a battling Red Star performance. In the end, two goals from Maxim Sorkin made the difference as CSKA moves level on points with third-placed Dynamo in the Western Conference.

Sorkin gave the home team an early lead here. Recent meetings between these teams in Moscow have tended to bring comfortable wins for CSKA, but this time the Dragons were ready for the battle. Jayden Halbgewachs and Tyler Graovac posed problems for the home team all night, and that combination tied the game midway through the first period, then put KRS in front early in the second.

However, the Muscovites tied it up in the 31st minute. Kirill Dolzhenkov and Maxim Mamin advanced on Kyle Keyser’s net and a great pass set up Mamin for a backhand finish from the slot.

CSKA thought it was back in front in the 48th minute when good work from Mamin through center ice set up Pavel Karnaukhov to shoot past Keyser. However, the Red Star bench challenged the play, spotting an offside in the build-up. A video review upheld the appeal – the first successful challenge from the Dragons this season – and the game remained tied.

But the pressure was building and, inevitably, the home team found its way in front on a legitimate goal. Sorkin was the scorer for the second time in the game, skating onto Prokhor Poltapov’s feed from the right to beat Keyser and make it 3-2. This time, there was no question about the play.

That seemed to deflate Kunlun’s players. Instead of launching everything into an attempt to tie the scores, the visitor struggled to get possession. CSKA scented weakness and pushed for a fourth goal to kill the game. That never came, but Red Star’s final surge was too late to force overtime.

Loko wins in SKA’s new home

SKA St. Petersburg 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 (1-1, 1-1, 0-1)

Table-topping Lokomotiv got the better of free-scoring SKA in an absorbing clash in St. Petersburg. The home team played its first game of the season at the SKA Arena after the world’s biggest hockey venue staged the Channel 1 Cup over the weekend. But neither swanky surroundings nor a 22,800 crowd could lift Roman Rotenberg’s men to victory.

In the approach to last week’s pause, there were signs that Lokomotiv might be slowing a little. The Railwaymen lost three of their last six games, finishing with a 1-2 home defeat to CSKA. SKA, meanwhile, alternated wins and losses and did not greatly impress in a 1-0 verdict against struggling Barys.

Even if recent form was a little patchy for the two teams, both had shown some impressive hockey through the early stages of the season. And, in Tuesday’s match-up, they contributed to an entertaining encounter. In the first seconds, Maxim Shalunov got clean through on the SKA net but Pavel Moisevich denied the Lokomotiv forward. That set the tone for an opening frame with plenty of scoring chances and the breakthrough came in the 13th minute. Sergei Plotnikov, who rose to prominence during his three seasons in Yaroslavl, opened the scoring against his former club. He produced a good finish under pressure on the slot after Zakhar Bardakov used his strength to hold off two opponents behind the net and get the puck to the danger zone.

However, the lead did not last. Georgy Ivanov, who gave away possession in the build up to SKA’s goal, responded with a neat drop pass for Daniil But to launch the next Loko attack. But drew the attention of the home defense, leaving Alexander Radulov free to tie the game. Radulov might have sent the visitor into the intermission with a 2-1 lead, but somehow failed to control a fantastic pass from Stepan Nikulin with the goal at his mercy.

Early in the second period, a SKA power play forced two big saves from Daniil Isayev. Yet as soon as Lokomotiv got back to full strength, the visitor took the lead. Shalunov got free in center ice and Maxim Beryozkin’s pass set him clear of the defense to fire a shot in off the post. But the next home PP brought a second SKA goal: Marat Khairullin fired in the puck from the blue line, Borna Rendulic’s touch steered it towards the slot and Vladimir Alistrov applied the finish.

The third period was increasingly tense, and the key moment came midway through the session. Plotnikov was assessed a slashing minor, and Lokomotiv converted the power play. Shalunov’s pass found Beryozkin on the perimeter, from where he skated away from Danila Galenyuk and advanced to the circle before shooting past Moisevich.

That proved to be the winner, although it took a big last-minute save from Isayev to deny Glotov and prevent the game going to overtime. Lokomotiv restores a 10-point lead at the top of the Western Conference, SKA stays fifth but is now three points away from CSKA in fourth.я