Super Saturday in the KHL. January 11 round-up
There were goals at every turn in Saturday’s KHL action: 33 of them in four games. Dynamo Moscow and SKA produced a nine-goal thriller, with the Muscovites taking the verdict 5-4. Ak Bars and Barys produced a similar outcome, with Kazan on top in overtime after a huge fightback in the last minutes. Admiral thrashed Torpedo 6-1, and Metallurg won the South Ural derby 5-3 at home to Traktor.
Steelmen roll out eighth successive win
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 (1-0, 2-2, 2-1)
Metallurg avenged a 0-4 loss to Traktor in the first South Ural derby of the season. The defending champion produced a strong display to record an eighth successive victory.
An even first period ended with Metallurg opening the scoring moments before the break. Nikita Kamalov’s point shot got caught up in traffic, but Dmitry Silantyev proved to be strongest on the slot and stuffed the puck home from close range.
Once in front, Magnitka quickly consolidated its advantage at the start of the second period. Alexei Maklyukov doubled the lead when he converted the rebound from a Robin Press blast, then Igor Geraskin redirected a Danila Palivko effort into the net.
Traktor was rocked, but steadily regained its composure and found a way back into the game. Grigory Dronov scored a fine goal on his former club to reduce the deficit in the 29th minute. The defenseman forced a turnover in center ice, ghosted past Valery Orekhov and finished with a wrister to the top shelf. Then Buddy Robinson made it 2-3 in the 35th, picking up the pieces after the home defense blocked Andrei Svetlakov’s attempted shot.
After that, the visitor was on the up and threatened to tie the game before the second break. Vladimir Tkachyov’s one-on-one breakaway forced Ilya Nabokov into a blocker save, then the same forward produced a dangerous feed from behind the net but none of his colleagues could connect on the slot.
Metallurg started fast in the third period, with Daniil Vovchenko restoring the two-goal advantage. He ran onto Danila Yurov’s feed down the left and advanced to beat Zach Fucale. Magnitka might have further padded the lead with a couple of dangerous breakaways, but had to wait until a power play midway through the third to make the game safe. Roman Kantserov marked his 100th KHL game with a goal, pushing the lead to 5-2 and taking the game away from Traktor. Somewhat surprisingly, that was the only PP of the game.
The visitor pulled a goal back with two minutes to go when Vitaly Kravtsov added to his earlier assist.
Late drama saves Ak Bars
Ak Bars Kazan 5 Barys Astana 4 OT (0-0, 2-2, 2-2, 1-0)
Struggling Barys produced a brave performance but still could not snap its losing run. The Kazakhs shrugged off their recent struggles for goals and led 2-0 and 4-2 in this game. However, a spectacular Ak Bars revival in the last 80 seconds forced overtime, and Nikita Lyamkin quickly potted the winner in the extras.
After a goalless first period, it was the Barys defense that caught the eye. The visitor did a great job of blocking shots and keeping Ak Bars to the perimeter, even if it rarely threatened at the other end.
But the middle frame saw things open up. Ivan Nikolishin put Barys ahead 31 seconds after the restart, then Kirill Savitsky’s shorthanded effort doubled the lead. The home team responded, with Alexander Barabanov leading the way. He pulled a goal back in the 35th minute and assisted on Artemy Knyazev’s tying goal two minutes later.
Few would have backed goalshy Barys to rebuild a lead in the third period, but the visitor got a huge boost when Mikhail Rakhmanov was given time and space in the Ak Bars zone to make it 3-2 in the 42nd minute. And when Alikhan Asetov found the empty net on 58:19, it seemed that the visitor had ended its long losing streak.
But Ak Bars refused to surrender and produced a stirring fightback from a desperate position. Captain Dmitrij Jaskin pulled a goal back 20 seconds later, and the final surge saw Nic Petan tie it up with 10 seconds on the clock. Barys, shellshocked, could do little in the extras: Ak Bars got straight onto the attack and Lyamkin potted the winner to keep his team third in the East.
Admiral shoots down Torpedo
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 Admiral Vladivostok 6 (1-3, 0-1, 0-2)
After back-to-back wins, Torpedo hoped that it had turned the corner in its bid to secure a playoff place in the West. But today’s heavy loss at home to Admiral was a wake-up call for Igor Larionov’s men, who remain just four points clear of a resurgent Kunlun Red Star.
Admiral had some good fortune in this game, but made the most of that to bring a convincing end to a three-game skid.
The game got off to an unlikely start when Bobby Lynch took a penalty after 19 seconds for a face-off violation. After killing that penalty, the home team fell behind when Andrei Krutov played the puck back towards his own net and caught goalie Ivan Bocharov flat-footed for an improbable “own goal”.
Bocharov’s luck was definitely out for the second goal: Nikita Soshnikov’s shot hit Evgeny Svechnikov’s stick, deflected into the back boards then bounced back and into the net off the goalie’s arm. Larionov decided to sent Ivan Kulbakov into the net and ion the 15th minute Krutov made amends for his earlier blunder with his first goal in the KHL. But Admiral restored its two-goal lead within a minute on Yegor Stepanov’s goal and went on to dominate the rest of the game.
The second period brought a power play goal for Vyacheslav Osnovin, then Daniil Gutik added two more in the third to make the final score 6-1. The last goal came on a power play after Svechnikov was assessed a hooking minor and talked his way into an early return to the locker room.
Gusev grabs late winner
Dynamo Moscow 5 SKA St. Petersburg 4 (2-3, 2-0, 1-1)
After a bright start to 2025 on the road, Dynamo brought its winning form back to Moscow with a hard-fought verdict over SKA. The visitor, by contrast, fell to second defeat after losing 0-5 at home to Spartak in its previous game.
In recent games, Dynamo has started strongly and that tradition continued today. Two minutes in, Yegor Rimashevsky opened the scoring after an active shift in the SKA zone.
But the visitor responded strongly. Two goals in 31 seconds saw Pavel Akolzin and Zakhar Bardakov turn the game around, and Alexander Nikishin made it 3-1 on 7:17. That goal rush may have been connected to netminder Vladislav Podyapolsky picking up a knock while Akolzin tied the scores: he stayed on the ice but clearly wasn’t comfortable.
However, he managed to overcome his problems and Dmitry Rashevsky pulled a goal back in the 16th minute to keep the home team very much in contention.
The second period saw Dynamo complete a recovery from 1-3 to 4-3. Maxim Dzhioshvili tied the game midway through the session, then Max Comtois put the Blue-and-Whites ahead in the 36th minute, finishing off a beautifully constructed attack.
SKA spent the first four minutes of the final frame on the PK, but found goalie Yegor Zavragin in fine form. The netminder’s positioning was especially notable: shots seemed to thud into his chest as he consistently got the angles right and denied Dynamo a further goal.
Eventually, SKA began to pose an attacking threat again and, with three-and-a-half minutes to play, Nikishin’s second of the night tied the game.
It was beginning to look like that goal would send us to overtime, but Sergei Plotnikov took a tripping penalty in the last minute. Dynamo consulted the playbook and pulled out the perfect move: within five seconds Nikita Gusev potted the winning goal.
