Metallurg loses again, Ak Bars sinks Admiral. January 18 round-up

Saturday’s KHL action saw Metallurg suffer a second straight loss after going down in a shoot-out at Amur. Also in the Far East, Ak Bars produced a masterclass of finishing chances to defeat Admiral 5-2. Vityaz won 6-2 on the road at Lada in the day’s other game.

Clinical Ak Bars too strong for Admiral

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Ak Bars Kazan 5 (0-1, 1-1, 1-3)

After halting Metallurg’s winning streak, Admiral was unable to claim another notable scalp when Ak Bars came to town. The visitor recovered from a disappointing 4-5 loss at Amur with a more convincing display on Saturday.

Admiral has enjoyed good form at home this season and started in confident mood. The Sailors were faster in thought and deed early on, with only the post denying Stepan Starkov an opening goal. At the other end, Ilya Konovalov barely had a save to make in the first 10 minutes. However, the home goalie was beaten by only the third shot he faced: in the 16th minute Alexander Barabanov banged in Yegor Korshkov’s feed. Konovalov’s next engagement was a super save, getting his glove back to pluck the puck from his goal line.

The Sailors deserved better from the first period but trailed at the intermission. It wasn’t until midway through the second period that things improved: Yegor Petukhov missed two good chances before tying the game when he converted an odd-man rush. Nonetheless, Ak Bars restored its lead before the second intermission through captain Dmitrij Jaskin.

At the start of the third, Petukhov almost created a tying goal when he released Nikita Soshnikov on goal, but this time Timur Bilyalov shut the door. Admiral continued to see more of the play, but Ak Bars was more clinical when it had the chance. Semyon Koshelev extended the lead on the counter in the 52nd minute. Soshnikov responded quickly, but that was the end of the story for Admiral. The last minute brought two more goals for the visitor as Kirill Semyonov and Yegor Korshkov padded the final score. 

Tigers edge past Metallurg

Amur Khabarovsk 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 SO (1-1, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Magnitka fell to a second loss on its Far East tour, going down in a shoot-out at Amur two days after defeat in Vladivostok.

The visitor was keen to improve after the loss to Admiral and had the better of the first period. However, that wasn’t enough to secure a lead at the first intermission. Despite Metallurg’s pressure, an error from the Steelmen saw Artur Gizdatullin punish Igor Geraskin when he scored the opening goal in the seventh minute. Metallurg responded when Yegor Korobkin redirected a Nikita Kamalov shot past Matt Jurusik.

The Amur goalie was almost beaten again at the start of the second period when Danila Yurov’s shot squeezed through his defenses and almost snuck over the line. In the event, it took a power play to get Metallurg in front. Daniil Vovchenko needed just 13 seconds to find a path through traffic after Cam Lee sat for tripping.

After two periods, Metallurg’s 2-1 lead did not feel like a full-value reflection of the visitor’s dominance of the game. And that inability to make more of its chances cost the defending champion in the third period. Gizdatullin tied the game with his second of the evening and that forced the action all the way to a shoot-out. The first five attempts could not separate the teams, but at the start of sudden death Alex Galchenyuk secured the win for Amur.

Rare goals for Stewart as Vityaz powers to win

Lada Togliatti 2 Vityaz Moscow Region 6 (1-1, 0-4, 1-1)

The Vityaz playoff push is coming back to life. After a long run of poor results, Pavel Desyatkov’s team recorded a second win in three days, reminding its Western Conference rivals that the race for the top eight is far from finished. Lada, meanwhile, remains ninth in the East and missed the chance to draw level on points with Sibir.

It all started well enough for the home team, with Arkhip Nekolenko making it 1-0 in the fifth minute. Nekolenko would finish the game with two goals, but between his first and second, Vityaz scored six without reply.

Alexei Makeyev tied it up on the power play in the first period, but it was the middle frame that broke this game for Lada. Dean Stewart, who previously had two goals in 33 games this season, scored two in 122 seconds to open a 3-1 lead for the visitor. Another power play saw Matvei Zaseda add to his early assist and Jeremy Roy finished off a fine frame for Vityaz with a fourth goal.

Lada replaced goalie Alexander Trushkov with Maxim Tretiak during the second intermission. However, he was quickly beaten. At the start of the third, Stewart turned provider as Ivan Vorobyov made it 6-1 and ended all questions about the final outcome. Nekolenko managed a consolation in the closing stages, but this was all about Vityaz.