Tight race in Western Conference. January 30 round-up
Just two points separates second and sixth in the Western Conference after a busy day of KHL action. Severstal, which began the day clear in second, suffered a 1-6 drubbing at CSKA. That saw Dynamo Moscow – 4-2 winners over Torpedo – and Spartak, beaten in a shoot-out by SKA, join Andrei Kozyrev’s team on 65 points. CSKA is one point behind, while SKA’s win in the capital moves it to 63. Dinamo Minsk stays seventh after an emphatic 5-1 win at Neftekhimik, while Eastern Conference leader Traktor won 2-0 at Vityaz.
Dinamo bounces back after losing run
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 Dinamo Minsk 5 (0-0, 0-3, 1-2)
Dinamo Minsk snapped a three-game skid in emphatic fashion, romping to a 5-1 victory on the road at Neftekhimik. For Neftekhimik, this was the end of a six-game home stand that yielded just one victory, leaving the Wolves seven points adrift of a playoff spot.
The situation prompted Oleg Leontyev to switch up his roster: Luca Profaka and Nikita Khlystov featured on defense, Kirill Urakov reinforced the attack, and Ilya Pastukhov, Mario Patalakha, Vyacheslav Leshchenko and Vladimir Bryukvin were scratched.
The first period was fairly equal, but even in a goalless session, Dinamo’s chances were more dangerous. The closest of them saw Roman Gorbunov hit the piping, while Ilya Usov got clean through on Filipp Dolganov’s goal but could not finish.
At the start of the second, Dinamo converted its pressure into a lead. Daniil Lipsky opened the scoring 98 seconds after the restart. Neftekhimik had power play chances but failed to generate much offense. Worse, midway through the frame the home team allowed a short-handed goal. Chris Tierney set up a two-on-one breakaway and finished it off himself to double the lead. Three minutes later, Dolganov collided with Sam Anas and Vadim Shipachyov scored into an empty net. The home bench challenged the play but had no success.
The third period brought two more Dinamo goals, both scored by Vadim Moroz. Late in the game, Grigory Seleznyov potted a consolation effort for Neftekhimik but the points had long departed towards Belarus.
Kravtsov double sinks Vityaz
Vityaz Moscow Region 0 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 (0-0, 0-0, 0-2)
Two goals from Vitaly Kravtsov saw off a stubborn Vityaz and kept Traktor out in front at the top of the Eastern Conference. For the second game in a row, the visitor turned things around in the latter half of the second period; today, though, instead of recovering from two goals down to force overtime, a pair of late markers broke the deadlock and secured victory.
Vityaz was back on home ice after a 1-4 loss at SKA, and head coach Pavel Desyatkov reshuffled every line following that defeat. Traktor, despite ultimately falling to a 3-4 overtime loss at Kunlun, made fewer changes. Most notably, Yegor Popov came into the team in place of Matvei Guskov.
Although the teams made a lively start, there were few shots on goal early on. The first 10 minutes saw the goalies troubled just three times between them. That workload increased over time, but the most dangerous moment of opening frame saw Semyon Der-Arguchintsev fire against the crossbar.
That pattern – few scoring chances – continued in the second period. Most of the attempts on goal came from long distance, and both Maxim Dorozhko and Zach Fucale comfortably dealt with all that came their way. However, even in a goalless game, it was noticeable that Traktor’s most threatening moments involved Kravtsov.
And he eventually made the breakthrough in the 50th minute. The puck only just made it across the line, but a video review confirmed that Kravtsov had his 19th goal of the season, setting a personal best. Number 20 followed into an empty net, while Fucale completed his eighth shut-out of the season.
Severstal’s fire goes out at CSKA
CSKA Moscow 6 Severstal Cherepovets 1 (2-1, 3-0, 1-0)
A powerful performance from CSKA extinguished Severstal’s hot streak. Five successive victories lifted Andrei Kozyrev’s unfancied team up to second in the Western Conference, but today the Lynx lost their way despite taking an early lead.
Both teams had chances in the opening exchanges, but Severstal took the lead on 8:16 when Alexei Kruchinin’s fine pass from behind the net set up Nikolai Chebykin. But the lead lasted just 20 seconds. Visiting goalie Konstantin Shostak stopped Yegor Afanasyev’s shot, but could do nothing as Kirill Dolzhenkov buried the rebound.
The play was still even until Severstal’s Timofei Davydov was assessed the first penalty of the game. The home power play found the net eight seconds later, Maxim Sorkin potting his first goal of the night on 17:40 and that separated the teams at the intermission.
In the second period, Sorkin doubled his tally early on and in the 25th minute Denis Guryanov added a fourth. That ended Shostak’s evening, bringing Alexander Samoilov into the Severstal net. However, he was beaten after four minutes, Guryanov turning provider for Fredrik Claessen to make it 5-1 with a laser of a wrist shot from the top of the circle.
Although CSKA had a game-winning four-goal lead at the end of the second period, the stats suggested a closer game. The Muscovites showed great accuracy to score five goals from 21 shots, while at the other end Dmity Gamzin made 18 saves. At the start of the final stanza, Vladislav Provolnev added a sixth goal for the home team, while Gamzin dealt with Severstal’s attempts to gain at least a consolation effort. The visitor remains in second place, but in a congested section the gap to SKA in sixth is just two points.
Weal’s double defeats Torpedo
Dynamo Moscow 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 (1-0, 1-1, 2-1)
The fourth and final meeting between these two in the regular season saw Dynamo get its third win over Torpedo. The result moves the Blue-and-Whites to 65 points, level with Severstal and Spartak but 15 points behind Western Conference leader Lokomotiv. Torpedo remains in eighth place, six points clear of Kunlun Red Star.
In the first period, Dynamo struggled to generate much offense. After 15 minutes, the home team had tested Ivan Kulbakov just twice. Meanwhile, Torpedo was not creating much more at the other end. Although the game was played at a good tempo, all too often the final pass went astray.
That changed in the 18th minute when Cedric Paquette put Dynamo in front. A lovely combination between Max Comtois and Dmitry Rashevsky created the opportunity, and Paquette put it away to collect his 100th point in the KHL.
Lifted by that encouraging finish to the first period, Dynamo looked more threatening at the start of the second. Torpedo took a too many men penalty, and in the 25th minute Jordan Weal converted the power play to double the home lead. However, Torpedo wasn’t going away. The visitor shrugged off another penalty, snaffling a short-handed goal in the 32md minute. Sergei Goncharuk cruised down the left wing, skated round a defenseman and fired a shot past Vladislav Podyapolsky and in off the crossbar.
The game remained tight through to the second intermission, but Dynamo made a perfect start to the final frame. Twenty seconds into the action, Weal scored his second of the night. Torpedo’s hopes of recovery were not helped when it ran into penalty trouble midway through the third period. Dynamo had more than a minute of five-on-three and after Weal was denied a hat-trick, he turned provider with a great pass for Nikita Gusev to make it 4-1.
That effectively ended the contest, but Torpedo had the final word when Goncharuk scored a consolation goal in the last minute.
SKA survives fightback to beat Spartak
Spartak Moscow 3 SKA St. Petersburg 4 SO (0-1, 0-2, 3-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Despite blowing a 3-0 lead, SKA held its nerve to beat Spartak in a shoot-out. Games between these two teams have been incident packed all season, and this was no exception. Although Spartak denied teen prodigy Ivan Demidov a goal in the game, the youngster followed his hat-trick against Vityaz with the decisive attempt in the shoot-out.
After 25 minutes, it seemed unlikely that we would be worrying about overtime and shoot-outs, though. SKA got in front in the eighth minute through Grigory Kuzmin’s sixth goal of the season. The 21-year-old won possession in center ice, crossed the blue line and shot early to beat Artyom Zagidulin in the home net. The visitor had so much of the game that even when it found itself killing a penalty, Spartak struggled to create a meaningful chance to test Artemy Pleshkov.
At the start of the second, Spartak killed a penalty and seemed to regain the initiative once back at full strength. However, a timely goal from Ilya Karpukhin – who earlier assisted on Kuzmin’s tally – doubled the lead. Karpukhin was never regarded as a prolific defenseman at Traktor, but that’s his third goal in four games since moving to Petersburg. Exactly two minutes later, SKA had a third when Mikhail Grigorenko found the net. In response, Alexei Zhamnov hooked Zagidulin and sent Dmitry Nikolayev into the game.
The home coaching staff also called a time-out, giving their players a wake-up call. That resulted in some more encouraging attacks and by the end of the second session Spartak managed to outshoot SKA. But there was still the small matter of a 0-3 deficit to deal with.
SKA started the third period as if determined to fire the game beyond Spartak’s reach. But instead of scoring, the visitor allowed a goal to Nikolai Goldobin in the 44th minute. That halted Goldobin’s six-game drought; his previous marker was also against SKA in a 5-0 win.
Suddenly, Spartak could see a way back. SKA hit penalty trouble and, midway through the period Pavel Poryadin struck on the power play to make it a one-goal game. Home hopes seemingly took a hit in the 56th minute when Andrei Loktionov’s cross-checking offense put the visitor on the power play. But Spartak conjured up a short-handed goal from an unlikely source: 21-year-old defenseman Veniamin Korolyov scored only his second KHL goal to tie the game with four to play.
That sent the game to overtime, and Adam Ruzicka might have won in the first minute of the extras. SKA survived that scare and almost settled it through Pavel Akolzin’s daring raid. In the end, it went to the shoot-out; an extended affair was eventually settled by Demidov.
