Traktor consolidates top spot. February 5 round-up

Wednesday’s only KHL action saw Eastern Conference leader Traktor strengthen its position at the top of the standings. A 5-2 victory over local rival Metallurg keeps Benoit Groulx’s team clear of the chasing pack.

Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 (2-1, 2-1, 1-0)

Victory in the third South Ural derby of the season moves Traktor six points clear at the top of the Eastern Conference. Metallurg remains in fifth place, 10 points behind the leader and three back from a spot in the top four.

Traktor had three wins from its previous four games, with only an overtime loss at Kunlun spoiling the picture. Metallurg, too, had a couple of good wins in recent games, beating Dinamo Minsk and Lokomotiv, but fell 4-6 to Salavat Yulaev in its previous game.

The visitor seemed to start with a bit of a hangover from its loss in Ufa. Traktor looked sharper in the early stages and was up 2-0 inside nine minutes. Ilya Nikolayev hit the bar with a shot in the fourth minute, but Magnitka did not heed that warning. Traktor’s next attack brought the opening goal, Maxim Shabanov setting up Grigory Dronov for a shot from the blue line that beat Ilya Nabokov.

The pressure continued, and Nabokov had to make a good save to deny Nikolayev. Once again, a Nikolayev near-miss was followed by a Traktor goal, this time with Vitaly Kravtsov scoring off Andrei Svetlakov’s feed. It was only late in the opening frame that Metallurg began to test Zach Fucale in the Traktor net. The Steelmen pulled a goal back close to the intermission when Troy Josephs redirected Dmitry Silantyev’s shot past the goalie.

That might have given the visitor greater confidence at the start of the second period, but on the ice things continued to go Traktor’s way. The home team was close to extending its lead when Nabokov gave away the puck behind his net. Nikita Korostelyov set up Vladimir Tkachyov in front of an open net, but the Metallurg defense got back to deny him a simple goal.

Korostelyov increased the lead in the 33rd minute and soon after that Vasily Glotov added a fourth on the power play. That was the end of Nabokov’s evening; Alexander Smolin came off the bench to replace the starting goalie. Late in the middle frame, Daniil Vovchenko’s power play goal got it back to 2-4 and kept Metallurg’s hopes alive going into the third period.

But Traktor was not about to relinquish its advantage. Early in the final stanza, Alexander Rykov used his strength to battle to the slot where he beat Smolin at the second attempt. A couple of minutes later, Metallurg Danila Yurov had a goal disallowed following a bench challenge for offside. That effectively ended the visitor’s hopes of getting anything from the game. Traktor closed out the remaining 15 minutes and celebrated its second win in three games with its local rival.