Wolves delay Lokomotiv’s title, Traktor halts Hawks’ hot streak. March 14 round-up
Playoff chasing Neftekhimik grabbed a shoot-out win at Lokomotiv thanks to some fine goaltending from Filipp Dolganov. He made 39 saves to force a 1-1 tie, then went unbeaten in the shoot-out as Loko failed to secure the Continental Cup. Eastern Conference leader Traktor remains in that race thanks to a 5-4 win at Avangard. The Hawks saw their 12-game winning streak come to an end in their final home game of the regular season. Friday’s other action brought a routine win for SKA over Sochi.
Youngest KHL coach makes winning start
Avangard Omsk 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 (2-1, 0-3, 2-1)
Traktor halted Avangard’s 12-game winning streak – despite the absence of head coach Benoit Groulx. He took ill on the day of the game and his duties were taken over by his assistant Rafael-Pier Richer. Aged just 30, Richer becomes the youngest coach ever to take charge of a team during a KHL game.
But youth proved no barrier to success. Richer’s team recovered from a tough start in this game to record a high-scoring victory. The early stages saw Avangard get a power play, and Zach Fucale found himself making one save with his head to help kill Andrei Svetlakov’s penalty. Once back at equal strength, Traktor came into the game and took the lead in the 15th minute. Charles Robinson shut down Nail Yakupov, the puck dropped for Vasily Glotov and he produced an unstoppable shot past Nikita Serebryakov.
However, Avangard responded well and turned the scoreline around before the intermission. Ivan Igumnov quickly tied it up, then Giovanni Fiore made it 2-1 in the last minute of the period.
The middle frame swung the game back in Traktor’s favor. The visitor had three unanswered goals in the session. First, Robinson tied it up in the 27th minute. Avangard posed some questions after that, including a power play, but could not regain the lead.
A breakdown in discipline led to a breakthrough in the scoring. After Igor Martynov was called for holding, Yakupov angrily fired the puck at Fucale after the whistle and took an unsporting conduct minor. That gave two minutes of five-on-three power play to Traktor, leading to a goal from Vitaly Kravtsov. A minute later, already back to equal strength, the visitor scored again: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev made it 4-2 at the second intermission.
For much of the third period, that lead held. Avangard tried to raise the tempo but Traktor played smart and closed out the game successfully. There was still time for some late drama, though. Four minutes from the end, Konstantin Okulov pulled a goal back and opened a pathway back into the game for Avangard. However, the very next attack saw Traktor regain its two-goal advantage when Maxim Shabanov won a puck battle and got to the net, where Alexander Kadeikin scored from a rebound.
The Hawks switched to six skaters almost immediately and made it a one-goal game with 90 seconds to play. Nikolai Prokhorkin kept the contest alive until the very end, but Traktor held on to halt Avangard’s long winning run.
Dolganov delays title celebrations
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 SO (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Long-time championship leader Lokomotiv will have to wait a few more days to secure top spot in this year’s regular season. Victory over Neftekhimik would have meant nobody could catch Igor Nikitin’s team, but despite dominating much of the play the Railwaymen fell to a shoot-out verdict.
This game had something riding on it for both teams. Lokomotiv could clinch the Continental Cup with victory, while Neftekhimik was eager for points to close the gap on eighth-placed Sibir. In the event, the visitor cut that gap to three points after taking an unexpected victory.
Neftekhimik owed that point to a great performance from goalie Philipp Dolganov. He stopped 39 shots in regulation as Lokomotiv failed to turn dominance into goals. The home team outshot the Wolves 40-17 and had 21 minutes of attacking possession against 11. However, the game ended 1-1 in regulation.
Indeed, the Railwaymen had to come from behind to secure that tie. A frustrating evening for the home team got even worse when Riley Barber opened the scoring in the 28th minute. True, the visitor’s lead did not last long: Alexander Polunin tied the scores barely two minutes later. But that proved to be the end of the scoring.
The third period brought intense Lokomotiv pressure. Neftekhimik iced the puck three times in the first five minutes and that set the tone for a frame played almost entirely in front of Dolganov’s net. But the home team could not score and got dragged into overtime.
In the extras, Andrei Sergeyev’s penalty after 74 seconds offered Neftekhimik a chance for an unlikely win. Lokomotiv killed that threat and only allowed one shot at Daniil Isayev. However, tellingly, it was unable to trouble Dolganov at all through five minutes.
And the visiting goalie was at his best during the shoot-out as well. He faced six attempts from Lokomotiv and did not allow a single goal. At the other end, Vladimir Bryukvin found the net in the first round of sudden death to give the visitor the verdict.
SKA eases past struggling Sochi
SKA St. Petersburg 2 HC Sochi 0 (1-0, 1-0, 0-0)
There were few surprises as SKA took on Sochi for the fourth and final time this season. Roman Rotenberg’s team eased to a fourth successive win – suggesting that things are starting to click as the playoffs come into view. Sochi, meanwhile, fell to an eighth successive loss and is now destined to finish last in the Western Conference.
After a scrappy start, SKA was the first team to settle to its task. In the fifth minute, visiting defenseman Semyon Ibragimov was at full stretch to rescue goalie Evgeny Volokhin after he was beaten by Valentin Zykov’s shot. Ibragimov’s stick deflected the puck over the bar to keep the scoresheet blank.
However, a couple of minutes later the home team got the first power play of the night and Sergei Tolchinsky opened the scoring. After a long wait for a goal, Tolchinsky now has three goals and an assist from his last three games; this one came after Arseny Gritsyuk set him up on the slot.
After falling behind, Sochi came into the game a little more and the latter half of the first period was slightly more competitive. However, there was little serious threat to Yegor Zavragin in the home net.
That pattern continued after the intermission. Ilya Karpukhin thundered a shot against the crossbar as SKA looked to build its lead. Then, midway through the session, Mikhail Grigorenko doubled the home advantage after Gritsyuk launched a two-on-one counter. There were chances for more: Tolchinsky and Pavel Akolzin both had individual rushes that brought good saves from Zavragin.
At the start of the third, SKA ran into penalty trouble and had to play 30 seconds with three skaters. However, Sochi was unable to capitalize and there was no further scoring in the game.
