Fightbacks and thrashings

Sunday’s program brought several tight games: defending champion Lokomotiv blew a 3-1 lead to lose in overtime at Neftekhimik, Torpedo tied its game at Spartak in the 58th minute and won in the extras, and Traktor needed OT at Sochi after letting slip 2-0 and 3-1 leads. CSKA took a one-goal verdict at Severstal, but SKA powered to a 6-1 win over Lada and Metallurg scored five on Ak Bars in the first period in Kazan.

Zhafyarov completes Neftekhimik fightback

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 5 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 4 OT (1-2, 2-2, 1-0, 1-0)

Lokomotiv blew a 3-1 lead and fell to its second successive loss after a rousing recovery from Neftekhimik. That represents a second successive fightback victory for the Wolves, who rallied from 0-3 to sink Dinamo Minsk in the previous game.

After dropping a 1-4 verdict against Shanghai Dragons, Lokomotiv gave goalie Alexei Melnichuk his first start of the season.

With a point to prove following Friday’s loss, the visitor made a fast start. Alexander Radulov stuffed a first-minute goal in from the slot and, a couple of minutes later, Yegor Surin doubled that lead. It took some time for Neftekhimik to get into the game, but a Radulov foul opened the door for the home team. Andrei Belozyorov converted the power play to make it 1-2 at the intermission.

The second period brought four goals and two goaltending changes. Maxim Shalunov put Loko up 3-1 with an early power play goal, but Neftekhimik hit back with markers from Jean-Sebastien Dea and Evgeny Mityakin. Barely a minute separated those snipes, and Daniil Isayev came off the bench to replace Melnichuk.

It took a mere 13 seconds for Loko to regain the lead thanks to Radulov’s second of the game, and that goal prompted Neftekhimik to replace starting goalie Yaroslav Ozolin with Filipp Dolganov. Late in an incident-packed frame, Lokomotiv twice had to kill penalties but held its lead to the intermission.

After the break, Isayev found himself in the thick of the action and made several big saves to preserve the one-goal lead. However, another home power play brought a tying goal for Danil Yurtaikin. Roused into a late flurry, Lokomotiv came close to grabbing a winner but instead the game when to overtime and Damir Zhafyarov won it for the home team.

Kovalenko’s double gives CSKA the win

Severstal Cherepovets 1 CSKA Moscow 2 (0-1, 0-1, 1-0)

Two goals from Nikolai Kovalenko proved sufficient for CSKA to take a narrow win in Cherepovets. The 25-year-old forward potted his first goals since joining the Muscovites on his return to the KHL from North America to spoil Severstal’s home opener.

The game against CSKA marks the start of the 70th season of hockey in Cherepovets, but after a fan parade before the game and various other festive activities, Kovalenko crashed the party.

His first goal came at the end of the opening frame. Severstal enjoyed the better of the play for most of the session and outshot CSKA. However, with 22 seconds left, Kovalenko converted his team’s first power play of the night to give the visitor a rather undeserved lead.

That gave the Muscovites a lift and the second period saw the visitor on top. There was more than one good chance to extend the lead before Kovalenko struck again in the 35th minute.

Severstal might have battled back in the third after Ilya Ivantsov’s power play goal offered hope to the home team. But the remaining 13 minutes produced no further scoring as CSKA held on for a third win in four games.

Torpedo leaves it late but stays undefeated

Spartak Moscow 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 4 OT (1-0, 1-2, 1-1, 0-1)

Torpedo stays top of the table after reeling off a fourth successive win. Alexei Isakov took his team on the road for the first time and saw off Spartak in overtime after a late tying goal from Sergei Goncharuk.

The Red-and-Whites, who fell to a third successive loss, were left to wonder what might have been after leading 2-0, then regaining the edge in the third period before allowing a 59th-minute goal.

Alexei Zhamnov made changes for Spartak after two previous defeats, including a KHL debut for defenseman Daniil Sobolev, with Alexander Pashin and Alexander Belyayev returning to the team.

The home team made a strong start to the game. In the first minute Joey Keane forced Robert Nardella into a foul and even though the power play came to little it gave the host the early momentum. Midway through the opening frame another power play brought the opening goal for Nikita Korostelyov and that separated the teams at the break.

Right after the intermission, Ivan Morozov doubled the lead on 20:34 and Torpedo’s winning start was in serious jeopardy. But the visitor struck back. Nikita Rozhkov redirected a Nardella shot for what was, de facto, a short-handed goal as Sobolev exited the box to end a spell of four-on-four play. On 31:31, another four-on-four passage saw Yegor Vinogradov tie the game with a coast-to-coast effort.

After a difficult middle frame, Spartak responded well in the third. The Muscovites began strongly, with nine shots on Ilya Kulbakov’s net in the first five minutes. Of those, Korostelyov’s found the net to give him two on the night.

Two goals for the home forward, but not two points for his team. Dmitry Vishnevsky’s tripping minor with 90 seconds to play cost Spartak dear: Goncharuk tied the game on his third goal of the season before Kirill Voronin won it in the extras.

Fast start flattens Ak Bars

Ak Bars Kazan 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 6 (0-5, 2-0, 1-1)

Barely a week after these teams met in a close game in Magnitogorsk, the return game produced a blistering start from Magnitka.

The visitor blasted five unanswered goals in a devastating first period, paving the way for a 6-3 win in Kazan.

The visitor made a dream start, with Derek Barach on target after 49 seconds. The American forward, who arrived from Vityaz in the summer, was playing only his second competitive game for Metallurg but quickly got off the mark.

Barach’s tally triggered an avalanche of scoring. On 2:21, Dmitry Silantyev doubled the lead. Then came a third goal from Roman Kantserov in the seventh minute. Goalie Mikhail Berdin, preferred to Timur Bilyalov after Wednesday’s 3-6 loss at home to Avtomobilist, might have left the game right away, but Anvar Gatiyatulin kept faith – at least for a time.

Berdin wasn’t always helped by his team-mates. Already struggling, the last thing Ak Bars needed was penalty trouble. However, towards the end of the session, Barach converted a power play, then a five-on-three advantage saw him turn provider as Silantyev’s second made it 5-0 on 17:50.

That was the end for Berdin, and Bilyalov’s presence steadied the game. There were no more goals in the opening frame, and the second period saw Ak Bars pull a couple back. Dmitrij Jaskin and Ilya Karpukhin, the latter getting his first for his new club, gave the scoreline a hint of respectability. And with the scoreboard still reading 2-5 as the game went into the closing moments, Gatiyatulin felt it was worth a gamble on the power play in the 55th minute. A six-on-four set-up brought a Kirill Semyonov goal to raise hopes of the unlikeliest of fightbacks.

However, Metallurg was not to be denied. Ak Bars continued to play without a netminder and Nikita Mikhailis applied the coup-de-grace with an empty-net goal. 

Another emphatic win for SKA

SKA St. Petersburg 6 Lada Togliatti 1 (3-0, 0-1, 3-0)

Igor Larionov’s SKA shows signs of hitting form. This crushing win over Lada was the second in a row, and the team has 11 goals in those games.
Nikita Dishkovsky, 22, followed up a hat-trick of assists against Traktor with his first two KHL goals in Sunday’s game. Summer signing Joseph Blandisi also opened his account for his new club.

In the first period, Lada’s penalty troubles paved the way for SKA to take control. Vladislav Syomin’s foul gave the home team the first power play of the night in the seventh minute, and Valentin Zykov quickly converted the opportunity. A couple of minutes later, Lada was reduced to three skaters and Mikhail Vorobyov banged in a Trevor Murphy feed to double the advantage.

Dishkovsky opened his account in the 15th minute, reacting sharply to convert the rebound from Matvei Korotky’s effort. That made it 3-0 at the intermission, and left the game almost out of Lada’s reach.

The visitor improved after the intermission. It’s first power play of the game saw Danila Dyadenkin find the net, only for a bench challenge to rule there was an offside along the way. Sergei Sapego returned to the box midway through the frame, and this time Lada got a legitimate goal as William Dufour scored just as the defenseman returned to the contest.

But there was no way back. A Lada penalty right on the hooter was punished at the start of the third when Blandisi scored his first since arriving in Russia. By now, it was a question of “how many?” Midway through the third, Brennan Menell scored the fifth, followed by Dishkovsky’s second barely a minute later. And there could have been more: Sergei Plotnikov was illegally denied in a duel with Alexander Trushkov, then failed again with his penalty shot in the 57th minute as the game finished 6-1.

Dube pots OT winner

HC Sochi 3 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 (0-2, 2-1, 1-0, 0-1)

Traktor claimed its second win of the season with an OT verdict in Sochi, but last season’s runner-up made hard work of it after blowing a 2-0 lead. The Leopards were unable to follow up their sensational 2-0 win over CSKA, but took Traktor to overtime and continue to show signs that they are a more competitive pack this season.

Things seemed simple enough for Benoit Groulx’s team at the end of an impressive first period. Sergei Mylnikov, preferred to Chris Driedger in goal after a 2-5 loss at SKA, was unbeaten and Josh Leivo, who has now served his suspension for missing last season’s closing ceremony was back in the team and among the points.

Leivo had a helper after 63 seconds as Mikhail Goryunov-Rolgizer opened the scoring, halting Pavel Khomchenko’s shut-out run at 85:58. And, as the midway point approached, Traktor doubled its lead when Logan Day attacked from the blue line and Stepan Gorbunov finished off the rebound. The 19-year-old forward celebrated his first KHL goal.

Sochi had a chance to reduce the deficit on a power play, but Danil Avershin was denied by a good save from Mylnikov. Instead, the home team had to wait for a shorthanded goal at the start of the second period. Just 12 seconds of Matvei Guskov’s penalty had elapsed when Daniil Seroukh found the net thanks to a deflection off Grigory Dronov’s stick. Traktor could not convert the power play, but Guskov had barely returned before Sergei Telegin restored the two-goal cushion for the visitor.

Under Vladimir Krikunov, though, Sochi is a tougher proposition. And the home team produced a fightback on goals from Denis Vengryzhanovsky late in the second period, then Guskov early in the third.

In the final seconds, Pierrick Dube thought he had a winning goal only to see it whistled back. However, the same play brought a major penalty for Sochi’s Sergei Popov, leaving the home team to face overtime with one man fewer. And this time Dube’s one-timer, 63 seconds after the restart, proved decisive while Leivo got his second helper of the game.