Traktor crushes in-form Avangard, Ak Bars spoils goalie’s debut

A 5-1 win for Traktor ended Avangard’s six-game winning streak and brought the Thursday’s opponents level on points among the Eastern Conference leaders. In the same section, Ak Bars won 2-1 at Barys, for whom goalie Adam Scheel was making his debut. Today’s other game saw Amur blank CSKA for a 2-0 victory.

Tigers too strong for CSKA

Amur Khabarovsk 2 CSKA Moscow 0 (2-0, 0-0, 0-0)

For the first time in six years, Amur beat CSKA in Khabarovsk, wrapping up its first home stand on a high note. The Tigers won their opener, but then lost three on the bounce. Head coach Alexander Galchenyuk Sr made two changes, bringing defenseman Yaroslav Dyblenko and forward Kirill Urakov back into the team.



CSKA made three changes. Attacker Vitaly Abramov replaced Denis Zernov, and Yaroslav Yapparov was named 13th forward in place of eighth defenseman Vladislav Provolnev. In addition, Spencer Martin returned in goal.

The visitor’s 5-4 win at Admiral left mixed impressions. On the plus side, it snapped a three-game skid, but it also saw another four goals allowed by a leaking CSKA defense. And those defensive worries surfaced again in Khabarovsk, with the home team scoring twice in the first period. Alex Galchenyuk opened the scoring, then Ignat Korokikh potted a power play tally after Ivan Drozdov’s infringement. Nikita Yevseyev assisted on both.

CSKA also had power play chances, with one that straddled the first intermission and another midway through the second period. Neither was impressive and at times a short-handed Amur managed to push the opposition back into its own zone. In the third period, the Muscovites’ problems continued and at one point they were down to three skaters. The host could not take advantage of that chance but generally looked solid and tried not to sit back on its lead.

For much of the game it was difficult for Igor Nikitin’s team to get time in the home zone and the visitor was unable to keep the puck around Maxim Dorozhko’s net for more than 10 seconds at a time.

It wasn’t until the last five minutes that things began to change. Simultaneous penalties for Roman Abrosimov and Rhett Gardner prompted Nikitin to call a time-out and swapped out Martin for an extra skater. Even after CSKA was hit with a delay of game penalty, the goalie only returned for a few seconds. However, there was no change in the final score and Dorozhko claimed his second shut-out of the season with 28 saves.

Hawks shot down after six-game winning run

Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 Avangard Omsk 1 (2-0, 1-0, 2-1)

Avangard’s six-game hot streak came to an abrupt end in Chelyabinsk as Traktor drew level on points with the Hawks. Grigory Dronov’s productive run continued with a goal and an assist, taking him to 5 (4+1) points in the last three games before Josh Leivo potted two empty netters to seal a convincing victory.



Things might have been different if an early Dmitry Rashevsky chance had found Sergei Mylnikov’s net. But the Traktor goalie got his pad behind the shot, and in the third minute the home team took the lead. Jordan Gross released Semyon Der-Arguchintsev into the Hawks’ zone, he dished the puck off to the center and Alexander Rykov got round his defenseman before going five-hole on Nikita Serebryakov.

The Avangard goalie had to make a big save in the eighth minute to after Andrei Svetlakov got free in front of the net, but he was beaten again by Dronov in the 14th minute. The defenseman joined the rush and converted Rykov’s feed to double the home lead.

Traktor enjoyed the better of the play in the opening stanza, outshooting Avangard 16-5, and it took some good work from Serebryakov to keep the score down. In the middle frame, the visitor perked up and posed more of an attacking threat, but found Mylnikov on top of his game. Mikhail Kotlyarevsky twice squandered opportunities, then late in the session the goalie denied Mikhail Gulyayev and Alexander Volkov. In between those chances, the home team scored its third goal thanks to Yegor Korshkov’s redirect on Vladimir Zharkov’s effort.

The game looked fairly safe for Traktor, but the start of the third period saw Semyon Chistyakov pull a goal back for Avangard. Once again, the Hawks had the better of the play in the final frame, with Traktor spending less than two minutes on the attack. However, Mylnikov continued to frustrate the visiting forwards and Guy Boucher gambled on a sixth skater early in the game, calling Serebryakov to the bench on 56:39.

That gamble backfired. Leivo twice scored into an empty net to give the final score a flattering look at 5-1. Traktor bounced back from Sunday’s loss at home to Spartak, Avangard’s winning run came to an end.
 

Debut goalie Scheel beaten after 14 seconds

Barys Astana 1 Ak Bars Kazan 2 (0-1, 0-0, 1-1)

After a sluggish start to the season, there are signs that Ak Bars might be making progress. Today’s win at Barys was a second in three games for Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men and while the Kazan club remains outside the playoffs it is now just one point behind Avtomobilist in fifth place in the East.



There was no place in the visitor’s line-up for new signing Alexander Chmelevski, whose move from Salavat Yulaev was only confirmed today. Instead, it was another relatively new face who got things started for Ak Bars after just 14 seconds.

Vladimir Alistrov came through a try-out in Kazan before securing a permanent contract. Today, the 24-year-old potted his second goal in as many games in the first minute. That was an unhappy start for goalie Adam Scheel, making his Barys debut. The 26-year-old American has won NCAA and ECHL titles, but the KHL represents a new challenge for a player who never made it onto the ice in the NHL.

Much of the rest of the opening frame was a stop-start affair, with relatively few scoring chances, and it remained 1-0 through the first intermission.
In the second period, Ak Bars continued to pick up regular penalties and Barys enjoyed the better of the game. However, Timur Bilyalov’s 18 saves kept the visitor ahead.

At the start of the third a rare Ak Bars power play put pressure on Scheel’s net once again. Barys killed Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan’s penalty, but allowed a goal moments later. The goalie stopped Stepan Falkovsky’s powerful point shot, but lost control of the rebound and Dmitry Katelevsky’s good work on the slot set up Nikita Dynyak to double the lead.

Barys replied within 20 seconds when Michael Vecchione scored a similar goal, picking up the pieces following Jake Massie’s shot. But that proved to be the end of the scoring as Ak Bars claimed the verdict and drew level on points with Mikhail Kravets’ team.