Two hat-tricks for CSKA

Dmitry Buchelnikov and Nikolai Kovalenko enjoyed a memorable afternoon as CSKA thrashed lowly Lada. They shared eight points, and Daniel Sprong had four assists in a 7-2 win. Sunday’s other action was also in Moscow, but Spartak finished on the wrong end of a 3-1 scoreline at home to Shanghai Dragons. 

Dragons too hot for Red-and-Whites

Spartak Moscow 1 Shanghai Dragons 3 (1-1, 0-1, 0-1)

Both teams made minor changes to their line-ups from the previous game. In each case, it meant one new defenseman, one forward moved from the fourth line to the third, and one fresh face recalled to the fourth line. Oddly, both goalies were facing a former club: Dragons’ Patrik Rybar began last season at Spartak, while Artyom Zagidulin’s earliest KHL experiences came with Kunlun Red Star, Shanghai’s predecessor.



The teams were also in similar form, with both alternating wins and losses. Here, though, Shanghai was on an upswing following a 4-1 win over Lada while

Spartak’s previous engagement was a shoot-out loss at Metallurg.

The home team made a solid start. After killing the first penalty of the game, the Red-and-Whites got up on a power play goal from Nathan Todd. However, it took less than a minute for Borna Rendulic to tie the scores.

However, the fast start did not continue. Instead, the game was a 1-1 stalemate until Nikita Popugayev put the visitor ahead one second before the second intermission.

Popugayev was involved again at the start of the third, assisting as Will Reilly increased the lead. Both goals came on counterattacks with help from positional errors: Popugayev was allowed to get clean through on Zagidulin’s net, then Reilly finished off a two-on-one break.

Even at 3-1, the game looked much as it did at 1-1. Spartak held a slight territorial advantage but could not parlay that into an attacking storm that might save the game. Zhamnov called a time-out with less than two to play and Zagidulin was replaced with a sixth skater when Riley Sutter went to the box. However, six-on-four could not make an impact, and even when Jake Bischoff joined Sutter on the sidelines it was too late to change anything.
 

Five-point Buchelnikov stars for CSKA

CSKA Moscow 7 Lada Togliatti 2 (0-1, 4-1, 3-0)

Hat-tricks for Nikolai Kovalenko and Dmitry Buchelnikov piled up the misery for struggling Lada as CSKA rallied from 0-2 to win comfortably on Sunday afternoon. Daniel Sprong had four assists, and Ivan Drozdov contributed 1+1. The basement dwellers fell to an eighth successive loss despite making a promising start in Moscow, while the home team moved to 11 points and drew level with SKA in the standings.



Yet for a time, Lada frustrated the host. In the opening frame, Maxim Tretiak defied the CSKA offense, making 18 saves to keep his goal intact. The visitor rarely tested Spencer Martin but still managed to get the only marker of the session when Riley Sawchuk potted his fifth of the season in the ninth minute. That was the first time Lada had led in a game since Sep. 12, when it twice got in front before falling 3-4 at Torpedo.

Things looked even brighter for the visitor when Andrei Chivilyov doubled that lead at the start of the second period. That was only the second time in seven games that Lada had scored twice, and it prompted Igor Nikitin to replace Martin with Dmitry Gamzin.

That move, coupled with CSKA maintaining its earlier control of the game, paid off. The Muscovites rattled in four goals in the second period to turn the scoreline around. Buchelnikov pulled one back in the 26th minute, finishing off Ivan Drozdov’s counterattack. Immediately, Lada ran into penalty trouble and Kovalenko scored two power play goals in 100 seconds. Daniel Sprong assisted on both, with Buchelnikov also picking up a helper. Then, before the second intermission, the Sprong-Kovalenko combination made it 4-2: three goals for the Russian, three assists for the Dutchman.

After CSKA dominated the play in the first 40 minutes, Lada was more competitive in the third period. The visitor even outshot its host during that final frame, but was unable to make any inroads on the score. Instead, another power play saw Buchelnikov on target midway through the session, with Sprong involved yet again. A couple of minutes later, it was six goals for CSKA when Buchelnikov set up Drozdov. Then Alex Cotton chopped down Rhett Gardner on his way to goal and Buchelnikov stepped up to convert the penalty shot. That meant 5 (3+2) points for him in the game and a final score of 7-2 for CSKA.