Torpedo bounces back at SKA, Magnitka joins Loko at the summit

After three straight losses, Torpedo won 5-2 at SKA and briefly joined Lokomotiv at the top of the Western Conference. However, the Railwaymen remain clear – but only by a single point after a shoot-out loss in Minsk. Metallurg joins the defending champion on 16 points after fighting back from 1-3 to beat Sibir. Avtomobilist thumped Ak Bars 4-1, Barys blanked Admiral 3-0 and Dynamo Moscow suffered a 2-3 loss at home to Neftekhimik.

Magnitka bounces back with fightback win

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 Sibir Novosibirsk 3 (2-3, 1-0, 1-0)

Magnitogorsk looks like comeback city this season. On Saturday, Metallurg blew a 3-0 lead and lost at home to Ak Bars. Today, the Steelmen were down 1-3 to Sibir but fought back to take the verdict.



That Ak Bars defeat prompted changes. Andrei Razin gave Alexander Smolin the start in goal and scratched Robin Press, Danila Palivko and Ruslan Iskhakov in favor of Yegor Yakovlev, Nikita Korotkov and Danil Gololobov. Sibir welcomed back Yegor Klimovich for his first game since Oct. 9, 2024.

The first period was full of goals. It didn’t take long for Metallurg to open the scoring when Roman Kantserov beat Louis Domingue in the fourth minute. But Sibir produced an emphatic response. Within two minutes, Alexei Yakovlev was alert on the slot and tied the game. Then, after 15 minutes, two goals in 30 seconds saw Pavel Gogolev and Scott Wilson make it 3-1.

That was the end of Smolin’s evening, with Ilya Nabokov sent into the fray. For Sibir, goalscorer Yakovlev went to the box and the power play saw Domingue give away a penalty shot for throwing his stick. Up stepped Sergei Tolchinsky to score in some style and reduce the deficit before the intermission.

After the break, Magnitka drew level thanks to Kantserov’s line. Dmitry Silantyev screened Domingue as Artyom Minulin fired home from distance. And the home fans though the recovery was complete as early as the 28th minute when Daniil Vovchenko redirected a Makar Khabarov shot into the net. But Sibir challenged the play and the officials ruled that Mikhail Fedorov impeded the goalie.

Sibir had a great chance to regain the lead at the start of the third when Nabokov unwittingly presented the puck to Scott Wilson. However, the goalie recovered to make a fantastic glove save, getting himself out of jail. He went on to make more significant stops after a tripping call on Derek Barach put Sibir on the power play, before Gogolev’s foul handed a similar opportunity to the host.

But the winning goal had to wait until the 55th minute. The hard-working Yegor Korobkin was close to scoring in the second period and got his reward in the third. A prominent figure on the slot all night, he steered a Luke Johnson feed into the net to claim the winning goal and keep Metallurg on top of the Eastern Conference.

Motormen shrug off injury woes to beat Ak Bars again

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Ak Bars Kazan 1 (2-1, 1-0, 1-0)

Despite having eight players missing, Avtomobilist pulled off an emphatic victory over Ak Bars. The Motormen’s injury crisis was not helped by Stephane da Costa joining the sicklist, Anatoly Golyshev remains suspended and there is still no replacement for Nick Ebert.



To plug the gaps, Nikolai Zavarukhin turned to the farm club and called up Ilya Ovchinnikov and moved Alexander Sharov to play center in place of da Costa. In addition, Yury Zhuravlyov replaced Daniil Karpovich. The visitor was unchanged from the team that produced a rousing fightback to win 4-3 at Metallurg.

The opening stages were quiet, but Avtomobilist woke things up with a goal on its first shot of the night. Alexei Byvaltsev was able to dance through the visiting defense and set up Jesse Blacker for the opener. In response, Ak Bars woke up a little and began to play more in front of Evgeny Alikin’s net but struggled to create as much as a half chance.

Late in the opening frame, the teams traded quick goals. It was something of a surprise that Avto doubled its lead after absorbing plenty of pressure in the latter half of the first period, but after Yaroslav Busygin’s point shot, Roman Gorbunov found an open corner to make it 2-0. The response was immediate: Alexei Marchenko’s deflected shot was stuffed home by Mikhail Fisenko.

Ak Bars swapped goalies at the break, nominating Mikhail Berdin in place of Timur Bilyalov. He was beaten inside four minutes when the Kazan power play broke down and Stepan Khripunov launched a coast-to-coast counter. Berdin stopped Khripunov’s shot, but could do nothing when Danil Romantsev followed up to make it 3-1. And the visiting power play continued to flounder: at one stage Ak Bars went from a five-on-four advantage to a three-on-five crisis in the space of just 47 seconds.

As the game progressed, Avtomobilist was happy to protect its lead and Ak Bars struggled to find the impetus that might have salvaged the result. The home team might have extended its lead, but was guilty of over-elaborating its play at times.

Ak Bars head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin is usually a conservative figure behind the bench. Unusually, today, he pulled his goalie with 5:44 to play in a bid to force the outcome. However, it did not help. Nikita Shashkov scored into the empty net and the visitor’s miserable day was complete when Vladimir Alistrov missed a penalty shot in the final second. That completed a second win of the season for Avtomobilist over Ak Bars, with an aggregate score of 10-2.
 

Schill shut-out backstops Barys win

Barys Astana 3 Admiral Vladivostok 0 (0-0, 2-0, 1-0)

American goalie Adam Schill celebrated his first KHL shut-out as Barys made it back-to-back wins. The 26-year-old made his debut in a 1-2 loss against Ak Bars, then came into the game in place of Andrei Shutov to claim a 6-4 win over Sibir. Schill’s return to the starting role was the only change in personnel for Mikhal Kravets’ men.



Admiral began its latest road trip after suffering two high-scoring losses in its last two home games – a shoot-out reverse after a 4-4 tie with Dynamo, then a 4-5 regulation defeat against CSKA. The two performances perhaps deserved better than the one point they accrued, and Leonids Tambijevs contended himself with a couple of changes to his line-up, bringing Dmitry Zavgorodny and Alexander Shepelev back to the team.

The Sailors were also fresh and rested in their first game since Sep. 23. That possible explains the lively start from the visitor, with decent early opportunities for Semyon Koshelev and Mario Grman. Schill did well with both, and the second save – a soccer-style dive – was particularly notable. After that, Barys began to move play away from its net and created chances of its own without finding a breakthrough.

The wait went on after the intermission. Vyacheslav Kolesnikov found the net but a review called it back for kicking the puck. However, Admiral did not heed the warning and it wasn’t long before Mason Morelli opened the scoring for real. He kept the puck away from Zavgorodny, dragged the play into the visitor’s zone and made it to the slot before firing home. Scheel claimed his first KHL assist on that play.

Barys continued to press and caused problems with its second power play of the game. Admiral held on, but allowed a goal to Vsevolod Logvin before the intermission. Admiral had chances as well, but Scheel was a reliable presence between the piping.

The third period saw Admiral working hard to claw back the deficit. Daniil Gutik was a constant presence in the game, but even his tricks came up short after he conjured himself a great chance to score. At the other end, Barys was less of a threat apart from one power play chance. However, the home team defended well and managed to secure the win with Ansar Shaikhmeddenov’s late goal to make it 3-0.
 

Larionov suffers another Torpedo defeat

SKA St. Petersburg 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 (0-1, 1-1, 1-3)

Three goals in the last seven minutes lifted Torpedo to victory over SKA. The visitor snapped a three-game skid and also claimed its second win against the Petersburg club this season. SKA vs Torpedo has extra spice this year after Igor Larionov left Nizhny Novgorod to replace Roman Rotenberg in the Northern Capital; his replacement Alexei Isakov seems to have his old boss’s number.



Like the teams’ previous encounter beside the Volga, this was a close affair. There wasn’t much to choose between the two in the first period, but an even game saw Torpedo get in front when Andrei Belevich scored the only goal of the session.

Midway through the game, Belevich took his team’s first penalty, and the SKA power play tied the scores through Valentin Zykov. However, when Maxim Letunov got a double minor for high sticking, Torpedo killed those four minutes and immediately regained the lead. Yegor Sokolov hit the post but kept the play alive, Letunov’s shot had the beating of Yegor Zavragin but the goal was given to Vladislav Firstov who made sure on the goal line.

It remained 2-1 until well into the third period. But then the goals began to fly in. SKA got level thanks to Nikita Smirnov’s first of the season, fired home from the right-hand circle.

Almost immediately, Joseph Blandisi went to the box, and Torpedo converted the power play. After Yegor Vinogradov dinged the crossbar, the puck went back to the blue line for Bobby Nardella to thump home a one-timer on 53:40. And the visitor subdued SKA’s attempts to save the game before building a winning lead late on. In the 58th minute, Vasily Atanasov scored from a dead angle to make it 4-2, then Sergei Goncharuk’s empty-netter finished the job.
 

Pinchuk pots shoot-out winner

Dinamo Minsk 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 SO (0-0, 2-1, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)

The defending champion suffered a first loss in six games after dropping a shoot-out verdict in Minsk. As a result, Lokomotiv’s lead in the Western conference is cut to a single point over Torpedo, while Metallurg joins Bob Hartley’s men on 16 points at the top of the overall standings.
Dinamo, meanwhile, celebrates a fourth straight win and consolidates its grip on third in the West.



The home team looked better in a goalless first period, outshooting Lokomotiv 16-7. In addition, Dinamo twice hit the piping. Sam Anas hit the bar from close range, then Danil Sotishvili’s effort was turned onto the post by Daniil Isayev.

Yet the opening goal went to Lokomotiv right at the start of the second period. Artur Kayumov was the scorer after Sotishvili’s efforts on the draw sent the puck straight to him on the slot.

After that, Dinamo had to kill a penalty on Xavier Oullet before tying the game through Anas in the 25th minute. Back at equal strength, the home team fashioned a well-worked goal with Vitaly Pinchuk unselfishly setting up his colleague after Tai Smith cut open the visiting defense. Revived, the Belarusians got repeated power play chances of their own and eventually made it count in the 34th minute. Vadim Moroz got the crucial touch as Smith fired in a shot from distance and that sent the home team into the second intermission with a lead.

The second period also produced a similar shot count, but the third once again began with an early goal for Lokomotiv. Dinamo’s offense turned over possession and the counter-attack was deadly. Nikita Kiryanov had options, but went for goal himself and beat Zach Fucale with a well-placed shot.
Dinamo almost won it in regulation, but the piping came to Isayev’s aid once again in the 56th minute. Anas was the unfortunate forward on this occasion when he looked to convert a counter after Loko gave up possession.

There was no scoring in overtime and in the extras Fucale denied Kayumov and Maxim Beryozkin after Alexander Radulov’s effort went wide of the mark. At the other end, Pinchuk was on the only player on target to give Dinamo the win.
 

Blue-and-Whites leave it too late

Dynamo Moscow 2 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 3 (0-1, 0-1, 2-1)

The Muscovites’ three-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt as Neftekhimik continues to mix it with the big boys. Today’s win for Igor Grishin’s team was the fourth in a row and the Wolves are tied with Avangard for second place in the East.



While Neftekhimik is flying, Dynamo’s start to the season has not been impressive. This was a fifth loss in nine games, and Alexei Kudashov’s team has won just once in regulation. A run of three straight successes offered some hope, but today’s return to action after a five-day pause was a big disappointment.

There wasn’t all that much wrong with the home team’s performance in the first period. Dynamo got the first power play of the evening and generally had more time on the attack. However, it could not find a way past Filipp Dolganov, a goalie with a burgeoning reputation this season, and fell behind to Evgeny Mityakin’s marker in the ninth minute.

Neftekhimik doubled its lead early in the second through Matvei Nadvorny and after that the visitor worked hard to keep the home team at arm’s length. Twelve blocked shots in the middle frame spoke to the Wolves’ determination to protect their net; Dolganov had just seven saves to make as Dynamo lacked invention with the puck.

At the start of the third, Neftekhimik scored again. Mityakin’s line came up trumps once more, with Andrei Belozyorov on target and Danil Yurtaikin collecting his second helper of the evening. He moves to 13 points from 11 games in his most impressive run of form in the KHL to date.

Dynamo left its bid for salvation until the last 10 minutes of the game. But in the 52nd minute, Artyom Sergeyev pulled a goal back. Then, 16 seconds later, Daniil Prokhorov scored his first KHL goal. The 18-year-old made his debut for Dynamo this season, and his tally raised hopes of a home fightback.
However, that was as good as it got for the Muscovites. Neftekhimik closed out the win, leaving much to ponder for Dynamo.