Gernat grabs top billing, Minsk thrashes Sibir. November 12 round-up
Loko defenseman Martin Gernat had two goals, an assist and 9 PIMs in a busy evening at Spartak. The Slovak came out on top in the end as the Railwaymen won it 6-3. Dinamo Minsk crushed Sibir 7-0, recording its biggest win of the season and handing Sibir its worst loss to date. The visitor is now on an 11-game skid. Salavat Yulaev moved into the Eastern playoffs with a 2-1 verdict over SKA, Metallurg beat Lada 6-4 on Evgeny Kuznetsov’s return and Torpedo produced a third-period fightback to beat Sochi.
Ufa edges into playoff spots
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 SKA St. Petersburg 1 (1-1, 1-0, 0-0)
Victory over SKA moved Salavat Yulaev into the playoff places in the East, while denying the visitor the chance to break the top eight in the West.
SKA arrived on a three-game winning streak but Igor Larionov replaced goalie Sergei Ivanov after the shut-out success in Omsk last time out. Yegor Zavragin took his place, while scoring leader Marat Khairullin was also scratched and defenseman Markus Phillips continued as a stand-in forward.
The visitor dictated the play in the first period. Larionov’s team was faster, pressed harder and had more shots on goal. The home team was forced to block a further 15 shots but could not prevent Rocco Grimaldi converting the first power play of the game. Joseph Blandisi and Mikhail Vorobyov had further big chances to add to the lead but instead, Salavat Yulaev tied it up against the run of play. Jack Rodewald and Devin Brosseau set up a play that saw Dean Stewart join in the attack and score his first goal for Ufa.
Salavat Yulaev had a penalty to kill at the start of the second period after Sheldon Rempal ripped Yegor Savikov’s stick out of his hands. After weathering that storm, Viktor Kozlov’s team gradually came into the game more. Things began to click on offense and the pressure on Zavragin’s net increased. In the 32nd minute, Artyom Nabiyev’s shot slipped through the goalie’s pads, and defenseman Ildan Gazimov followed up to stuff the puck home and make it 2-1.
Much of the final frame was spent battling for possession. SKA struggled to get shots off and its hopes of saving the game were fading when one-time Ufa prospect Ignat Lutfullin had a great chance to tie the scores. However, in a close-up duel with Semyon Vyazovoi he lost out to the home goalie. With barely a minute to play, Larionov called a time-out and switched to six-on-five. Pierrick Dube was a whisker away from his first goal for SKA, but time ran out before his team could force the action into OT.
Tkachyov fires Magnitka past Lada
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 6 Lada Togliatti 4 (2-2, 1-2, 3-0)
Evgeny Kuznetsov returned to Metallurg’s roster after completing an individual conditioning plan and earned an assist in a high-scoring win over Lada. The big-name forward missed four games and was named on today’s fourth line for the league leader.
He played a part in securing a fifth straight win, but this game against the Western Conference outsider turned out tougher than expected.
It looked easy enough for the host at the start: goals from Valery Orekhov and Vladimir Tkachyov made it 2-0 on 3:15. In between, Kuznetsov went close to his first goal for Magnitka, but Ivan Bocharov denied him.
Lada responded well and tied the game before the intermission. Andrei Chivilyov scored twice in the first period and things got even better for the visitor after the break. A cautious start to the frame for both teams suited the visitor, while Andrei Razin began juggling Metallurg’s lines in search of goals.
The home head coach got to see more scoring, but initially the goals came at the wrong end. In the 34th minute, Anton Burdasov quickly converted the first power play of the game to put Lada in front. Razin responded by replacing starting goalie Ilya Nabokov with Alexander Smolin. His team then got on the power play when Kirill Zhukov was assessed a major penalty for a foul on Daniil Vovchenko, but Tkachyov’s error invited a Lada counterattack and Maxim Groshev beat Smolin to make it 4-2.
However, the power play continued and Metallurg scored either side of the secod intermission to wipe out Lada’s lead before Zhukov returned. Robin Press assisted Vovchenko on Metallurg’s third goal, then the Swedish defenseman tied the game after the break.
Another home power play saw Metallurg back in front when Kuznetsov helped Tkachyov score his second of the game: like Press, the KHL’s leading scorer would finish the evening with three points.
This time, Magnitka held onto its lead and Roman Kantserov’s empty net goal made the final score 6-4.
All-action Gernat leads Loko to victory
Spartak Moscow 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 6 (2-1, 1-2, 0-3)
Lokomotiv defenseman Martin Gernat was the key figure in an entertaining game in Moscow. He finished with 3 (2+1) points and nine PIMs from a combative display that ended with a hard-fought Loko victory. The Western Conference leader rebounded from its defeat at Torpedo, while Spartak continues to alternate wins and losses.
The home team drew first blood, opening the scoring in the eighth minute through Luke Lockhart. The Chinese-Canadian forward finished off a quick counterattack at the second attempt after Daniil Isayev saved his initial shot. Lokomotiv replied on 10:59 through Pavel Kraskovsky. He dished off a pass to Denis Alexeyev on the right-hand boards and got into position to deflect his colleague’s shot past Dmitry Nikolayev and tie the game.
After that, Loko ran into penalty trouble. Alexander Polunin sat for tripping and he was joined in the box by Martin Gernat, who got a major for checking to the head. The Railwaymen survived with three men but the PK ran out of steam before Gernat’s return and Danil Pivchulin got to the slot to convert Nikita Korostelyov’s feed from behind the net.
There was a flurry of action at the start of the second period. Gernat made up for his costly first-frame penalty with a tying goal in the 25th minute, then Maxim Shalunov made it 3-2 within a couple of minutes. But Gernat continued to irritate the officials and got another penalty on 26:30. The home power play did not last long, with Joey Keane heading to the box after a mere 18 seconds. Playing four-on-four, Spartak tied the scores through Andrei Mironov midway through the session.
In the latter half of the period, the scoring cooled down. But passions did not and after the hooter Alexander Yelesin and Christian Jaros got into a fight. The officials were content to let the battle rage for some time before finding a way to intervene and both men were assessed major penalties.
But it was Lokomotiv that found the knock-out punch in the third. The visitor was aggressive going forward and Stepan Nikulin’s efforts behind the net got the puck to the slot for Nikita Kiryanov to restore the lead. Spartak had a great chance to respond midway through the session when Byron Froese got the fourth major penalty of the night, but Lokomotiv’s penalty kill stood up to the test. And, once back to full strength the Railwaymen finished the job when Gernat got forward to score his second goal before Yegor Surin found the empty net.
Sochi blows 2-0 lead
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 HC Sochi 3 (0-2, 0-0, 5-1)
Sochi remains adrift at the foot of the Western Conference after failing to hold a lead at Torpedo. The home team defeated the Leopards for the third time this season and remains level with Lokomotiv at the top of the section.
The visitor started out well enough, opening the scoring midway through the first period thanks to Fyodor Abramov’s first KHL goal. The 19-year-old forward made his debut last season and was recalled to the first team after 16 (8+8) points in 14 JHL games with Kapitan.
Things got better for Sochi close to the intermission when Ilya Nikolayev doubled the lead. However, the bigger picture suggested Torpedo was very much in the game. The home team forced 15 saves out of Ilya Samsonov in that opening stanza and spent 7:44 on the attack against 2:05.
The second period produced similar stats: 15-6 in shots on goal, 9:03 vs 2:03 for attacking time. Samsonov again defied the home offense but after stopping 30 shots in 40 minutes, he was replaced at the second intermission by Maxim Tretiak. Moreover, the last minute of the middle frame a review saw Anton Malyshev assessed a major penalty for checking to the head.
That extended power play turned the game around. Torpedo scored three goals on Tretiak in 4:18 of the third period to take the lead. Maxim Letunov, Shane Prince and Vladislav Firstov found the net, Yegor Vinogradov and Robert Nardella picked up two assists apiece. Even after Malyshev left the box,
Sochi’s problems continued and Bogdan Konyushkov made it 4-2 on 45:05.
The visitor managed to get one goal back through Sergei Popov, but there would be no fightback. Alexei Kruchinin added to his pair of assists with a fifth home goal, while Yegor Sokolov got his third helper of the night to seal a seventh successive win.
Dinamo demolishes struggling Sibir
Dinamo Minsk 7 Sibir Novosibirsk 0 (2-0, 3-0, 2-0)
Sorry Sibir slumped to an 11th successive defeat as Dinamo ran riot in Minsk. The home team consolidated in third place in the West as it powered to an eighth win in nine games.
The prolific partnership between Sam Anas and Vitaly Pinchuk brought an early goal, with the American forward scoring off an assist from his colleague in the third minute. Dinamo continued to have the better of the game, but Sibir resisted until late in the opening frame before Ilya Usov got his first of the night.
Early in the second period, Dinamo added two quick goals to take the game away from Sibir. Yegor Borikov made it 3-0, then Vadim Moroz set up Usov’s second. The visitor called a time-out and managed to stem the flow of goals for a time, but could not find a way to beat Zach Fucale at the other end. Moroz added a goal of his own in the 38th minute; Sibir swapped goalies at the intermission with Anton Krasotkin making way for Semyon Kokaulin.
Plunged into a losing cause, Kokaulin was beaten twice in 90 seconds midway through the frame. Anas and Pinchuk combined again, with the Belarusian forward on target this time, then Borikov got his second of the night. The 7-0 final represents Dinamo’s biggest win of the season so far, bettering the 8-2 success over Sochi and the 7-1 at home to Torpedo last month. It’s also a heaviest loss of the campaign for Sibir, worse than the 1-7 defeat at Avtomobilist on Oct. 31.
