Sibir suffers 12th straight loss, Barys shocks Lokomotiv. November 15 round-up

Dynamo Moscow won 3-2 at Sibir to spoil Yaroslav Lyuzenkov’s first game as interim head coach. The 12-game losing streak equals an unwanted club record. Barys produced a shock 4-0 win at Lokomotiv to climb into the Eastern Conference playoffs. In Sochi, Max Ellis had two points against his former club in a 4-2 win over Shanghai Dragons.

Dynamo adds to Sibir’s misery

Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Dynamo Moscow 3 (1-1, 1-2, 0-0)

A new head coach faced the same old problems in Novosibirsk as Sibir suffered a club record-equalling 12th successive loss. Not even a second-minute goal to change the script for the Eastern Conference strugglers as Dynamo recovered to snap a three-game slump of its own.

After an 11-game skid that culminated in a 0-7 loss, Sibir fired head coach Vyacheslav Butsayev. Saturday saw his assistant, Yaroslav Lyuzenkov, take interim charge with team captain Sergei Shirokov, currently injured, joining the coaching staff.

Dynamo had its own problems. Beaten in the last three, it was also missing injured defenseman Kirill Gotovets. Cedric Paquette and Max Comtois returned to the team.

The Lyuzenkov era started brightly for Sibir: Timur Akhiyarov’s long shot gave the home team an early lead. But Dynamo rallied. Midway through the first period, Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi directed a shot past stand-in goalie Semyon Kokaulin, who was briefly on the ice while Anton Krasotkin fixed an equipment issue.

In the second period, Dynamo got in front. Akhiyarov’s penalty led to Dylan Sikura converting the power play with a goal similar to the equalizer.
Once in front, the visitor did a good job of blocking up center ice and keeping Sibir at arm’s length. It took a pacy combination to cut through and set up a tying goal for Scott Wilson. However, Dynamo quickly gained another power play and Nikita Gusev restored the Muscovites’ lead.

The third period came to life when Sikura went to the box. On the power play, and then at equal strength soon after, Sibir had multiple chances to score, with the best of them falling to Oskar Bulavchuk. However, Dynamo held on. Anton Slepyshev had a great chance to put the game out of reach before his team closed out the win.

Ellis shoots down former club

HC Sochi 4 Shanghai Dragons 2 (1-2, 1-0, 2-0)

Max Ellis, who left Shanghai for Sochi earlier this month, had two points to help his new club defeat his former colleagues. The Leopards snapped a four-game losing streak while the Dragons suffered a fourth loss in five games.

The home team had to cope without first-choice goalie Ilya Samsonov, with Alexei Shchetilin getting the start. But Sochi also got off to a flyer, with Daniil Seroukh opening the scoring on 1:15 when he surprised Andrei Tikhomirov with a shot.
That was the only shot on goal in the first four-and-a-half minutes, but once Shanghai found its range the visitor managed to turn things around. Nick Merkley beat Shchetilin, and we had two goals from the first three shots of the game. Later, Merkley turned provider on the power play as Borna Rendulic made it 2-1.

Much of the play was scrappy in the opening frame and the second brought a rash of penalties. But, midway through the session with the teams playing four-on-four, Ellis produced a fine set-up for Rafael Bikmullin to tie the game.

That was the only goal of the middle frame, but at the start of the third Will Bitten gave Sochi the lead once again. Right after that, Valentin Valentsov went to the box and Shanghai struggled to kill the penalty.

Back at equal strength, Shanghai tried to step up the tempo again and went six-on-five with almost three full minutes to play. But it came to nothing: Ellis grabbed the empty net goal to settle the outcome.

Barys stuns Loko

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 0 Barys Astana 4 (0-1, 0-0, 0-3)

Barys climbed into the playoff places in the East after a shock win at Western Conference leader Lokomotiv. When the teams met in Kazakhstan earlier in the season, Loko powered to a 5-1 verdict. But today brough an almost complete reverse, with Barys winning by a four-goal margin.

There was little reason to anticipate a Barys win, particularly not by such a comfortable margin. While the visitor had lost five of its previous six, Lokomotiv had the reverse sequence of five wins, one loss. But the home team made life difficult for itself from the start, with Alexander Radulov assessed a hooking minor after 36 seconds. That set the tone for a competitive first period and the only goal came barely a minute before the hooter. It went to Alikhan Omirbekov, whose redirect survived a review for a possible high stick to give Barys the edge at the intermission.

In the second period Lokomotiv saw more of the puck but ran into a resolute Barys defense. As a result, the shot count was even and neither team could find a goal in the middle stanza.

Frustration grew for Lokomotiv, and that turned into penalties in the third period. When Yegor Surin sat for tripping, Barys needed just five seconds to double the lead thanks to Semyon Simonov. Then Nikita Cherepanov followed Radulov into the box and the penalty kill proved too long for Loko. Ansar Shaikhmeddenov’s effort was initially ruled out for a suspected hand pass, but a review confirmed that the play was good and Barys led 3-0.

Little was going right for Bob Hartley’s team, and Barys wrapped it up with fully five minutes left to play when Emil Galimov made the final score 4-0. Goalie Adam Scheel stopped 27 shots for his second KHL shut-out.