Rempal on target in Ufa romp, Serebryakov makes 59 saves. November 27 round-up
Sheldon Rempal scored his first goals since returning to Salavat Yulaev, finishing with 2+2 in a 7-4 win at home to Barys. Metallurg’s forwards found life much more difficult, with Avangard goalie Nikita Serebryakov making 59 saves to backstop a 3-1 win. In the Moscow there were wins for Spartak, where Adam Ruzicka had three points against Avtomobilist, and CSKA, which proved too strong for Lada.
Serebryakov denies Metallurg
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 Avangard Omsk 3 (0-2, 1-0, 0-1)
Nikita Serebryakov made 59 saves to lead Avangard to a hard-fought win at Metallurg. The league leader enjoyed plenty of attacking play but struggled to get past the visiting goalie and finished on the wrong end of a 1-3 scoreline.
The home team brought back Evgeny Kuznetsov and Daniil Vovchenko returned after injury, adding some punch to the forward line. However, it didn’t take long for the visitor to open the scoring. The second shot of the game saw Artyom Blazhievsky find Ilya Nabokov’s net after a wayward pass from Robin Press. And Metallurg’s first defensive pair was on the ice as Avangard doubled that advantage midway through the frame when Igor Martynov got away from Press to set up Vasily Ponomaryov to make it 2-0.
Late in the first period, Kuznetsov’s line had the puck whirring around Serebryakov’s net. The goalie had to be alert to deal with some long-range efforts but his defense did a good job of keeping play to the outside.
That ushered in a second period in which Magnitka piled the pressure onto Serebryakov. However, for a long time the home team struggled to get to the slot as Avangard defended stoutly. Gradually, thought, Metallurg added quality to its quantity of shots and late in the middle frame a defensive lapse invited Sergei Tolchinsky to reduce the arrears. The home team finished the session with a five-on-three power play, but Serebryakov stood up well to preserve his team’s lead.
The pressure continued in the third. Avangard struggled to get out of its zone, but a rare foray forward brought a third goal for Andrew Poturalski, taking the game away from the host. There were still chances for Metallurg, notably when Damir Sharipzyanov took an unnecessary delay of game penalty, but this was very much Serebryakov’s day as he stopped 59 of 60 shots to back stop the win.
Rempal leads Salavat to high-scoring win
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 7 Barys Astana 4 (1-2, 2-1, 4-1)
A four-point game from Sheldon Rempal led Salavat Yulaev past Barys. The Canadian, who returned to Ufa earlier this month, scored his first goals of his second spell with the team in a high-scoring game.
However, it took some time for Salavat to get this game under control. The first period went Barys’s way. The visitor took the initiative and twice profited from defensive lapses as Max Willman and Michael Vecchione found the net. A power play helped the home team get back into the game as Devin Brosseau pulled a goal back late in the frame.
Before today’s game, these two had the best penalty kills in the league this season. However, the middle frame brough three power play goals. First, Reilly Walsh extended the Barys lead with a slap shot in the 28th minute, but it took just a couple of shifts before Rempal got his first goal. Then, during a five-on-three advantage, Rempal was the architect behind Jack Rodewald’s tying goal.
Salavat Yulaev could not have wished for a better start to the third period, with Alexander Khokhlachyov tidying up after Dean Stewart’s shot to give the home team the lead for the first time. It was long before Willman’s second of the night cancelled that out, but in the 45th minute Rempal circled the net before scoring on the wraparound. That proved to the be game-winner, with late markers for Artyom Pimenov and Brosseau making the final score 7-4.
Ruzicka stars in Spartak win
Spartak Moscow 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 (1-1, 1-0, 1-0)
Adam Ruzicka had a hand in all three goals as Spartak defeated Avtomobilist. The Muscovites built on Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Ak Bars and are now showing signs of pulling out of their recent slump. Avto welcomed back experienced defenseman Nikita Tryamkin after an extended injury lay-off, but the Motormen’s first game for a week ended in defeat.
Avtomobilist shaded the play in the first period, and got in front in the 18th minute on a Stephane da Costa goal. The Frenchman skated onto Reid Boucher’s feed from beside the net and placed his shot beyond Artyom Zagidulin.
But Spartak hit back immediately. Just 26 seconds after the opening goal, a two-on-one rush saw Ruzicka bring the puck down the left before setting up Daniil Orlov to tie the game.
Early in the middle stanza, Ruzicka put the Red-and-Whites in front. He quickly converted the first power play of the game after a flurry of shots at Vladimir Galkin. The visitor had a chance to tie it up midway through the session when Curtis Valk released Jesse Blacker, but the defenseman missed the target with only the goalie to beat. That wasn’t the only worrying moment for Zagidulin as Avtomobilist continued to press in search of an equalizer, but Spartak held its lead to the intermission.
The pattern continued in the third period. Dmitry Yudin blasted a point shot against the home crossbar during an Avtomobilist power play while, at the other end, Luke Lockhart almost put the game out of reach with a short-handed effort that Galkin snuffed out.
The knock-out blow came late in the game when Ruzicka got his second. Tryamin lost his stick and was about to leave the ice when he had to drop back into position in response to a Spartak counter. But the unarmed defenseman was powerless to prevent the Slovak forward finishing off German Rubtsov’s set-up and making the final score 3-1.
Third-period comeback falls short
CSKA Moscow 4 Lada Togliatti 2 (3-0, 0-0, 1-2)
A late fightback from Lada came up short as CSKA held on to halt a two-game skid. After an impressive first period put the home team in control, this one turned out to have a nervous finish before Jeremy Roy’s empty-netter made the points safe.
Before that, CSKA looked to be set for a comfortable win after dominating the opening stanza. Prokhor Poltapov opened the scoring after three minutes, and further goals from Takhir Mingachyov and Ivan Patrikhayev pushed the lead to 3-0. Daniel Sprong’s assist on the opener puts the Dutchmen on 10 (3+7) from his last nine games, 19-year-old defenseman Patrikhayev got his first KHL goal on a power play late in the frame.
It wasn’t just the scoreline that suggested CSKA was enjoying itself. Lada struggled to create chances, managing just five shots at Dmitry Gamzin in the first period. And that after the visitor started the game with a power play after 47 seconds, only to fade alarmingly thereafter.
At the start of the second period, Alexander Trushkov replaced Ivan Bocharov in the visitor’s net. And the middle frame proved a much grittier affair. Neither team generated much offense, and Lada claimed at least a moral victory from depriving CSKA of the opportunity to attack at will.
The next step for the visitor was to find a goal threat of its own. And, midway through the third, it did just that. Maxim Belousov pulled one back then, on the power play, new signings Tomas Jurco and Tayler Graovac combined to make it 2-3. With almost six minutes to play, CSKA had plenty to worry about.
But the home team did not panic. Instead, it defended carefully and waited for its chance. When Trushkov went to the bench with just over two minutes left, that opportunity presented itself and Roy scored into the empty net to seal the verdict.
