Goal rush in the East, leadership battles in West. November 28 round-up

Friday brought another goal rush in the KHL. Once again, Traktor enjoyed the biggest win of the day, thumping Sochi 6-1. The highest-scoring game was in Nizhnekamsk where Neftekhimik beat Shanghai Dragons 7-5. Kevin Labanc’s hat-trick could not save his team there, and across Tatarstan Brendan Leipsic found his two goals for SKA were not enough in a 2-5 loss at Ak Bars. The top four in the Western Conference went head-to-head in Friday’s other two games and produced a pair of hard-fought encounters. It ended with Severstal on top thanks to a 2-0 win over Lokomotiv, while Dinamo Minsk won 2-1 at Torpedo.

Kravtsov, Leivo keep up hot streaks

Traktyor Chelyabinsk 6 HC Sochi 1 (2-0, 2-1, 2-0)

The brakes are off in Chelyabinsk. Traktor romped to a second successive high-scoring win, rattling in 15 goals in two games with today’s 6-1 drubbing of Sochi. Vitaly Kravtsov scored twice to maintain his flying form, Josh Leivo also notched a double. In the last four games, Kravtsov has 10 (3+7) points, Leivo 11 (5+6).

The visitor might have anticipated a tough game: leading forwards Artur Tyanulin, Rafael Bikmullin and Igor Shvyryov were all missing. And it wasn’t long before Traktor had the lead. In the second minute Kravtsov set up Leivo for the opener. That was the 100th assist of Kravtsov’s KHL career and before the intermission he scored Traktor’s second, taking advantage of a major penalty on the Leopards’ Daniil Seroukh.

At the start of the second, Kravtsov scored again off a great feed from Mikhail Grigorenko. Soon after he was denied a hat-trick by Pavel Khomchenko while, at the other end, young goalie Savely Sherstnev made some good saves to build on the shut-out he enjoyed during his first start against Shanghai on Wednesday. Sherstnev was finally beaten late in the middle frame when Will Bitten ended the goalless streak after 138 minutes. By that time, Traktor already had a fourth goal thanks to Logan Day.

And the home team added more goals in the final stanza. Grigory Dronov struck from long distance, taking the defenseman to three goals in the last four. And things finished the way they started with another strike from Leivo. Six goals, and Traktor’s 600th victory in the KHL.

Labanc’s hat-trick in losing cause

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 7 Shanghai Dragons 5 (1-2, 2-1, 5-3)

While Traktor kept on scoring, the Dragons keep allowing goals. After giving up nine in Chelyabinsk, Gerard Gallant’s men let in seven more in a high-scoring loss at Neftekhimik. On this occasion, though, the visitor at least managed to score five of its own in an entertaining battle.

But that offensive performance, led by a hat-trick from Kevin Labanc, could not prevent a third successive loss for Shanghai.

A high-scoring game got off to a relatively slow start: it wasn’t until midway through the first period that we saw the opening goal, a short-handed effort from Neftekhimik’s Grigory Seleznyov as the Dragons fumbled their first power play chance.

Late in the frame, the visitor got it right with an extra man and Ryan Spooner tied it up on 18:15. Within a minute, Labanc’s first of the night sent Shanghai into the intermission with a 2-1 lead. Defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk’s assist brought his first point since joining his third club of the season.

The lead was short-lived. Thirty seconds into the middle frame, Neftekhimik tied it at 2-2 on Andrei Belozyorov’s effort and the home team would not fall behind again. In the 25th minute, a power play saw Evgeny Mityakin mark his 292nd consecutive appearance – a Neftekhimik club record – with an assist as Artyom Serikov made it 3-2. The Dragons hit back through Austin Wagner and the game was level going into the final frame.

But that final stanza began with a quick treble from the home team. Vladislav Barulin scored in the first minute, assisted by ex-Dragon Joey Duszak, Luka Profaca made it 5-3 20 seconds later, then a five-on-three power play brought a second of the game for Belozyorov.

Shanghai wasn’t done. Labanc got two more to complete his hat-trick and make it a one-goal game with 10 to play. But a penalty on Troy Josephs hampered the visitor’s momentum, and in the end an empty-net tally from Seleznyov sealed a breathless home win.

Leipsic double in vain for SKA

Ak Bars Kazan 5 SKA St. Petersburg 2 (1-0, 2-1, 2-1)

SKA’s three-game hot streak came to an end in Kazan despite two more goals from Brendan Leipsic. The forward improved to five goals in four games since returning to Petersburg, but finished on the losing side for the first time since he joined Igor Larionov’s team.

The home team got an early lead thanks to Dmitrij Jaskin. Alexander Barabanov won possession on the boards and sent a pass to Ilya Karpukhin on the blue line. The defenseman moved forward and fired in a wrister which Jaskin redirected beyond Sergei Ivanov.

SKA recovered from that slow start, and the first period proved evenly matched. However, Jaskin’s goal was the only marker of that opening frame. The next tally came at the start of the second, when Leipsic tied the scores after grabbing a loose puck on his own blue line and sprinting away to beat Timur Bilyalov.

However, Ak Bars quickly regained the lead through Ilya Safonov and Artyom Galimov made it 3-1 late in the session.

SKA’s problems intensified at the start of the third when Karpukhin added to his earlier assist with a fourth goal for Ak Bars. The blue liner emerged as a two-way threat during his time in Petersburg last season and today his former club was on the sharp end of his growing offensive prowess.

A 4-1 lead always seemed too big to fail, and so it proved. The teams exchanged goals midway through the third period – Nikita Dynyak for Ak Bars, Leipsic’s second for SKA – but the home team eased to a third win in four.

Shipachyov pots winner at Torpedo

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 Dinamo Minsk 2 (0-0, 1-1, 0-1)

For the third time this season, Dinamo got the better of Torpedo. Today’s success was closer than the previous 7-1 triumph in Minsk, but it nonetheless saw the Bison consolidate in third place in the West.

The visitor made the better start to the game, but neither team could find a breakthrough in the first period. Yet when the opening goal arrived, late in the middle frame, it went to Torpedo – and a shorthanded effort at that.

The home team managed to clear it lines and Sergei Goncharuk did a good job of chasing down the puck on the end boards. He tried to fire it to the slot and got a helpful deflection off Tai Smith’s stick to beat Zach Fucale in the 35th minute.

It didn’t take long for Dinamo to tie the game. Vitaly Pinchuk brought the puck into the Torpedo zone, found a shooting lane and fired low through Denis Kostin’s five-hole with the help of a small deflection off Bogdan Konyushkov’s stick.

At the start of the third, Dinamo got ahead as Vadim Shipachyov moved another step closer to 1,000 KHL points. The visitor established a bulkhead in Torpedo territory, Daniil Lipsky’s shot was padded away but Rob Hamilton steered the rebound to Shipachyov at the back door to make it 2-1. That takes the KHL’s record scorer to 994 career points.

It also proved sufficient to secure Dinamo’s third win in a row. Torpedo fell to a third loss in four but remains in the top four in the West.

Lynx win summit battle

Severstal Cherepovets 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 0 (1-0, 1-0, 0-0)

The top two met in Cherepovets, where Severstal’s 2-0 win was enough to return to the top of the Western Conference standings. Danil Aimurzin assisted on both goals, while Alexander Samoilov made 32 saves for his fifth blank of the season. The 28-year-old joins Zach Fucale at the top of the shut-out charts this term.

At the other end, Danill Isayev was cursing his luck after an outrageous deflection presented Severstal with the opening goal. Aimurzin dropped the puck back for Mikhail Ilyin, but there seemed to be little danger as he fired in a routine shot from high on the left-hand boards. However, on its way to the net it looped crazily off a defenseman and dropped behind the goalie and into the net.

That separated the teams at the intermission, and while the goal itself was fortuitous Severstal could point to a 12-6 shot count and a significant edge in attacking possession as evidence that the lead was merited.

And the second period began in similar fashion with the home team doubling its lead in the 25th minute. Rushan Rafikov’s lax clearance gifted Aimurzin the puck; Isayev padded the forward’s effort padded to the corner but he chased down the play and whipped it back to the unmarked Ilya Reingardt as he arrived in front of the net for a simple close-range finish.

But that was almost the end of Severstal’s offensive ambitions. The home team managed just three shots in the second period and only three more in the third as Lokomotiv took control of the game. By the end of 60 minutes, the visitor had almost twice as much attacking possession (16:56 vs 8:51) and outshot Severstal 32-18 as a hard-hitting performance knocked the Lynx off their game. But there was no way past the impressive Samoilov as Severstal held on for the win.