Goals by the dozen. December 7 round-up

The final day of action before the international break brought goals aplenty. Avangard won a 12-goal thriller at home to Spartak, taking a 7-5 verdict. And there was a similarly high-scoring game in Chelyabinsk, where Dynamo Moscow beat Traktor 8-4 with six points for Nikita Gusev. Severstal returned to the top of the Western Conference as two goals from Adam Liska earned a 3-2 win at Lada, CSKA got back into the playoff zone thanks to a 3-1 victory in Ufa. SKA played its home game vs Amur in Khabarovsk and blew a 2-0 lead to lost in a shoot-out. Ak Bars won 3-1 at Neftekhimik, while Sibir edged a shoot-out at Barys.

Amur’s home away from home

SKA St. Petersburg 3 Amur Khabarovsk 4 SO (0-0, 2-0, 1-3, 0-0, 0-1)

When is a home game not a home game? For these two teams, Sunday’s meeting took place in Khabarovsk, but with SKA as the home team. The issue was to do with SKA’s arena being unavailable for the planned Jan. 5 game at home to Amur. Rather than wrestle with the schedule to find a suitable alternative, the Petersburg club agreed to give up home advantage and play twice in Khabarovsk, taking on the Tigers for a second time 24 hours after Saturday’s OT win.

Back-to-back games bring their own challenges. After a goalless first period, SKA began to look like the home team in the second. The opening goal came in the 29th minute, a short-handed effort created by a great feed from Matvei Polyakov to send Joseph Blandisi into a one-on-one with Maxim Dorozhko. A couple of minutes later, this time on the power play, Polyakov doubled the lead off a defense-splitting pass from Nikolai Goldobin behind the net.

However, that quickfire double was not enough to take the game away from Amur. Despite players as visitors in their own arena, the Tigers hit back in the third. Kirill Slepets and Yaroslav Likhachyov scored at an interval of 34 seconds to tie the game. For Likhachyov, it was his second goal on SKA in as many days.

Three-and-a-half minutes later, Amur had the lead. One-time SKA prospect Yegor Rykov outwitted Rocco Grimaldi and got the puck to the slot for Kirill Petkov to make it 3-2.

However, while celebrating his goal, Petkov inadvertently caught an opponent in the face with his stick. That gave SKA a power play, and Marat Khairullin sent the game to overtime.

A second trip to the extras in as many days could not separate the opponents this time, but the shoot-out went Amur’s way. Alex Broadhurst potted the winner, snapping his team’s six-game skid.

Hawks hold on to win goal fest

Avangard Omsk 7 Spartak Moscow 5 (5-2, 1-1, 1-2)

The Hawks had the better of a 12-goal thriller in Omsk, recording their first ever victory over Spartak at the G-Drive Arena. Visiting forward Ivan Morozov potted his first hat-trick of the season but still finished on the losing side.

It didn’t take long for the first goal of a high-scoring game: after 84 seconds, Nail Yakupov put Avangard in front. Morozov was close to a tying goal right away, but he failed to beat Nikita Serebryakov and the home team prospered. Two quick goals in the 10th minute saw Giovanni Fiore and Damir Sharipzyanov chase starting goalie Artyom Zagidulin from his net.

On 10:15, Morozov pulled a goal back for the visitor, assisted by in-form Adam Ruzicka. But Avangard was well in control of the game and incoming goalie Evgeny Volokhin allowed two goals in 18 seconds as Mike McLeod and Sharipzyanov padded the lead to 5-1. That wasn’t the end of the first-period scoring; German Rubtsov pulled one back for Spartak.

After seven goals in the first period, the scoring slowed in the second. Alexander Volkov added a sixth for Avangard early on, then Morozov’s second of the night made it 3-6 midway through the game. Overall, the visitor had the better of the play in the middle frame, with the Hawks creating little after Volkov’s goal, but Spartak struggled to make inroads on a commanding lead.

A hopeless task got even more challenging 15 seconds into the final frame when Volkov’s second of the night made it 7-3 for the Hawks. However, Spartak kept working and made it difficult for Avangard to get the puck out of its zone. Morozov sent Ruzicka clear on Serebryakov’s net and the Slovak forward scored at the second attempt.

Then Avangard ran into penalty trouble. The home team killed the first penalty of the game when Yakupov was assessed a delay of game minor in the 47th minute, but then found itself down to three skaters when Fiore followed Mikhail Gulyayev into the box. Gulyayev returned to the game before Ivanov completed his hat-trick, but with five minutes left the lead was down to two and an unlikely fightback suddenly seemed possible.

However, Avangard closed out the game effectively and the only late drama came when Vasily Ponomaryov picked a fight with Spartak defenseman Daniil Orlov after the hooter. 

Gusev leads the way in Dynamo blitz

Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 Dynamo Moscow 8 (1-4, 1-3, 2-1)

There were plenty of goals in Chelyabinsk as well, with Traktor and Dynamo sharing 12. The visitor potted eight of them to claim a sixth successive victory, while Nikita Gusev finished with 6 (2+4) points.

One of Traktor’s on-going problems this season has been giving up early goals. Today, once again, the home team was behind in the first minute as Dynamo calmly unpicked the defense for Jordan Weal to beat Savely Sherstnev. It wasn’t long before the visitor got on the power play and Max Comtois doubled the lead. Traktor pulled one back when Mikhail Goryunov-Rolgizer redirected a Jordan Gross shot past Maxim Motorygin, but that did little to impede Dynamo’s progress. Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi scored on a delayed penalty, then Anton Slepyshev beat Sherstnev in a one-on-one. That was the first goal that did not feature an assist from Gusev.

Traktor switched goalies at the intermission, bringing Dmitry Lozebnikov into the game. He managed 6:24 before allowing Yegor Rimashevsky to score from a break down the right wing. Weal got his second of the game to make it 6-1, then Alexander Rykov pulled one back with a long-range effort after 33 minutes.

The next two goals went to Gusev, one on either side of the intermission, as Dynamo padded the lead to 8-2. The visitor might have added more, with a total of seven minutes on the power play including a major penalty for Sergei Telegin, but the Blue-and-White power play did not pile up the punishment for Traktor. Instead, the home team gained a modicum of respect in the closing stages when Yegor Korshkov scored a couple of power play goals in the closing stages. But there was no way back from a fourth successive loss for the home team.

Revenge win for CSKA

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 CSKA Moscow 3 (0-0, 0-1, 1-2)

It’s less than a week since Salavat Yulaev won a shoot-out at CSKA, but today the Muscovites got revenge in Ufa. The result puts Igor Nikitin’s team back into the top eight in the West at the expense of Shanghai Dragons, who drop to ninth.

Sunday’s game saw former Salavat goalie Alexander Samonov duking it out with his former colleague Semyon Vyazovoi for the first time since his move to the capital.

The home team was full of confidence after beating Ak Bars in the Green Derby last time out. However, the first period proved a frustrating affair. The teams spent much of the time battling for possession rather than creating scoring chances. Ufa looked more effective in the physical game, the visitor perhaps created slightly the better chances.

In the second period, CSKA began to put together some extended spells of pressure and that produced an opening goal when Nikolai Kovalenko battled away in front of Vyazovoi’s net to force the puck over the line. After more than a month without a goal, Kovalenko now has two in as many games.

For much of the game it felt as if Salavat Yulaev was lacking the intensity that brought it a derby victory. However, at the start of the third period the home team found a way back into the game. Vitaly Abramov went down after blocking a powerful shot from Alexei Vasilevsky and with the visitor effectively shorthanded, Alexander Zharovsky and Sheldon Rempal worked fast to create a tying goal for Maxim Kuznetsov. A few minutes later, only the piping denied Rempal a go-ahead goal.

However, CSKA regained the lead in the 48th minute when defenseman Vladislav Yeryomenko picked the right moment to join the attack and beat Vyazovoi. Kirill Dolzhenkov added a third goal in the 55th minute to seal the verdict.

Wilson grabs shoot-out winner for Sibir

Barys Astana 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 SO (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)

Sibir remains at the foot of the Eastern Conference, but is now just two points behind 10th-placed Admiral after beating Barys for the fourth time this season. Games between these two have tended to be tight, and this was the third shoot-out in five games.

For a long time, the teams played with little apparent urgency. It took Barys eight minutes to register a shot on target, although when it arrived it got behind Anton Krasotkin before slithering along his goal line to safety.

In the second, the game continued with few scoring chances. So it was somewhat out of the blue when Sibir took the lead in the 29th minute. A strong forecheck secured possession, and Vyacheslav Leshchenko advanced on Andrei Shutov’s net to score his second goal of the season.

Leshchenko’s next big contribution was less satisfactory: at the start of the third period, after a long video review, he was assessed a major for slashing. Soon after, Sibir lost defenseman Andrei Churkin to injury. However, the visitor survived that major penalty and held its lead into the closing stages. Into the final two minutes, Barys played six-on-four after Chase Priskie’s tripping minor, and Mason Morelli grabbed a late tying goal.

That sent the game to overtime and finally a shoot-out, where Scott Wilson potted the decider.

Liska lifts Severstal to the summit

Lada Togliatti 2 Severstal Cherepovets 3 (1-1, 1-1, 0-1)

Two goals from Adam Liska sent Severstal back to the top of the Western Conference as the teams head into the international break. The visitor trailed twice at Lada but recovered to snap a two-game skid and move one point clear of Lokomotiv. However, Dinamo Minsk is just two points back in third, and has four games in hand on the top two.

The Motormen remain some way adrift of the playoff places in 10th. Despite some recent struggles, Andrei Altybarmakyan has hit a hot streak and today he opened the scoring with his third goal in as many games. But his ninth-minute marker was cancelled out four minutes later by Mikhail Ilyin, who was recently added to the KHL U23 Stars roster for February’s All-Star Game.

In the second period, the game followed a similar pattern. Lada got in front on Tomas Jurco’s first goal since joining the club. This time, the home team held onto the lead for rather longer, but a power play late in the session saw Liska get his first to tie it up at 2-2.

And the Slovak forward struck again within a minute of the restart, claiming what proved to be the winning goal. Liska’s hard-working play as a center rarely brings eye-catching numbers: today was only the second game this season in which he found the net, but it was also the second time he potted a double (previously he did the same in a 4-2 win over Dinamo Minsk on Nov. 18).

Having got in front, Severstal continued to look for more goals and the third period proved an even contest. However, neither team could find the net as the visitor took the verdict by the odd goal in five.

Derby success for Ak Bars

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 Ak Bars Kazan 3 (0-0, 0-2, 1-1)

After defeat in the Green Derby, Ak Bars responded to win the Tatarstan derby at Neftekhimik. The home team failed to build on its three-game winning streak, while Ak Bars goes to four victories from five.

In the first period, the visitor had the better of the play, helped by two penalties for Neftekhimik. However, the Wolves held on to keep the score goalless at the first intermission.

But the penalties kept coming and when Joey Duszak was assessed a tripping minor in the 24th minute, Dmitrij Jaskin took advantage to open the scoring. Shortly after that, Neftekhimik got its first PP of the day but was unable to capitalize. Instead, midway through the second period, Alexander Barabanov doubled the lead and it stayed 2-0 until the intermission.

The home team began the final frame on the power play and needed just seven seconds to grab a goal that got it back into the game. Andrei Belozyorov was on target, moving to five goals in his last four games. A couple of minutes later, the home team had a glorious opportunity to tie things up. On a single shift, Jaskin took an interference minor while Kirill Semyonov was handed a major penalty for cross-checking. Two full minutes of five-on-three hockey could not produce a tying goal, and Ak Bars managed to kill the rest of Semyonov’s tariff at five-on-four. More impressive, perhaps, the visitor allowed just three shots at Timur Bilyalov’s net in the first 10 minutes of the final frame thanks to some resolute defense.

Neftekhimik began to ask more questions of Bilyalov as the session progressed, but could not beat the visiting goalie again. And, in the final moments, Nikita Dynyak’s empty net goal wrapped up a 3-1 win. Dynyak, who hadn’t scored since Sep. 25, is now on four goals in his last five games.