Hawks on top in Eastern summit clash. December 26 round-up

Friday’s big game saw Avangard edge a shoot-out verdict over table-topping Metallurg, thanks largely to the efforts of Nikolai Prokhorkin. The day’s other action saw Sibir move off the foot of the Eastern Conference thanks to a 4-2 win at Admiral, while SKA won comfortably at Dinamo Minsk and Neftekhimik snapped its skid with an OT success at Shanghai Dragons.

Beck on target, Sibir off the bottom

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 (0-2, 0-1, 2-1)

Taylor Beck scored his first goal since returning to Novosibirsk, crowning a 4-2 road win that lifts Sibir above Admiral in the Eastern Conference standings.
Today’s result avenged Sibir’s 2-3 loss to the Sailors on home ice a week earlier, which remains Admiral’s only victory since the departure of head coach Leonids Tambijevs. That run of poor form sees the Vladivostok club sink to the foot of the table. The visitor’s recent form has not been impressive, and the previous game brought a 0-5 drubbing at the hands of Avtomobilist.

Sibir got on top early in this game. Within five minutes Vyacheslav Leshchenko potted the opener following some great work from Valentin Pyanov on the slot. A second followed on the power play when Yegor Alanov found Scott Wilson on the goal line and the Canadian set up Sergei Shirokov for a simple chance.

The second period saw the visitor continue its dominance, but it had to wait until the 39th minute to add to its lead. Another defensive lapse in Admiral’s zone enabled Alexei Yakovlev to get the puck to the slot where Ivan Klimovich finished the play.

Down by three, the home team had a testing voyage back into the game. Talismanic defenseman Libor Sulak attempted to navigate into calmer waters, pulling back a power play goal in the 52nd minute. The Czech added a second late on, but the game was already done by then: Beck’s first goal for Sibir this season in the 55th minute ensured there would be no late drama in Vladivostok.

Prokhorkin makes the difference in Omsk

Avangard Omsk 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 SO (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Nikolai Prokhorkin had a goal and a shoot-out winner as Avangard defeated the KHL leader.

Friday’s big game saw Eastern high-flyers Avangard and Metallurg do battle in Omsk. The visitor announced that head coach Andrei Razin had extended his contract with the club until 2028, but his team was unable to mark the news with a win on the road.

The game was as hard-fought as might be expected between two teams that had won 10 of their last 12 games and would end the day in first and second places in the East. Initially, the momentum was with Metallurg as the visitor looked to show the kind of form that earned Razin his extension. Roman Kantserov tested Nikita Serebryakov in the first seconds, then Ruslan Iskhakov hit the post. Avangard was unable to get play out of its end until it had killed the first penalty of the evening.

In a game characterized by missed chances, Max Lajoie was twice guilty of sparing Metallurg goalie Alexander Smolin from close range and the first period ended goalless.

Early in the second, Avangard really should have opened the scoring. Nail Yakupov and Andrew Poturalski got on a two-man breakaway with only Smolin to beat, but the goalie pulled off a magnificent save. That miss was soon punished: Luke Johnson stuffed the puck home from close range to give Metallurg a 1-0 lead.

That 26th-minute goal separated the teams until early in the third when Nikolai Prokhorkin got the Hawks level. He came in from the left wing to beat Smolin at the second attempt. The tying goal ushered in a spell of home dominance with Smolin forced into more saves as Avangard looked to get in front. Metallurg steadily got back into the game, which opened out into an exciting, end-to-end spectacle.

Late in the game, Vladimir Tkachyov won possession in his own zone and set off down the ice, only to be halted by a foul. The officials awarded a penalty rather than a shot, Razin called a time-out, but the visitor could not convert its advantage in the remainder of regulation, nor in overtime.

Once back at equal strength, Avangard played its part in an entertaining but inconclusive extra period. Then the home team won it in the shoot-out thanks to successful efforts from Prokhorkin and Konstantin Okulov.

Vorobyov double leads SKA past Dinamo

Dinamo Minsk 1 SKA St. Petersburg 4 (0-2, 0-1, 1-1)

SKA brought an abrupt halt to Dinamo’s impressive home stand. The Belarusians had won their previous two games 7-1 and 7-2, becoming the highest scoring team in the Western Conference this season with 133 goals. However, the visitor began its final road trip of the year with a comfortable 4-1 victory.
Both teams welcomed back defensemen, with Xavier Ouellet returning for Dinamo and SKA’s Brennan Menell selected for this trip to his first KHL club.

Zach Fucale and Sergei Ivanov were the two starting goalies.

Ivanov had to wait some time before he was called into action. After two high-scoring performances, Dinamo made a slow start to this one and allowed SKA to grab the early initiative. It was little surprise that the visitor opened the scoring in the sixth minute on a close-range effort from Brendan Leipsic. Prolific home forward Vitaly Pinchuk had little impact on Ivanov’s net, but got acquainted with the visitor when a big hit tumbled him onto the SKA bench.

At the other end, Matvei Polyakov doubled SKA’s lead in the 14th minute with a backhand shot that relied on placement rather than power to beat Fucale. Only after that did the home offense begin to make its presence felt, but there was no sign of a goal to reduce the deficit before the intermission.

After the break, Minsk managed to rediscover its game. However, SKA had no interest in allowing the host back into the game. After repelling some early pressure, the visitor padded its lead in the 28th minute when a kind bounce helped Mikhail Vorobyov to score. By contrast, Dinamo struggled to generate meaningful shots, despite some promising build-up play. Even a five-on-three power play came and went with no reward, although Ivanov had to make a big save to preserve the 3-0 lead.

The final stanza began in breathless fashion. However, neither team managed to generate many clear chances. Finally, midway through the session, Dinamo got on the power play, called a time-out and swapped Fucale for a sixth skater. The two-man advantage made the breakthrough, with Sam Anas pulling a vital goal back. However, an attempt to repeat that trick in the closing stages resulted in nothing more than an empty net goal for Vorobyov as SKA completed the win and overtook Spartak into sixth place.

Khoruzhev ends Wolves’ losing streak

Shanghai Dragons 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 4 OT (1-1, 0-2, 2-0, 0-1)

Neftekhimik snapped a five-game skid as Shanghai failed to build on Wednesday’s shoot-out victory over Spartak. The Wolves went to overtime for the third game in a row after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period. But Igor Grishin’s team took the verdict thanks to an eighth goal of the season from 22-year-old forward Nikita Khoruzhev.

The winner came after Khoruzhev came off the bench to jump on the puck in center ice. He passed to Andrei Belozyorov and moved into space around the left-hand circle before rifling a return feed past Andrei Kareyev in the home net.

Earlier, the game begin with a steady string of minor penalties. In the first 10 minutes, the officials called three infringements for each team. As a result, it was difficult for either side to settle into much of a rhythm. However, once the forces were at full strength, Neftekhimik got in front with an 11th minute goal from Artyom Serikov. The Dragons responded well to that setback and tied the scores thanks to Kirill Rasskazov. The forward, recently signed from Sibir, marked his debut with a shoot-out winner on Wednesday and added his first goal for his new club today.

Late in the frame, Neftekhimik went down to three skaters in unusual circumstances. On the penalty kill, Grishin believed his team had scored and challenged the on-ice decision to rule out the goal. However, the review confirmed no goal and a delay of game penalty handed Shanghai a two-man advantage that straddled the intermission.

After surviving that scare, the visitor began to get on top. Second-period pressure was rewarded with two goals inside two minutes. Belozyorov made it 2-1, then Matvei Nadvorny added a third.

However, Shanghai turned things around in the third. Kevin Labanc pulled one back on the power play in the 49th minute before Vladimir Kuznetsov tied the game with six to play. Those closing stages could not decide the outcome, but midway through the extras Khoruzhev finished the job for the Wolves.