Lynx inch clear, Minsk up to second. January 19 round-up

Severstal moved one point clear at the top of the Western Conference after a spectacular fightback at Dynamo Moscow. Down 1-4 with less than 10 to play, the Lynx rallied to force overtime before falling in a shoot-out. Dinamo Minsk climbed to second on a late winner at SKA, while Lokomotiv dropped one place after losing at home to fourth-placed Torpedo.  Earlier, the top two in the East had a more straightforward time of it: Metallurg won 4-3 at Amur, Ak Bars took a 5-2 verdict in Vladivostok.

Magnitka leaves it late to beat Tigers

Amur Khabarovsk 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 (0-1, 2-0, 1-3)

Metallurg continued its winning form, maintaining its lead at the top of the KHL standings with victory at Amur.

Although the first period produced just one goal, it wasn’t short of action. Both teams had good chances before the opening goal. Danil Yurtaikin was lively for the home team, and Luke Johnson hit the post for the visitor. Kirill Petkov failed to beat Ilya Nabokov in a one-on-one before Sergei Tolchinsky put Magnitka in front, maintaining his impressive run of recent form.

The Tigers outshot Metallurg in the first period, but could not find the net until the second. Oleg Li tied it up with a shot that beat Nabokov to his short side. The visiting goalie then allowed a seemingly straightforward effort from Yaroslav Dyblenko to get past him, putting Amur in front at the second intermission. The middle frame also brought a fight between Danila Palivko and Evgeny Grachyov, with both players handed major penalties for their pains.

Metallurg tied it up at the start of the third when Derek Barach scored on a delayed penalty. It took a moment to realize that his well-placed shot had crossed the line but a video review cleared up any confusion. However, Li quickly restored Amur’s lead: Nabokov again failed to stay tight to his post and Li squeezed another shot inside.

Andrei Razin reshuffled his lines, restoring Vladimir Tkachyov’s usual colleagues to the top line. However, it took a moment of individual class from Ruslan Iskhakov to tie it up when he went coast-to-coast before beating Maxim Dorozhko.

And the visitor grabbed a winner late in the game. With 77 seconds remaining, Palivko added the decisive goal to his earlier fisticuffs, maintaining his team’s winning form on its current Far East excursion.

Ak Bars halts Admiral fightback

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Ak Bars Kazan 5 (0-3, 2-0, 0-2)

The Sailors are still seeking a first win under new head coach Oleg Bratash. Today, despite a second-period fightback, they never really looked likely to halt Ak Bars’ winning run. The visitor secured a third straight victory on its Far East tour.

The coaching staff was content to change a winning line-up. Timur Bilyalov returned in goal, despite Maxim Arefyev’s first KHL shut-out at Amur two days ago. Alexei Pustozyorov replaced Dmitrij Jaskin and defenseman Artemy Knyazev took over from Stepan Falkovsky.

The home team might have opened the scoring in the first minute but Dmitry Timashov’s shot hit the post. Then Ak Bars killed a penalty before moving play away from its net. Soon after Pustozyorov returned to the game, 13th forward Radel Zamaltdinov produced a fine wrist shot to beat Arseny Tsyba.

Admiral struggled to get shots at Bilyalov, despite some promising approaches to his net. Instead the visitor extended its lead with two goals in the 19th minute. Alexander Barabanov made it 2-0 before Pusyozyorov added a third to give a commanding lead at the first intermission.

The Sailors needed a strong start to the second – and they got it. Vladimir Bryukvin punished a defensive error to reduce the deficit 67 seconds after play resumed. That injected some life into the home offense and Bilyalov found himself working hard to preserve his team’s advantage. Midway through the session, Timashov got it back to 2-3 and the fightback was very much on.

Dragged into a contest that had seemed settled after 20 minutes, Ak Bars stepped up once more and resumed its control of the play. Admiral could not tie it up in the remainder of the middle frame, and fell further behind in the third. A short-handed goal credited to Ilya Karpukhin in the 44th minute restored a two-goal advantage: Libor Sulak had a nightmare, inadvertently putting through his own net under minimal pressure from the PK.

Admiral continued to create chances: Ivan Muranov, Semyon Ruchkin and Arkady Shestakov all tested Bilyalov but could not beat him. Ak Bars rarely got forward, but still managed to add a fifth goal late on when Artyom Galimov scored into an empty net to seal the win.

Torpedo celebrates third win over Loko this season

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 (0-0, 1-3, 0-0)

Torpedo completed a fourth successive win to move within four points of the Western Conference summit thanks to some clinical finishing at Lokomotiv.
The game was decided in the second period, with the visitor scoring three goals off eight shots to build a commanding lead. Although Lokomotiv had more possession and more attempts on goal, it struggled to get past Denis Kostin in the Torpedo net.

At the start, neither team was able to create many scoring chances. The first period was evenly contested, and the best chance fell to the home penalty kill when Alexander Polunin broke clear to set up Martin Gernat for a shot that Kostin gathered.

The breakthrough came in the 29th minute. Yegor Sokolov fed the puck to the blue line, where Daniil Zhuravlyov stepped up to wire a wrister past Daniil Isayev and put Torpedo in front. However, Lokomotiv hit back at once and Alexander Yelesin tied it up two minutes later with a point shot through traffic.

Then the home team ran into penalty trouble and gave up two goals late in the middle frame. Gernat sat for interference and a well-worked power play move saw Yegor Vinogradov drop the puck for Sokolov to set up Vasily Atanasov’s one timer from the slot.

There was more to come before the intermission when Vladimir Tkachyov added a third with some great skills. He raced down the middle, carving a path between two defensemen and beating Isayev from close range.

Lokomotiv had the better of the third period, outshooting Torpedo 12-6 and spending plenty of time around Kostin’s net. However, the visiting defense was solid and scoring chances were few and far between. A penalty for visiting forward Vladislav Firstov threatened to complicate the final minutes for Torpedo, but the power play generated little as Alexei Isakov’s team closed out the win.

Last-minute winner for Dinamo

SKA St. Petersburg 3 Dinamo Minsk 4 (0-1, 2-2, 1-1)

A goal from Stanislav Galiyev 30 seconds before the hooter secured victory for Dinamo at SKA. The home team recovered from 0-2 and 2-3 but could not force the game to overtime.

As the game approached the final minute, SKA’s goalie Sergei Ivanov was assessed a delay of game minor. And that power play opened the door for Dinamo to win it. Ty Smith found KHL scoring leader Sam Anas in the right-hand circle and he drilled in a low shot that Galiyev flipped past Ivanov from close range to win it for the visitor.

That was the third assist of the night from Anas, whose productive run now spans 11 games and 21 (5+16) points.

The American was also involved in Dinamo’s opener, scored by Galiyev on the power play midway through the first period. Five minutes into the second, playing four-on-four hockey, Minsk doubled that lead on a Nicolas Meloche tally.

But eight minutes later, the scores were level. SKA fought back well and goals from Markus Philipps and Matvei Polyakov made it 2-2. Dinamo was unruffled, however, and got back in front on a delayed penalty right before the intermission: former SKA forward and KHL millennium man Vadim Shipachyov collected point #1,002 when he converted the rebound after an Anas point shot cannoned off the boards.

Dinamo was not content to sit on that lead in the third period and outshot SKA 15-7 in the final stanza. However, when Mikhail Vorobyov picked out Nikolai Goldobin at the back door, he was able to tie the scores at the second attempt. With 10 minutes to play, the game was wide open. But in the end Dinamo found the way to win in regulation, nudging ahead of Lokomotiv into second place in the west.

Severstal comeback falls short in shootout

Dynamo Moscow 5 Severstal Cherepovets 4 SO (1-0, 1-0, 2-4, 0-0, 1-0)

Dynamo halted a three-game skid with victory over conference-leading Severstal. However, after leading by three midway through the third period, Vyacheslav Kozlov will be concerned that has team needed a shoot-out to get it over the line.

The first period seemed destined to be goalless, but just before the intermission Artyom Sergeyev put Dynamo in front. The defenseman was given time to wind up a point shot and his effort flew into Andrei Shostak’s top corner. The goalie had little view of the release and could not react in time to make the save.

Things were similar in the second stanza, with Dynamo again getting the only goal of the session late on. This time Ivan Zinchenko was the scorer, marking his debut with a goal. The Blue-and-Whites came out of a center ice battle with the puck and Maxim Mamin played a pass towards the net for Zinchenko to redirect off Shostak’s pad and into the net. The forward, who arrived from SKA last week, was playing his first KHL game of the season after failing to find a place on Igor Larionov’s team in St. Petersburg.

When Anton Slepyshev added a third in the 46th minute, steering Semyon Der-Arguchintsev’s drive through the goalie’s pads, it looked like game over. But Severstal hit back immediately through Tomas Gregoire to reignite the contest.

Even after Max Comtois’ power play tally restored a three-goal advantage, Dynamo was not safe. Two goals in as many shifts in the 54th minute put the Lynx right back into the game. Kirill Tankov banged in a Danil Aimurzin feed from behind the net, then a similar play saw Timofei Davydenko’s turn and shot finished off by Alexander Skorenov.

And that pair combined on a delayed penalty to tie the game in the 58th minute. This time Skorenov turned provider, winning the puck on the end boards and sending it to Davidov on the slot to make it 4-4.

The drama wasn’t done: in the 59th minute, Ruslan Abrosimov was assessed a tripping minor and Dynamo finished the game on the power play. Jordan Weal and Daniil Pylenkov tested Shostak, but Severstal held on to take the game to overtime.

The extras could not separate the two, but in the shoot-out Nikita Gusev made the difference. He had two attempts, scored them both and earned Dynamo the verdict.