Froese earns OT win for Loko. January 25 round-up

Spartak Moscow 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 OT (1-1, 0-1, 1-0, 0-1)

Byron Froese scored his first goal since Jan. 4 to send Lokomotiv back to the top of the Western Conference. The Canadian struck in overtime to snap a 2-2 tie and secure back-to-back wins for the Railwaymen. Coincidentally, the last time Bob Hartley’s team won two in a row was that Jan. 4 shoot-out success at CSKA.

For Spartak, defeat ended a two-game winning streak. But the bonus point from the tie opens a 13-point gap to ninth-placed Shanghai as the Red-and-Whites close on their playoff place.

Lokomotiv had the better of the early exchanges. The visitor got a power play in the fourth minute and Maxim Beryozkin took advantage to open the scoring. As Richard Panik fired in a pass to the slot, he deflected it home from in front of Alexander Georgiyev’s net.

The next shift brought another Loko power play, but this time Spartak held on. After that, the home team began to boss the play. Alexei Zhamnov’s men had the better of the first-period action and tied the scores midway through the session. Nikita Korostelyov found a powerful shot to beat Daniil Isayev from the left-hand circle. Soon after that, Isayev pulled off a great save to deny Adam Ruzicka at the back door and the opening stanza finished at 1-1.

Lokomotiv stepped up in the second period, creating several dangerous opportunities. Rushan Rafikov twice went close, once hitting the post, then Georgy Ivanov was denied in a one-on-one with Georgiyev. But before the intermission the visitor got in front when Ivanov flew into the zone and dished it off for Artur Kayumov to beat the goalie with a wrister from the right-hand channel.

Spartak hit back at the start of the third with Daniil Gutik potting his first goal for his new club. The former Admiral man got the decisive touch when Dmitry Vishnevsky’s point shot came through traffic.

Late in the game, Lokomotiv thought it had a winner. With two to play, Sergeyev’s shot came through a crowd of players to beat Georgiyev. However, the Spartak bench challenged the play and a review showed that Beryozkin impeded the home goalie.

That took the action into overtime, and Lokomotiv soon found a winner. Yegor Surin was the architect, racing into Spartak territory and circling the net before finding Froese all alone in front of the target. His shot clipped the far post on its way past Georgiyev to secure victory for the visitor.