Radulov reaches 800-point mark. February 21 round-up
Alexander Radulov became only the third man in history to score 800 points in the KHL. He had two assists in Lokomotiv’s 5-4 SO win over Dinamo Minsk to achieve that landmark. Team-mate Rushan Rafikov became Loko’s all-time most productive defenseman in the same game. There was another shoot-out at Torpedo, where Ak Bars blew a 2-0 lead and lost. Saturday’s other game saw SKA beat CSKA 3-0.
Host fights back to win in shoot-out
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Ak Bars Kazan 2 SO (0-1, 0-1, 2-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Ak Bars blew a 2-0 lead and fell to a shoot-out loss in Nizhny Novgorod. Defeat means that Anvar Gatiyatullin’s team is four points behind Avangard in a race for second place in the East. Torpedo remains fourth in the West and both teams have already clinched their playoff spots.
Saturday’s game somewhat mirrored the teams’ previous encounter this season. In Kazan, Torpedo jumped to a 2-0 lead but could not hold on. Ak Bars recovered to win 4-3 in overtime.
The visitor got in front in the seventh minute. A spell of pressure seemed largely confined to the outside until Nathan Todd’s feed from behind the net found Kirill Semyonov to score from the slot.
That was a fair reward for Ak Bars’ enterprising start, but it sparked a revival from the home offense. However, there was no way past Maxim Arefyev and it remained 0-1 at the first intermission.
In the second period, Torpedo slightly shaded the play. However, Ak Bars dealt with the pressure well and managed to extend its lead after 33 minutes. Albert Yarullin combined with Semyonov to create a great chance for Todd to make it 2-0. With the visiting defense looking solid, it felt like a long way back for Alexei Isakov’s team.
But a power play midway through the third period gave the home team a lifeline. Yegor Sokolov quickly converted that chance to make it a one-goal game. With Arefyev beaten at last, Torpedo needed just two more minutes to tie it up thanks to Maxim Letunov. Ak Bars finished the 60 minutes on the PP – for the first time in the game – but could not force a winner after Alexander Yaremchuk’s foul and the action went to the extras.
In overtime the visitor had the better of the play, but could not find the winning goal. Then in the shoot-out, Vladimir Tkachyov was the only player to find the target as Torpedo took the win.
Defending champ edges thriller
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 Dinamo Minsk 4 SO (2-1, 1-2, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Alexander Radulov picked up his 800th point in the KHL, becoming only the third member of an elite club alongside Vadim Shipachyov (1016) and Sergei Mozyakin (928).
Two first-period assists took Radulov to that landmark as his helped Lokomotiv recover from allowing a first-minute goal.
Stanislav Galiyev gave the visitor that early lead on a play that bounced around in front of Daniil Isayev’s net before bobbling into the net. Shipachyov collected an assist on that play.
But in the 12th minute Loko tied it up on a delayed penalty. Radulov got the puck back to the blue, from where Alexander Yelesin advanced to the left-hand circle before wiring a shot past Zach Fucale. Then came a fight, with Georgy Ivanov and Ilya Usov tangling on the slot in the aftermath of the tying goal. Darren Dietz and Daniil Misyul also got involved, picking up major penalties for their pains. When the dust settled, Lokomotiv ended up with a power play after Dietz was assessed a major and a minor for his involvement in the incident.
And that power play brought a home lead: Radulov started the play, then Andrei Sergeyev exchanged passes with Rushan Rafikov before firing home. Rafikov collected his 217th career point for the Railwaymen, making him the club’s all-time most productive defenseman.
Early in the second period, Nikita Kiryanov increased Loko’s advantage and it started to look like the Western Conference leader was in control of the game. However, Dinamo hit back to tie the game. Alex Limoges pulled one back on the power play, then Xavier Ouellet continued his recent run of form with the equalizer in the 34th minute. The Canadian defenseman found the net for the third game in a row, his most productive goal streak in his KHL career.
An evenly contested game remained tight in the third. The teams traded two more goals, at an interval of two-and-a-half minutes. Byron Froese restored Lokomotiv’s lead in the 46th minute, before Usov tied it up at 4-4.
Overtime brought plenty of shots on goal, but no winner. Vadim Moroz came closest for Dinamo as the visitor looked more likely to force a breakthrough, but Isayev held firm. Then, in the shoot-out, that man Radulov converted the first attempt. Artur Kayumov also found the net while Isayev stopped everything that Dinamo could throw at him to give Loko the verdict.
CSKA fires blanks, must wait to punch playoff ticket
SKA St. Petersburg 3 CSKA Moscow 0 (1-0, 1-0, 1-0)
The Muscovites could have secured their playoff spot today with anything better than defeat in regulation to SKA. However, the visiting forwards had a collective off day, failing to score as the home team bounced back from Wednesday’s shoot-out loss at home to Severstal.
Igor Larionov’s team has now taken at least a point from its last eight, winning six of them. By contrast, CSKA suffered back-to-back defeats following a 1-2 reverse at Lada on Tuesday. Previously, Igor Nikitin’s men had won eight in a row.
This was an even game of relatively few chances. However, SKA’s superior finishing made the difference, while CSKA often contributed to its own downfall. The opening goal, midway through the first period, was a case in point. A power play for the visitor went astray: within 19 seconds of Danila Galenyuk sitting for tripping, Nikita Dishkovsky grabbed a short-handed goal.
The same power play produced a chance for another shorty and the flaws in the CSKA PP were exposed again the second period. This time Dishkovsky got on another breakaway, only to be fouled. The youngster stepped up to take the penalty shot and despatched it past Alexander Samonov to make it 2-0 in the 27th minute.
Dishkovsky’s lively contribution continued in the third period. He won possession out wide and the puck found Rocco Grimaldi between the hash marks to take the lead to 3-0. With Sergei Ivanov keeping the door closed at the other end – he finished with 29 saves – it turned into a frustrating afternoon for CSKA. And that was compounded with five to play when Pavel Karnuakhov was ejected from the game for a bruising hit that left Pavel Koledov needing a stretcher to get him off the ice. That left CSKA on the PK for the remainder of the game and its hopes of salvaging a result departed alongside the two players.
