Avto clinches playoffs, Amur closes on Sibir. February 23 round-up

A 4-3 win at Torpedo lifted Dinamo Minsk to second place in the West, with KHL scoring leader Sam Anas collecting two more points to move to 76 (28+48) points. Traktor scored two late goals to beat Lada in Chelyabinsk. Sochi’s game at home to CSKA was abandoned for safety reasons.

Lada suffers late loss

Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 Lada Togliatti 2 (0-1, 2-0, 2-1)

Two late goals lifted Traktor past Lada after a close-fought game in Chelyabinsk. Andrei Svetlakov and Alexander Kadeikin scored in the 59th minute to break a 2-2 tie.

Lada’s season is effectively over, with the Motormen unable to reach the playoffs. But the visitor made a bright start and opened the scoring in the third minute. Defenseman Arsen Taymazov, 20, fired home from the blue line to claim his second KHL goal.

The teams traded power plays in the opening frame, but there was no further scoring before the intermission. After the break, though, Traktor quickly tied the scores when Michal Cajkovsky got on the end of a quick counterattack to pot his first goal since joining Traktor. Vitaly Kravtsov’s assist moved him to within five points of Anton Glinkin’s club record.

Midway through the second period, Alexei Rykmanov put Traktor in front with his first goal in the KHL.

But Lada wasn’t done. The visitor tied the game in the third period when Tyler Graovac finished off a counterattack. However, with overtime beckoning, Traktor found the way to win it. First, Yegor Korshkov won possession on the boards and set up Svetlakov on the slot to make it 3-2. Lada was unable to respond, and Korshkov was the architect once again to create Kadeikin’s goal and put the result beyond doubt.

Anas goal tops Torpedo

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Dinamo Minsk 4 (1-0, 2-4, 0-0)

The Belarusians returned to second place in the Western Conference after edging Torpedo by the odd goal in seven. Dinamo is tied on 78 points with Severstal but has more wins in regulation, thus claiming the higher position. Monday’s win also completed a season sweep for the Bison, which won all four of its regular season games against Alexei Isakov’s team.

Torpedo had a great chance to assert itself early on when Darren Dietz sat for tripping in the first minute. That power play proved underpowered, but the home team got in front in the 15th minute of a first period largely played on the counter. After Torpedo won an attacking face-off, Arseny Varlakov drilled the puck to the slot where Maxim Letunov directed it in off the foot of the post.

Dinamo’s best chances in the first period came on the power play, and another man advantage at the start of the second brought a tying goal for Yegor Borikov, who finished off a fine multi-player combination. The visitor stepped up in search of more goals, but when Timur Mukhanov robbed Sam Anas of the puck, the Torpedo man raced away to restore the home lead.

However, Anas, this season’s scoring leader, was destined to have a more positive – and decisive – input into the game. In the 33rd minute, he assisted on a tying goal for Alex Limoges. Barely a minute later, Ilya Usov put Dinamo up 3-2, only for Vasily Atanasov to haul Torpedo level. However, on 37:07, Anas scored to complete a helter-skelter sequence of four goals in five minutes and give Minsk a 4-3 lead.

In the final frame Torpedo took control of the puck and dominated the game as it searched for a way back. Dinamo was limited to intermittent counterattacks and focussed its efforts on defense. Mukhanov had the best chance to tie the game, but was unable to find his second of the night when well placed. In the closing minutes, Torpedo tried to play with six skaters but an O-zone penalty undermined that final surge and the Belarusians closed out the win.

HC Sochi vs CSKA Moscow – abandoned

Monday’s scheduled game in Sochi had to be abandoned at the end of the first period due to the threat of a drone attack on the arena. The game, originally scheduled for 1700 local, was initially delayed for one hour due to safety concerns.
The first period was played, and finished goalless. But during the first intermission, spectators were again told to evacuate the building and the game was abandoned.