Western playoff qualifiers locked after thriller at CSKA. February 27 round-up
The West is done. All eight playoff spots in the Western Conference are now filled. CSKA’s high-scoring win over Shanghai Dragons confirms Spartak as the eighth and final qualifier. At the top of the Western Conference, Dinamo Minsk tightened its grip on second with a 3-2 win at Sochi while third-placed Severstal fell at home to Torpedo. In the east, Avangard edged Metallurg in overtime, while Avtomobilist defeated Ak Bars in a shoot-out.
In-form Poturalski sinks Metallurg
Avangard Omsk 3 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 OT (1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0)
Andrew Poturalski’s overtime goal settled this battle between the top two in the Eastern Conference. The Avangard man has 24 (8+16) points in his last 16 games. Another in-form player, Damir Sharipzyanov, contributed two assists and moves to 64 points for the season. That’s just one behind Chris Lee’s all-time scoring record for a defenseman in the KHL.
Although these two teams are at the top of the table, they came into the game on the back of losses. The Hawks had just one win in four, while Metallurg fell at home to Severstal in OT in its previous game.
Avangard made the brighter start to the game and had the first shots on target without beating Ilya Nabokov. However, when Metallurg managed to move play away from its net the visitor began to create good chances of its own.
The opening goal came in the 13th minute after Avangard was called for too many men. Vladimir Tkachyov instantly converted the power play; Magnitka’s leading scorer found the net in the arena he called home before his summer switch to the Urals.
After that, the home team had to kill another penalty before getting a power play chance of its own. With the extra skater, Avangard tied the game when Konstantin Okulov redirected Sharipzyanov’s point shot.
The second period quickly opened out into an end-to-end battle. Metallurg had a two-on-one rush early in the frame, Avangard responded with Ivan Igumnov hitting the post. Nikita Serebryakov produced an unbelievable save at the other end to deny Tkachyov a second goal when the net seemed to be at his mercy.
Metallurg had another chance when Avangard was again assessed a too many men minor (and again 13 minutes into the frame). This time, the Hawks changed the script to keep the scores tied. Then the home team got in front at equal strength when Nail Yakupov’s shot somehow squirmed its way through Nabokov and over the line.
A stop-start third period suited Avangard, which was happy to run the clock down and protect its lead. And time almost ran out for Metallurg, but the visitor got another power play in the closing stages and forced a tying goal. Luke Johnson stuffed it home in a six-on-four set-up.
The remaining 79 seconds saw Avangard desperately trying to settle it in regulation, The pressure got to Andrei Razin on the visitor’s bench and he talked his way into a minor penalty. The Hawks could not convert in regulation, but Poturalski’s goal secured the verdict in the extras.
Lyamkin’s double not enough for Ak Bars
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 Ak Bars Kazan 2 SO (0-1, 2-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Ak Bars fell to a third straight loss after dropping a shoot-out verdict in Yekaterinburg.
The visitor made a decent start here. The first real chance of the game arrived when Ak Bars got a three-on-two rush, but Evgeny Alikin snuffed out the chance. Avto’s game was disrupted by the absence of Brooks Macek: the forward was on the roster but didn’t make it onto the ice, forcing the home team to deploy several unfamiliar attacking combinations.
And Ak Bars took the lead into the first intermission after converting its first power play of the night. After keeping Avto penned in for 90 seconds, Nikita Lyamkin fired past Alikin while Dmitrij Jaskin put up the screen.
The game remained open in the second period, and that worked to the home team’s advantage. Avtomobilist tends to do well in the middle frame and today it found two goals to turn the game around. Nikita Shashkov tied it up, then a power play chance saw Nikita Tryamkin fire home the go-ahead goal.
That left the visitor trying to recover in the third. Ak Bars began strongly, earned a power play and converted it in similar fashion to the first goal. Jaskin again made a nuisance of himself in front of Alikin and Lyamkin found the net from long range. The repeated success of that tactic might have influenced the next home power play, with Tryamkin repeatedly attempting something similar, but to no avail.
As the game entered the closing stages, both teams sought to keep it simple and minimize the risk of error. In effect, overtime started early but there was no further scoring in regulation, nor in the extras. Ak Bars had to kill a penalty in OT and did so fairly comfortably. However, the shoot-out went Avtomobilist’s way. The home team sent Vladimir Galkin into the net for the shoot-out and he stopped three out of four as Alexander Sharov won it for the Motormen.
Three points for Anas in pursuit of scoring record
HC Sochi 2 Dinamo Minsk 3 (0-0, 1-1, 1-2)
The Belarusians had scored 20 goals in their three previous games against Sochi this season – seven of them earlier this week. But tonight Dinamo found things a bit tougher before completing a fourth win in four games against the Leopards.
Sochi managed more than 37 minutes without allowing a goal tonight. Pavel Khomchenko performed strongly, and was only beaten by Sam Anas on 37:44
By that time, Sochi already had a goal of its own, scored by Danil Bashkirov three minutes earlier. However, Dinamo’s American forward is chasing a KHL regular season scoring record and today he plundered three more points in his pursuit of Nikita Gusev’s 89 for Dynamo Moscow two years ago.
Anas tied the game late in the second, then combined with Alex Limoges as Vitaly Pinchuk made it 2-1 for the visitor at the start of the third. Sochi has scored twice in each of its games against Minsk this season, and kept up that record thanks to Pavel Dedunov’s tying goal in the 48th minute. But nothing could stop Dinamo claiming the win and opening a two-point gap over third placed Severstal. Anas moved to 80 points for the season with seven games to play after he assisted on Pinchuk’s second of the night.
Torpedo strikes late to beat Severstal
Severstal Cherepovets 1 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2 (1-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Denis Alexandrov’s late goal earned Torpedo a win at Severstal. The win keeps Alexei Isakov’s men on course for a top four finish in the head coach’s first season behind the bench in the KHL.
Severstal, meanwhile, has ambitions of topping the Western Conference. Victory today would have put Andrei Kozyrev’s team three points behind leader Lokomotiv.
The host looked well placed to achieve that when Adam Liska, back from his Olympic exertions with Slovakia, converted the first power play of the game in the seventh minute. Liska signed off with a goal in his previous KHL appearance on Jan. 30 and marked his return from Milan with his 17th marker of the season.
However, that early tally did not usher in a high-scoring game. Chances were at a premium in the first period, although Torpedo managed to tie the scores on 12 minutes thanks to Yegor Sokolov.
If there was little between the teams in the first period, the second was all about Denis Kostin in the visitor’s net. He stopped 16 shots as Severstal dominated proceedings but failed to take advantage. Instead, the game remained tied through 40 minutes.
And Kostin was the busier netminder in the third, although Torpedo managed to pose a few more questions of Alexander Samoilov at the other end. Certainly, it was against the run of play when Alexandrov snapped the 1-1 tie in the 56th minute. The defenseman stepped up from the point, exchanged passes with former Severstal favorite Igor Geraskin and rifled home from the left-hand circle to claim the points.
Karnaukhov crowns dramatic fightback for CSKA
CSKA Moscow 6 Shanghai Dragons 5 (3-4, 0-0, 2-1, 1-0)
A crazy game in Moscow saw Shanghai blow a 4-0 lead and bow out of playoff contention in dramatic fashion. CSKA’s victory means that the Dragons can no longer catch eighth-placed Spartak. The Red-and-Whites thus claim the eighth and last playoff spot from the Western Conference.
Yet that seemed an unlikely outcome after a blistering start from Mitch Love’s team. Aware that this was the last chance saloon, they opted to go down shooting. From Nick Merkley’s opener on 4:34 to Spencer Foo’s second of the game on 13:33, the visitor scored four times in less than nine minutes. CSKA seemed to be in disarray, allowing a shorthanded goal for Foo’s first and also seeing Kevin Labanc on target. It was no surprise that Alexander Samonov left the game after the fourth goal, replaced by Dmitry Gamzin.
But there was more to come before the intermission. As the hooter approached, Dmitry Buchelnikov and Denis Zernov scored two goals in 16 seconds to bring the game back to life. Vitaly Abramov added a third on 19:24 and suddenly this rollercoaster ride was back at the high point, ready to lurch crazily into a second period full of further goals.
Or not. Hockey is a fickle mistress and here feast was followed by famine. After seven goals from 21 shots in the first period, the second saw no further scoring.
But that proved to be a lull before the drama resumed. At the start of the third, a CSKA power play led to Zernov tying the game on 41:05. Now it was the Dragons’ turn to change goalies, with Dmitry Shikin – who played for Kunlun Red Star in 2020/2021 – making his first appearance of the season.
He got a relatively gentle introduction to the game as Pavel Karnaukhov talked his way into a double minor and Shanghai enjoyed a four-minute power play. That did not produce a goal, but the momentum moved in the visitor’s favor.
Then Shikin gathered an assist as Pavel Akolzin’s breakaway marker restored the Dragons’ lead midway through the frame. This time, CSKA replied quickly: Prokhor Poltapov’s fine work on the slot brought a good save from Shikin, but Nick Ebert was first to the rebound to pot his first goal since joining the Muscovites.
That sent us to overtime, which lasted just 21 seconds. Karnaukhov was first to the rebound from Ivan Drozdov’s shot and slotted the puck into the open corner of the net to win it for CSKA in breathless fashion.
