Tigers stay in playoff hunt, Dynamo defeats league leader. March 1 round-up

Sunday’s action was all about the race for the Eastern playoffs. Amur moved to within five points of eighth-placed Sibir with a 3-2 win over Neftekhimik. Admiral defeated Salavat Yulaev 4-2, meaning the Ufa men must wait a little longer to clinch their place. At the other end of the standings, Eastern Conference leader Metallurg suffered a third straight loss, falling 1-4 at Dynamo. Third-placed Ak Bars took a 1-0 verdict from Chelyabinsk. In the West, Sochi thumped Torpedo 5-1 in a game disrupted by the threat of a drone attack, and Shanghai Dragons edged Lada 2-1.

Tigers keep up the pressure

Amur Khabarovsk 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 (0-1, 2-0, 1-1)

The Tigers gained ground in their pursuit of eighth-placed Sochi with victory in the opening game of their final home stand of the regular season. The upcoming games here against Neftekhimik, Salavat Yulaev (twice) and Barys could go a long way towards determining whether Alexander Andriyevsky’s team will continue its campaign into April.

Neftekhimik, currently seventh in the East, was without leading scorer Andrei Belozyorov. He joined Igor Grishin’s coaching staff for the day, while Joey

Duszak, notionally a defenseman, was deployed on the third offensive line.

The visitor found things tough at the start and had to kill six minutes of penalties. However, when the Wolves stayed out of the box, they looked impressive. In the 14th minute, Neftekhimik got in front after a strong forecheck created an opportunity for Evgeny Mityakin to score.

At the other end, Filipp Dolganov made some big saves in the Neftekhimik net. However, he also picked up a penalty late in the frame, and that power play brought a tying goal at the start of the middle stanza. Grigory Kuzmin redirected Yaroslav Likhachyov’s shot into the net; Likhachyov moved to 15 (6+9) points in his last 11 games. And the home team continued to enjoy the initiative, earning a deserved lead in the 29th minute when Alex Broadhurst finished a well-worked play.

In the 54th minute Kuzmin potted his second of the game with a one-timer off Alexander Filatyev’s feed. That gave the home team some breathing space – and it needed it! With three to play, Neftekhimik moved to six skaters and Matvei Zaseda pulled a goal back. Zaseda only recently moved from Khabarovsk to Nizhnekamsk, and scored on his former colleagues on his first return to the Platinum Arena.

Amur then took a too many men penalty, inviting more pressure from Neftekhimik in the closing moments. But the home team held on to make it four wins from five. The gap to Sibir is down to five points, and the Tigers have a game in hand on their rival.

Sailors stay alive in playoff race

Admiral Vladivostok 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 (1-0, 0-2, 3-0)

Sunday’s victory preserved Admiral’s theoretical chance of making this year’s playoffs. Defeat in regulation would have eliminated the Sailors, but a 4-2 success reduced the gap from the Eastern basement to eighth-placed Sibir to 15 points. True, with just eight games and 16 points left, it would take an astonishing sequence of results to bring post-season play to Vladivostok this year, but the last rites have yet to be read.

In a similar vein, Salavat Yulaev missed a chance to secure its own top eight spot. Viktor Kozlov’s team remains fifth in the standings, but its 13-point gap over Amur is still theoretically bridgeable.

The visitor welcomed back Evgeny Kuznetsov, who missed the visit of Traktor with a slight knock. He centered Yegor Suchkov and Alexander Zharovsky again, with Danil Alalykin dropping to the third line.

And Kuznetsov’s line posed problems for Adam Huska in the home net from the opening exchanges. However, Zharovsky and Suchkov could not finish their opportunities and Salavat Yulaev was punished midway through the session when Arkady Shestakov put the home team in front.

Shestakov had a good chance for a second early in the middle frame when Stepan Starkov set him up nicely, only for Semyon Vyazovoi to read the situation and make the save. However, much of the second stanza was dictated by Salavat Yulaev. The visitor had 20 shots on goal in the session, helped by a five-on-three power play that brought pressure but no reward. Late in the period, Vladislav Yefremov and Alexei Vasilevsky scored twice in the space of half a minute, turning the game around before the intermission.

Admiral had a couple of power play chances at the start of the third. The first amounted to little, but the second saw Oskar Bulavchuk steer an Alexander Shepelev shot into the net in the 49th minute. The 22-year-old stretched his productive run to four games (3+1 points). Inspired, the Sailors went on to regain the lead thanks to scoring leader Libor Sulak in the 54th minute. The Czech defenseman claimed his 12th goal of the season.

After that, the clock was working in the home team’s favor. Salavat Yulaev tried to unleash one last surge but allowed an empty net goal for Dmitry Zavgorodny to seal a 4-2 win.

Lone goal sinks Traktor

Traktor Chelyabinsk 0 Ak Bars Kazan 1 (0-0, 0-0, 0-1)

A solitary goal from Alexander Barabanov proved sufficient for Ak Bars to win at Traktor. The captain’s marker, plus 24 saves in a joint effort from Maxim Arefyev and Timur Bilyalov, saw Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men end a run of three shoot-out losses. Ak Bars remains third in the East but closes to within two points of Avangard.

Unusually, the first period saw both teams replace their goalies – despite neither side managing to score. Sergei Mylnikov was the first to bow out, injured in the fifth minute and replaced by Ilya Nikolayev. At the other end, Maxim Arefyev had to replace Timur Bilyalov in the 13th minute. Arefyev was plunged straight into a penalty kill as Bilyalov’s departure coincided with the only power play of the opening frame. However, while Traktor generated plenty of offense with the extra skater, it could not solve the incoming netminder.

Power plays offered the home team its best chances in the second period as well. Mikhail Grigorenko was closest to a breakthrough when he hit the crossbar. At the other end, Ak Bars got its first opportunity on the PP but was also unable to score. Traktor whipped up a storm towards the end of the session, but the teams remained deadlocked through 40 minutes.

The opening goal finally arrived in the 49th minute. Barabanov was alert in front of Ivanov’s net and potted the rebound from Kirill Semyonov’s shot. That goal came on the visitor’s second and final power play of the game and it proved to be decisive.

Leopards win amid air-raid warnings

HC Sochi 5 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (1-0, 0-0, 4-0)

For the second time this week, a game in Sochi was disrupted due to the threat of an air raid. Sunday’s meeting between the Leopards and Torpedo was halted early in the third period amid fears of a drone attack in the vicinity of the Bolshoi Arena.

However, after a two-hour delay, the game was able to resume – unlike the scheduled football match between Sochi and Spartak Moscow at the nearby Fisht Arena.

Sochi took a first-period lead thanks to a power play goal from Will Bitten in the 15th minute. The home team held that lead through two periods, but came under increasing pressure.

Torpedo tied the game early in the third period. Alexei Kruchinin produced a fantastic pass out of the corner to set up Shane Prince at the back door, and he rifled home to make it 1-1.

Soon after, the game had to be halted for safety reasons. On Monday, Sochi’s game against CSKA faced similar problems and had to be postponed. It was rearranged for March 11 in Moscow.

But today the teams were able to continue. Soon after the restart, the Leopards got a power play and Timur Khafizov restored the home lead. Within a minute Max Ellis made it 3-1. And there was another quickfire double at the end with Khafizov potting an empty netter then assisting as Sergei Popov completed the scoring to halt a run of five losses.

Foo on form in rare Dragons win

Lada Togliatti 1 Shanghai Dragons 2 (0-2, 0-0, 1-0)

This battle between two teams outside the Western playoff spots came too late to save Shanghai’s post season hopes. But Mitch Love’s men managed a rare victory – their fourth in 14 games since the Canadian replaced Gerard Gallant – and Spencer Foo maintained his run of form.

Foo, who scored twice in the crazy 5-6 OT loss at CSKA on Friday, had two assists here. He’s now on a four-game productive streak worth 6 (4+2) points. On both occasions he combined with Nikita Popugayev to create scoring chances: first, Will Reilly broke the deadlock in the fifth minute; later Riley Sutter made it 2-0 midway through the first period. For Popugayev, these were his first points of 2026, having previously scored on SKA back on Dec. 30.

Those two goals proved sufficient to win the game. However, Lada produced a big offensive effort in the second and third periods, outshooting the Dragons 25-7 through the latter two sessions. Alex Cotton hit the post early in the third, and that might have sparked a successful fightback. Instead, Dmitry Shikin kept his goal intact until the 58th minute when Nikita Setdikov managed a consolation effort.

League leader falls in Moscow

Dynamo Moscow 4 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 (1-0, 1-1, 2-0)

Victory over the KHL leader moved Dynamo up to sixth place in the Western Conference. Magnitka, which looks likely to be the top seed going into the playoffs, fell to a third successive loss but still holds an eight-point lead of Lokomotiv in the overall standings.

The teams made lively start to the game, and Dynamo opened the scoring on the first power play of the night. Metallurg was assessed a too many men minor, and Yegor Rimashevsky took advantage. Daniil Pylenkov started the move, switching the play out left to Nikita Gusev. He drilled the puck to the center, where Rimashevsky struggled to make a clean contact but still steered it into the net.

After that, Metallurg had two power plays in quick succession. That saw the visitor get ahead in shot on goal, but did not bring an equalizer before the first intermission.

The tying goal came in the 28th minute after Metallurg enjoyed a long spell of pressure on Maxim Motorygin’s net. The visitor moved the puck around nicely, waiting for the shooting lane to open. And when Makar Khabarov played a pass along the blue line for Valery Orekhov, the Kazakh international defenseman launched a monster of a shot into the top corner.

But Magnitka’s relief was short-lived as Dynamo regained the lead within a minute. The Blue-and-Whites prevented Metallurg from clearing its lines and Magomed Sharakanov dished off a pass for Max Comtois to score from the right-hand circle.

Comtois was also a factor in the third goal, although his name doesn’t appear on the scoresheet for this one. But the Canadian’s presence at the back door forced Daniil Vovchenko to get his stick down for an attempted intercept, only to steer Anton Slepyshev’s intended pass through Ilya Nabokov’s pads.

That came shortly after the Muscovites killed a double minor penalty. Making it 3-1 midway through the third period effectively put the game beyond Metallurg. Motorygin still had some saves to make in the closing stages, and the last of them dropped to his team-mate Ansel Galimov. A turn and shot from his own slot brought a spectacular empty net goal to wrap up Dynamo’s second win over Metallurg this season.