Metallurg wins Continental Cup. March 11 round-up

An overtime victory in Ufa, coupled with Lokomotiv’s defeat against Avtomobilist, means Metallurg will finish top of this season’s regular season standings. It’s the first time Magnitka has claimed top spot: in 2021/2022 the Steelmen topped the standings for points and ppg, but the regular season was not played to a finish after the Olympic break and the trophy was not awarded. Wednesday’s other action brought wins for Avangard, Severstal, CSKA, Dynamo Moscow and SKA.

Fiore treble shoots down Torpedo

Avangard Omsk 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (1-1, 1-0, 2-0)

The Hawks are approaching the end of their regular season home schedule, and look to be finishing in style. Guy Boucher’s team enjoyed a win over Torpedo thanks to Giovanni Fiore’s hat-trick.

The visiting offense was first to show but after a few early tests for Nikita Serebryakov, Avangard turned the game around. Nail Yakupov missed his team’s first clear chance but it wasn’t long before Fiore opened the scoring. He converted Konstantin Okulov’s feed from the behind the net in the eighth minute. Okulov was close to doubling the lead in his next shift, but Torpedo withstood the pressure. The visitor managed to tie the game when Yegor Sokolov stripped Artyom Blazhievsky off the puck and moved in on the net before finding the top corner.

The first period ended level and Torpedo was again the first to show after the intermission. However, despite several shots there was little serious danger for Serebryakov in the home net. The tide began to turn after Mike McLeod went close on a counterattack, but Denis Kostin made the save. However, the one-time Hawks prospect was beaten midway through the game when McLeod set up Fiore's second of the game.

At the other end, Alexei Kruchinin missed a great chance to tie it up again when he went clean through on Serebryakov but lost out to the goalie.

The visitor then spurned a power play chance early in the third – the fourth time Alexei Isakov’s men failed to take advantage of an extra skater. And that proved prophetic: in the final stages, Kostin made way for an extra skater twice, and Torpedo allowed two empty net goals. Fiore got the first to complete his hat-trick on 58:08, then he assisted as Okulov completed the scoring in the last minute. Avangard posted its 44th victory of the regular season, setting a new club record in the KHL era.

Vovchenko pots another trophy-winning goal

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 OT (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

Daniil Vovchenko’s OT goal clinched Metallurg’s first Continental Cup. In 2024, Vovchenko potted the Gagarin Cup-winning goal for Andrei Razin’s team; today he got the winner in Ufa to give Magnitka an unassailable lead at the top of the regular season standings.

This turned out to be a tight game. The first period saw Salavat Yulaev skating better without finding a way past Alexander Smolin in the visitor’s net. Imports Devin Brosseau and Jack Rodewald had good chances, Evgeny Kuznetsov conjured a chance out of nothing for Danil Alalykin, but both goalies dealt with everything that came their way.

In the second period, Metallurg thought it had the lead when the league’s leading goalscorer Roman Kantserov stuffed the puck home. However, Viktor Kozlov challenged the play – and rightly so as the forward knocked it out of Semyon Vyazovoi’s glove. However, that merely delayed Kantserov’s 34th of the season; the 21-year-old struck a few minutes later on a five-on-three power play.

But Ufa wasn’t the only team to face penalty trouble. The home team got a five-on-three situation of its own and Rodewald duly tied the game before the intermission. That ended a seven-game wait for a Salavat Yulaev power play goal.

There was no further scoring in regulation, although a lovely bit of play from Alalykin to release Kuznetsov drew applause from the home fans. At the other end, Andrei Kozlov was closest to a winner for Magnitka but the game went into overtime.

In the extras, Metallurg got on the power play and Razin called a time-out. His second special team delivered the win: Vovchenko’s powerful shot secured the win, and the silverware, for his team. 

Sprong leads Motormen past Lokomotiv

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 (1-1, 1-0, 2-0)

The clash of two in-form teams was settled by a red-hot forward. Avtomobilist claimed its seventh straight victory, snapping an eight-game streak for Lokomotiv. And Daniel Sprong had 3 (2+1) points as his productive run reached nine games and 9+7 points.

Both teams rested key forwards, with Avto’s Stephane da Costa and Loko’s Alexander Radulov rested. Initially, Lokomotiv seemed to cope better without one of its attacking fulcrums. The visitor made the brighter start and got in front when Maxim Shalunov beat Evgeny Alikin at the second attempt to convert a two-on-one rush in the 13th minute.

The tying goal came before the intermission and saw Sprong send Semyon Kizimov clear of the defense to beat Alexei Melnichuk in the 19th minute.

At the start of the second period, the Motormen got a five-on-three power play for almost two minutes. For a time, this produced little danger, but Nikolai Zavarukhin called a power play and found the right play for his team. Sprong got on the end of a passing combination to shoot home from the left-hand circle. In general this season Avtomobilist has been strong in middle frames and this one was no exception: the host had the better of the game and might have increased its lead before the break.

Lokomotiv made a better start to the third period, getting on the power play and created a good chance for Byron Froese. The visitor continued to enjoy a territorial advantage but struggled to cut through the home defense.

Nonetheless, Loko kept pushing and by the end of the game had almost eliminated any sign of Avtomobilist as an attacking force. Despite the pressure, too many shots went wide of the mark and the lead remained intact. With 2:14 on the clock, Bob Hartley called a time-out and began playing with an empty net. But there was no fightback. Instead, Maxim Denezhkin lofted the puck home from inside his own zone, then Sprong wrapped up the win with his second of the night. 

Lada Togliatti 1 Severstal Cherepovets 3 (1-1, 0-1, 0-1)

Adam Liska extended his hot streak to six games as Severstal moved back to second place in the Western Conference. Andrei Kozyrev’s team halted a three-game skid and made it four wins from four against Lada this season.

The home team, long eliminated from playoff contention, is looking to stay ahead of Sochi at the foot of the Western Conference. It also took the opportunity to hand defenseman Marat Kalimullin a KHL debut as thoughts turn to the future.

Lada made a good start and took the lead in the second minute through Ivan Savchik. But the host could not build on that and Severstal tied the scores through Daniil Kazulayev’s redirect in the 14th minute. His touch completely changed the path of Nikolai Burenov’s shot.

At the start of the second, Liska got his goal to put the visitor in front. A turnover in the Lada zone created the chance, and the Slovak center moved to 7 (4+3) in his last six games.

It wasn’t until the third period that Lada began to show some fight. However, the host’s extra activity did not lead to any serious work for visiting goalie Alexander Samoilov. The coup-de-grace came in the final minutes: on the power play, Lada played with an empty net but gave up possession and allowed Vladimir Grudinin to wrap up the win.

CSKA wins after two-week intermission

HC Sochi 1 CSKA Moscow 2 (0-0, 0-1, 1-1)

Igor Nikitin’s team boosted its chances of a top-four finish with a second win over Sochi in as many days. Although CSKA was notionally the visitor today, the game was played in Moscow following the postponement of the teams’ earlier encounter in Sochi on Feb. 23.

That game was halted at the first intermission with no score. Today it resumed at the start of the second period. After perhaps the longest intermission in hockey history, CSKA got in front after five minutes through Dmitry Samorukov. At the other end, Sochi struggled to get shots at Dmitry Gamzin in the Muscovites’ net, despite enjoying a four-minute power play after Oleg Maystrenko’s foul.

Things changed in the third period. A raid on Gamzin’s net ended with Fyodor Abramov tying the game in the 45th minute. With the game in the balance, scoring chances came around more frequently. However, Sochi spurned its power play midway through the session, and CSKA made the most of its numerical advantage in the closing stages as Denis Zernov potted the winning goal with 72 seconds left to play.

Muscovites battle past Dragons

Dynamo Moscow 4 Shanghai Dragons 2 (1-0, 1-2, 2-0)

A 4-2 win over the Dragons gives Dynamo some breathing space over eighth-placed Spartak as the Western Conference’s playoff contenders jockey for position in the final days of the regular season. The Blue-and-Whites are now three points clear of their cross-town rival and, based on the current standings, would face Severstal rather than runaway conference leader and defending champion Lokomotiv.

Shanghai, meanwhile, is no longer in playoff contention. After two games in China, preaching the hockey gospel in the franchise’s homeland, the Dragons welcomed back Spencer Foo from injury. But even a goal from the club’s longest serving current player could not prevent defeat at Dynamo.

The Muscovites got ahead in the first period: Semyon Der-Arguchintsev opened the scoring after 13 minutes. However, in a session of few chances, the Dragons were very much in the game.

The action livened up towards the end of the middle frame. Kevin Labanc drew Shanghai level in the 34th minute, but only briefly. Dynamo defenseman Daniil Pylenkov soon restored the home advantage, adding to the three assists he had against Dinamo Minsk last time out. But a Dragons power play saw Foo tie it up once again before the second intermission.

Dynamo got its big breakthrough in the 54th minute. A tiring Dragons D-core struggled to clear its lines. Igor Ozhiganov got possession at the point and while his play to the slot lacked venom, it had enough to reach Anton Slepyshev, who turned and fired home. And the Blue-and-Whites finished the job with five seconds to play when Maxim Mamin scored into an empty net.

Minsk fightback falls just short

SKA St. Petersburg 4 Dinamo Minsk 3 (3-0, 1-1, 0-2)

Down by four midway through this game, Dinamo Minsk gave SKA a big scare in the closing stages. But Igor Larionov’s team held its nerve to close out a 4-3 victory and remain in sixth place in the West.

Notably, Dinamo’s American forward Sam Anas had an assist on all three goals, moving to 85 points this season. The KHL’s scoring leader is just four shy of Nikita Gusev’s all-time record, with three games remaining in the regular season.

Before that, it was all about another highly productive partnership this season. Nikolai Goldobin and Sergei Plotnikov have combined effectively for SKA of late. Today, Plotnikov scored twice after he was presented with a medal for his 1,000th appearance in the KHL last week. Both of those were assisted by Goldobin and the former NHLer also contributed to Ivan Vydrenkov’s fifth-minute opener. Matvei Polyakov was the other SKA scorer with a power play goal in the first period.

But after dominating the first half of the game, SKA ran into trouble. Alex Limoges pulled a goal back for the visitor before the second intermission. Then he turned provider, combining with Anas on a power play goal for Vitaly Pinchuk midway through the third. Three minutes later, another PP saw Vadim Shipachyov score on his former club to make it a one-goal game. With six minutes to play, SKA was wobbling. Pinchuk almost snatched a tying goal 12 seconds from the end, but his effort flashed wide of the target. Relief for SKA, frustration from Dinamo which fell to a fourth straight loss and dropped to third behind Severstal.