Spartak beats CSKA in Moscow derby, Hawks misfire in opener. September 7 round-up

Two of the pre-season favorites began their seasons with home losses on Monday. Avangard suffered a 0-4 shocker against Salavat Yulaev, before Spartak took a 3-2 verdict away from CSKA in the capital. Three more teams join Salavat on two wins: Torpedo and Ak Bars beat Dinamo Minsk and Admiral respectively; SKA held on to beat Dynamo Moscow. Barys started with a flourish, thrashing Sibir 7-1, Traktor bounced back to win at Avtomobilist and Severstal edged a 1-0 verdict at home to Lada.

Vyazovoi blanks Hawks

Avangard Omsk 0 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 (0-0, 0-2, 0-2)

Opening night in Omsk did not go according to plan. Avangard fired in 40 shots at Semyon Vyazovoi but failed to beat the Salavat Yulaev goalie and fell to a 0-4 loss.

The Hawks gave a debut to Josh Leivo, whose prolific KHL career began in Ufa. He was one of several home forwards to test Vyazovoi in a goalless first period which also saw Gleb Burlaka, Stepan Starikov and Nail Yakupov going close.

Those misses would prove costly. Salavat Yulaev bided its time and got in front midway through the second period. Jack Rodewald, who scored twice in an opening-day win at Severstal, converted a power play in 33rd minute after Alexander Alexeyev’s point shot dropped to him in front of Nikita Serebryakov’s net. Teenage defenseman Nikita Shcherbakov doubled the lead before the intermission, scoring his first in the KHL off Alexander Zharovsky’s feed.

Once in front, Ufa defended effectively. The visiting players skated well and kept their shape to frustrate Avangard, then killed the game with two goals in the 57th minute. Vadim Shipachyov got his first for his new club before Yaroslav Tsulygin’s empty-netter wrapped up a comfortable scoreline. 

Legare earns Traktor’s first win

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 OT (0-2, 1-1, 2-0, 0-1)

Traktor bounced back from a heavy opening loss at Lokomotiv to claim an overtime win at Avtomobilist. The home team, which started by beating Dynamo Moscow, recovered from 0-2 and 1-3 to tie 3-3 in regulation, but fell to Nathan Legare’s marker.

It was a big result for Scott Gordon. Traktor’s incoming head coach saw some indifferent results in pre-season and faced more questions after the 1-5 reverse in Yaroslavl. He responded by choosing goalie Dmitry Nikolayev over Henrik Haukeland and naming Andrei Svetlakov as captain. Alexei Kudashov left Avtomobilist unchanged after the 2-1 verdict over Dynamo.

The visitor got off to a flying, if slightly fortuitous start. In the first shift, Borus Katchouk burst into the Avto zone and looked to fire the puck across the front of the net. Home goalie Evgeny Alikin completely misread it and contrived to steer it into his own net giving Traktor the lead after just 26 seconds. Then, after six minutes, Mikhail Rolgizer doubled the lead off Kirill Vorobyov’s feed. Only the post denied Rolgizer a second before the intermission.

Avtomobilist responded at the start of the second when Anatoly Golyshev redirected Yaroslav Busygin’s shot into the net to halve the deficit. However, Traktor regained a two-goal lead late in the frame when Grigory Dronov’s shot beat Alikin through traffic.

In the third period, the Motormen managed to turn the game around. Daniel Sprong got one back, scoring at the second attempt after his first effort was blocked. Then the Dutchman launched an attack that ended in Golyshev tying the game with his second of the night. Alexander Sharov completed a hat-trick of assists on that play to take us into overtime. The extras got off to a cautious start, but Traktor bagged the winner after Legare’s effort deceived Alikin to settle the first Ural derby of the season.

Flying start for Kazakhs

Barys Astana 7 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (1-0, 5-0, 1-1)

A clinical second period show powered Barys to the biggest win of the season so far as Sibir suffered a nightmare in Kazakhstan.

Oddly, most of the stats for this game were even: Sibir led the shot count 29-27, Barys edged O-zone possession by just seven seconds, 11:05 vs 10:58. But a spectacular second period saw the home team score five goals on eight shots to build an unassailable lead.

Barys was good value for a 1-0 lead at the intermission, with Vsevolod Logvin opening the scoring after 12 minutes. But there was no hint of the carnage to come.

Even after Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan doubled the lead in the 25th minute, the contest felt very much alive. Sibir had a power play soon after, but could not reduce the deficit.

Then the floodgates opened. Justin Bailey potted his first in the KHL midway through the game, and three minutes later Semyon Simonov converted Barys’s first and only power play of the night. That chased starting goalie Mikhail Berdin from Sibir’s net, with 21-year-old Denis Gabdrakhmanov stepping in for his KHL debut.

He didn’t get off to a great start, beaten by Chase Priskie within three minutes of joining the game. Then Bailey potted his second of the night, with an assist from new Barys goalie Hunter Shepard, to make it 6-0 at the second intermission.

Berdin returned for the third period, and Garrett Pilon added a seventh. Bailey’s assist took him to three point, a tally matched by Simonov and Logvin (both 1+2). Daniil Valitov managed a consolation effort for Sibir in the 54th minute but by then the game was long gone.

Ivantsov gives Severstal the W

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

A short-handed goal from Ilya Ivantsov and 19 saves from Alexander Samoilov earned Severstal its first victory of the season.

After dropping a 2-3 verdict at home to Salavat Yulaev in Saturday’s opener, Andrei Kozyrev’s team bounced back to hand Lada a second narrow loss in as many games.

The only goal came midway through the first period as Lada’s first power play of the game went awry. Vladimir Grudinin’s clearance should have been straightforward for visiting goalie Nikita Podskrebalin, but he got into a tangle beyond his goalline and Alexander Skorenov won possession before setting up Ivantsov from close range.

That proved to be the only goal of the night, although Severstal had the better of the play throughout the game. Podskrebalin stopped a further 32 attempts, and his team-mates blocked 12 shots to keep the contest alive. At the other end, Lada was unable to create enough to threaten Severstal. 

Shoot-out success makes it 2-for-2 for Torpedo

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

Torpedo made it two wins from two after recovering from 1-3 to beat Dinamo Minsk in a shoot-out.

The Belarusians were playing their first game of the new season, and it seemed that everything was going well for head coach Sergei Brylin in his first competitive engagement behind the bench. The home team recovered from an early setback when Anton Sizov put Torpedo in front, and tied the scores midway through the first period on a goal from Chris Tierney.

And things got better for the Bison with a couple of quick tallies at the start of the second. Barely a minute separated goals from Sergei Kalinin and Maxim Maltsev as Minsk seemed to take control.

But Torpedo, 1-0 winners at Spartak on Saturday, soon pulled one back through Daniil Zhuravlyov. Then the third period saw a tying goal from Nikita Kamalov on the power play. Torpedo had a chance to win it late on when Josh Brook went to the box, but Dinamo’s PK did its job to take the game to overtime.

The extras could not produce a winner, but in the shoot-out Denis Kostin saved all three Minsk attempts, while Mikhail Vorobyov was on target at the other end to win it for the visitor.

Spartak takes first Moscow derby

CSKA Moscow 2 Spartak Moscow 3 (1-1, 1-1, 0-1)

Max Comtois’s goal gave Spartak its first win of the season as Alexei Zhamnov’s men celebrated victory over Moscow rival CSKA.

The first Moscow derby of the season saw highly fancied CSKA take on a Spartak team beaten in Saturday’s opening game. But the Red-and-Whites bounced back, handing Igor Nikitin’s men a reminder that reputation and expectation won’t be enough to deliver the anticipated results.

The home team made a bright start to the game and converted its first power play of the season midway through the first period. Danil Pivchukin sat for tripping, and 30 seconds later Dmitry Buchelnikov converted Nikolai Kovalenko’s feed from the end board.

Spartak failed to score on Torpedo in its first game, but put that right in the 15th minute. Ilya Kotlyarov, a 19-year-old forward making his KHL debut, found the night just as Nikita Nesterov left the penalty box.

Christian Jaros assisted on that goal, and the Slovak put Spartak ahead early in the second period. Kotlyarov played a part here, generating the traffic that distracted Dmitry Gamzin as the defenseman’s shot came in. And the Red-and-Whites had the better of the play in the middle frame, only to pegged back as the intermission approached. Maxim Sorkin got the finishing touch to Yegor Zamula’s effort and sent the teams to the second intermission locked at 2-2.

CSKA carried that momentum into the third period and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession. However, there was no way past Ivan Fedotov as faced his former team-mates. And, as the game moved into its closing stages, a quick counterattack saw Comtois pot the rebound after Mikhail Maltsev’s shot was blocked.

Spartak still had to kill a penalty in the remaining minutes, but survived that scare and closed out the win.

SKA rallies from 0-2 to beat Dynamo

SKA St. Petersburg 5 Dynamo Moscow 3 (0-1, 3-1, 2-1)

Dynamo is still seeking its first win of the season after blowing a 2-0 lead in St. Petersburg. Two goals in 15 seconds late in the second period turned this game around as SKA made two from two at the start of the campaign.

The visitor, beaten 2-1 at Avtomobilist on Saturday, made a strong start to the game. Dominant play in the first period brought a goal from Nick Merkley, and really the Blue-and-Whites should have taken a greater lead.

At the start of the second, Yegor Rimashevsky doubled the advantage on the power play, but SKA got on the comeback trail. Andrei Pedan halved the deficit before everything changed in the 38th minute. Pedan tied it up with a powerful shot through traffic, then a penalty on Nikita Novikov saw SKA’s power play click within seconds. Nikolai Goldobin’s pass off the boards found Sergei Plotnikov, and he wired a shot to the top shelf.

Another home power play early in the third saw Vasily Atanasov make it 4-2. Dynamo dug deep and found a response when Rimashevsky got his second of the game with eight to play. It made for a tense finale, but Plotnikov completed a double of his own in the last minute after Maxim Motorygin made way for a sixth Dynamo skater.

Bilyalov starts season with a shut-out

Ak Bars Kazan 2 Admiral Vladivostok 0 (0-0, 1-0, 1-0)

It’s two wins from two for Ak Bars thanks to a shut-out success over Admiral. This proved to be a fairly comfortable success against the Sailors, who managed just 15 shots in their first game of the season.

That ensured a fairly straightforward evening for Timur Bilyalov on his first appearance of the season. He was preferred to Arefyev, who backstopped Saturday’s 4-3 shoot-out verdict over Sibir.

However, pre-season concerns about the Kazan offense remain. The home team controlled the first period without finding a way past Ivan Kulbakov in the Admiral net. He made 13 saves in that opening frame and continued to resist deep into the second.

The breakthrough finally came on 39:39, when Ak Bars converted its second power play of the night. Grigory Denisenko exchanged passes with Alexei Marchenko before crashing home a shot from the left-hand circle.

Little from the balance of play suggested that Admiral would find a way back, but Ak Bars was still unable to finish off a resilient opponent. Despite the home team’s advantage, the game remained live until the last minute when Artyom Galimov’s empty-netter finished it off.