Late drama at Sibir and Dynamo. September 24 round-up

Three of Thursday’s five games went beyond 60 minutes. The first on the card saw a last-gasp equalizer from Ak Bars before the Tatars took a shoot-out verdict at Sibir. In Moscow, Avangard beat Spartak after a 1-1 tie, while across town a last-minute Maxim Letunov goal set up Dynamo for an OT win against Dinamo Minsk. Severstal beat Avtomobilist in regulation, two goals from Nikita Popugayev pacing a 5-2 verdict, and Torpedo eased to a shut-out win over Sochi.

Denisenko saves Ak Bars

Sibir Novosibirsk 2 Ak Bars Kazan 3 SO (1-1, 1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)

There was late drama in Novosibirsk as Ak Bars snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. A tying goal from Grigory Denisenko of 58:39 saved the visitor before Kirill Semyonov went on to pot the shoot-out winner.

The teams were meeting for the second time this season and the first also went to a shoot-out. On that occasion Sibir blew a 3-1 lead in Kazan before losing. Two Sibir scorers, Taylor Beck and Evgeny Kuznetsov, were absent today, while there were debuts for ex-Torpedo man Alexander Yaremchuk and Ivan Vorobyov, called up from the VHL.

For Ak Bars, Anvar Gatiyatulin recalled Nikita Dynyak and Stepan Terekhov, who both missed the Lada game. There was also a KHL debut for 19-year-old defenseman Andrei Dulnikov.

Sibir made a bright start with Daniil Valitov hitting the post early and the Kosolapov-Abramov-Koshelev keeping the visitor pegged back in its zone. The pressure paid off when Yaremchuk set up Sergei Popov on the slot.

Ak Bars got back into the game, helped by a couple of penalties on Pavel Tyutnev. The second of these saw Grigorenko find the net with a powerful shot past his former Kazan team mate Mikhail Berdin in the 17th minute.

At the start of the second period the teams battled for the upper hand. Mikhail Abramov got one on one with Timur Bilyalov but fired wide of the Ak Bars net, while Yegor Sokolov and Alexei Byvaltsev launched a dangerous counter, only to be denied by the frame of the net.

The breakthrough came after 35 minutes. Mikhail Orlov, back on the team for only the third game of the season after he was scratched following game two, found space at the back door. Stepan Nikulin’s diagonal picked him out and he sent Sibir into the intermission with a 2-1 lead.

For much of the third it looked as though Sibir would close out the win. However, that late Denisenko game denied the home team and, after a goalless period of overtime, Semyonov delivered the only successful penalty shot to sent the host to a second tight loss of the season against Ak Bars.

Popugayev, Yan at the double for Severstal

Severstal Cherepovets 5 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2 (1-1, 2-0, 2-1)

A second successive win for Severstal added to Avtomobilist’s early-season problems. The home team looks to have fixed its scoring problems after notching nine goals in two games after firing blanks for three in a row. But the visitor suffered  fourth straight loss despite taking an early lead.

That opening goal came after four minutes as Canadian defenseman Kale Clague got his first of the season. But the lead lasted less than a minute before Denis Yan’s fourth of the season tied the game.

The opening period was evenly matched and the teams were level at the intermission. However, Severstal got on top in the middle frame. Danil Veryayev made it 2-1 53 seconds after the restart. In a session with far fewer scoring chances, Nikita Popugayev increased the lead moments before the intermission.

Popugayev’s arrival from Shanghai Dragons seems to have galvanized the Lynx offense. That was his second goal in three games after joining Severstal, and he added a third into an empty net late on. Before that, Alexander Kadeikin’s goal midway through the third gave Avtomobilist hope of recovery. The visitor dominated the final stanza and Alexander Samoilov made 12 saves to preserve his team’s lead.

However, in the closing stages Severstal made it safe. Popugayev’s empty netter was followed by another from Yan to complete a comfortable win for Andrei Kozyrev’s team.

Torpedo up to second in West after blanking Sochi

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 HC Sochi 0 (0-0, 1-0, 2-0)

Sochi suffered a sixth defeat in seven games after failing to score at the VOLGA Arena. Dmitry Shugayev recorded Torpedo’s first shut-out in its new home as Alexei Isakov’s team moved to four wins from five.

It was a dominant performance from the off for the home team. In the first period, only Pyotr Andreyanov stood between Sochi and a substantial deficit. Outshot 12-4, the visitor relied on the young goalie to keep the game goalless through 20 minutes.

In the second period, the Leopards at least managed to generate some work for Shugayev, helped by three power plays. But the only goal of the session came at the other end. Andreyanov’s resistance ended in the 30th minute when Viktor Foyodorov beat him.

Torpedo continued to dominate in the third. Yegor Vinogradov added a second goal midway through the session, and Daniil Seroukh’s assist took his productive streak to five games (7+1). Sergei Goncharuk added a third as the home team climbed to second in the Western Conference.

Shafigulin’s first of season gives Dynamo the edge

Dynamo Moscow 4 Dinamo Minsk 3 OT (1-2, 1-0, 1-1, 1-0)

The second meeting of these teams produced another close encounter. On Sep. 12, the Muscovites won the first game in a shoot-out after a 2-2 tie. Today, the teams were again level after three periods, this at 3-3. And, once again, the home team came out on top, winning on a Bulat Shafigullin goal in overtime.

Dynamo Moscow got off to a great start, taking the lead inside 90 seconds. Minsk was caught napping when Maxim Letunov fired in a shot off the board. Vasily Demchenko parried the puck straight to Magomed Sharakanov, who banged in the opening goal.

That lead lasted late into the period, but the Bison turned it around just before the intermission. Dinamo converted its second power play of the game with defenseman Ty Smith scoring his first goal of the season. That extends the 26-year-old Canadian’s effective start: he had at least one assist in each game before today.

Nikita Korostelyov tested Demchenko at the other end almost immediately, but it would be Minsk that took a lead to the intermission. In the 18th minute, Rhett Gardner dished off a great feed into Stanislav Galiyev’s path. Galiyev took the puck and wired a shot to the top shelf, giving Vladislav Podyapolsky no chance.

When the teams met at the start of the season, the first minute brought a major brawl as players settled scores following a warm-up game that left Nicolas Meloche injured. Today, too, there was simmering tension between both sets of players. Midway through the second, it boiled over after Timofei Kovgorenya’s cross check on the home team’s Andrei Nikonov. The pair sized each other up without quite coming to blows; the visitor was assessed a double minor for roughing and Dynamo had a four-minute power play.

That chance did not deliver, but a minute after Kovgorenya’s return we saw a spell of four-on-four play behind after two separate cross-checks on the same play. The extra space on the ice helped the home team, and Daniil Pylenkov strode onto Dylan Sikura’s pass before shooting past Demchenko.

In a game full of minor penalties – the teams shared 28 minutes evenly between them – it was fitting that Dinamo’s go-ahead goal in the third came with a man advantage. Vladimir Alistrov, back with the Belarusians after leaving Ak Bars, scored on the Muscovites for the second time in as many games. But that wasn’t enough to win it: a power play late in the game saw the home team play six-on-four. It didn’t produce a power play goal, but the momentum kept rolling after Sergei Kalinin returned to the ice, and Letunov’s sharp reactions in front of the net sent the game to overtime.

In the extras, Dynamo again failed to convert a power play. But in the last minute of the session, the home team got its winner. Pavel Shen surged down the right and dished off a pass across the front of the net for Shafilgulin to convert at the back door. The Muscovites snapped a two-game skid, Minsk suffered a first loss in three.

Gulyayev shoots down Spartak in OT

Spartak Moscow 1 Avangard Omsk 2 OT (0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 0-1)

The Hawks snapped a three-game skid with a hard-fought win at Spartak. The Red-and-Whites climbed the table on the back of a five-game hot streak, but have now lost two in a row.

The first period was unlikely to live long in anyone’s memory. Play was often bogged down in center ice, with scoring chances and even goal attempts at a minimum. A shot count of 5-3 for Spartak told its own story.

After the intermission, the home team picked up the pace. Suddenly there was more attacking play from the Red-and-Whites. However, while the shots began to pick up, few of them were genuinely threatening. For the most part, Avangard kept the host to the perimeter.

A clash involving Spartak’s Alexander Belyayev and Avangard’s Joseph Ceccone raised temperatures a little midway through the session, but it wasn’t until the closing minutes that the deadlock was finally broken. Against the run of play, the Hawks grabbed the lead: Stepan Starikov fired in a shot from the blue line and the puck bounced into the path of Yegor Afansyev on the slot for his second goal of the season.

Spartak tied the game midway through the third on a power play goal. Artyom Ilyenko sat for holding and the Red-and-Whites took advantage. German Rubtsov went around the net to set up Belyayev in front and the forward notched his sixth of the season, beating Ivan Prosvetov from close range.

That goal sent the game to overtime, but the extras did not last long. Andrew Poturalski darted around the Spartak net to set up young defenseman Mikhail Gulyayev, who picked out the top corner for his first goal of the season.