Neftekhimik tops the East, Loko stays in front in the West. September 27 round-up

A big weekend for Neftekhimik brought two wins in two days, lifting Igor Grishin’s men to the top of the Eastern Conference thanks to Sunday’s 5-3 win at Admiral. In the West, the top two picked up road wins: Lokomotiv edged a 2-1 verdict at Sibir, while SKA hit five at Barys.

Sailors sunk after leading by two

Admiral Vladivostok 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 5 (2-0, 0-3, 1-2)

Neftekhimik hit the top of the Eastern Conference thanks to Sunday’s win at Admiral. The Wolves faced a tough schedule to get to this game: Friday’s visit to Barys was postponed, and the team flew directly from Astana to Vladivostok to play the Sailors less than 24 hours after a 6-3 win in Kazakhstan.

The home team welcomed back defenseman Mario Grman and forward Kyle Olsen, with both imports making their first appearances of the season. Neftekhimik restored Filipp Dolganov in goal and recalled D-man Tim Lovell and forward Matvei Zaseda.

The teams made a steady start, until Admiral grabbed an eighth-minute lead. Yegor Chezganov finished a well-worked play. Two minutes later, it was 2-0: Ilya Morozov claimed his first goal in the KHL since 2024, but had a slice of good fortune as the puck deflected off an opponent on its way to the net. Overall, though, the Sailors were good value for the lead, outshooting Neftekhimik 19-5 through 20 minutes.

If the visitor seemed travel sick in the opening stanza, it recovered after the intermission to turn the game around. Neftekhimik’s power play ranked third in the league so far this season (31% success rate), and Damir Zhafyarov continued that solid return when he pulled a goal back in the 24th minute. The forward has four goals in his last three games, plus two assists.

It wasn’t long before Igor Grishin’s team was level: Matvei Nadvorny got the crucial touch to Maxim Fedotov’s shot and steered the puck beyond Nikita Boyarkin. Admiral hit the post in reply, but then ran into more penalty trouble. After killing a major, the home team was undone by Neftekhimik’s scoring leader Andrei Belozyorov after 38 minutes.

The visiting captain struck again midway through the third as Neftekhimik turned a two-goal deficit into a two-goal advantage. The game wasn’t quite done: Ivan Muranov’s first goal of the season handed the Sailors lifeline in the 59th minute, but Alexander Petunin ripped that hope away with an empty-netter to seal a 5-3 scoreline.

Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 (0-1, 1-0, 0-1)

For the second time in four games, Lokomotiv made big changes in response to defeat and bounced back immediately with a narrow road win.

Today, Dmitry Kvartalnov reshuffled every line following the 1-3 loss at Amur on Friday and handed Danill Tesanov his first game of the season on the fourth line.

Sibir, beaten by Ak Bars in a shoot-out, also made changes. Yaroslavl graduate Anton Krasotkin started in goal, facing his hometown team for the first time since 2021. Taylor Beck returned after missing two games through injury, but there was no return for Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Although Krasotkin was facing some players who had played with him in youth hockey, he was beaten by one of Lokomotiv’s imports. Giovanni Fiore, who joined from Avangard in the summer, got joy on the slot, proving too strong for Darren Dietz and Nikita Smirnov as he opened the scoring after 12 minutes. Krasotkin then made a big save to deny Maxim Shalunov a power play goal.

At the other end, another former Lokomotiv man, Stepan Nikulin, was twice close to scoring for Sibir. He fired narrowly wide in the early exchanges and later hit the crossbar against his former colleagues.

Nikulin & Co spent much of the second period pressed back into their own zone. Sibir spent the first 10 minutes or so working hard, blocking shots and trying to stay in the game. The home team did a good job, keeping Lokomotiv to the perimeter and depriving the visiting offense of big scoring chances.

Meanwhile, when the host managed a rare foray forward, it did so with intent. Beck had a goal whistled off for handling the puck, but a couple of penalties followed and the momentum shifted. Even a power play for the visitor could not change the flow and Alexander Yaremchuk punished Rushan Rafikov’s error to pot a shorthanded goal just before the intermission.

Early in the third, Krasotkin was alert once again to deny Tesanov from close range. However, the goalie was beaten later in the same shift when Nikita Kiryanov redirected Alexander Yelesin’s point shot into the net. The forward claimed his first goal of the season on 41:29 and it proved to be the game-winner. Loko killed two more penalties to close out the victory.

Glotov’s double lifts SKA to victory

Barys Astana 3 SKA St. Petersburg 5 (0-3, 2-2, 1-0)

Like Neftekhimik, Barys was playing its second game in as many days. Unlike Neftekhimik, it was unable to celebrate a victory this weekend.

Saturday’s game in Astana saw the visitor open a big lead before Mikhail Kravets’ team got it powerful offense up and running; today followed a similar pattern as SKA took control in the first period.

Zakhar Bardakov, back in the visitor’s team for the first time since opening night, got his first goal of the season after just 56 seconds. That set the tone. Bardakov jumped out of the penalty box in the seventh minute to set up a goal for Sergei Plotnikov and double SKA’s lead. And Plotnikov struck again in the 16th minute, making 3-0 after a strong forecheck and yet another assist from the team’s creative fulcrum Nikolai Goldobin. After that, there was more trouble for the host when Asanali Sarkenov was assessed a cross-checking major.

SKA began the second period on the power play but could not take advantage, and Barys struck after returning to full strength. Arseny Pleshkov could not hold a shot from Damir Britikov, and Vsevolod Logvin pounced on the rebound to make it 1-3.

Midway through the game, a flurry of three goals in as many minutes tightened SKA’s grip. Vasily Glotov scored his team’s fourth, chasing Hunter Shepard from his net. Then he beat incoming goalie Andrei Shutov with a shorthanded goal after Goldobin was penalized. Barys did gain some reward from the power play, though, with Logvin potting his second of the game in the 34th minute.

Yesterday, Barys trailed 0-5 at the start of the third but still managed to threaten a fightback before falling 3-6 against Neftekhimik. Today the Kazakhs could not repeat a fast start to the final frame, but ruffled some SKA feathers when Semyon Simonov made it 3-5 midway through the session.

After that, the home team pushed forward in search of more goals, while SKA generated some dangerous counterplays. Simonov was close to his second of the night when he hit the post in the last minute, but there was no further scoring as the visitor secured a fourth straight win to remain two points behind Lokomotiv at the top of the Western Conference.