Seventh heaven for Magnitka, 10 straight for CSKA. October 9 round-up

A derby win at Dynamo made it 10 successive wins for CSKA, lifting Igor Nikitin’s team to the top of the standings. The Muscovites are a point clear of Metallurg, who thrashing Salavat Yulaev 7-1 with Luke Johnson collecting five points. Spartak won 2-0 at Sochi, where even Nikita Gusev can’t breathe life into the Leopards’ offense.

Johnson stars in record win

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 7 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 (4-0, 2-1, 1-0)

Five points from Luke Johnson helped Metallurg to a crushing victory over Salavat Yulaev. The home team was up 3-0 after 3:33 of the first period and went on to record its biggest win over Ufa in the KHL era.

The visitor’s problems started before the game, with Danil Alalykin injured while scoring the winning goal at Sibir in the previous game and leading defenseman Alexander Alexeyev also missing out.

Metallurg, still with Vladimir Vorobyov behind the bench while Andrei Razin is suspended from his duties, had captain Yegor Yakovlev on the second defensive pair while Vladislav Provolnev sat this one out.

And the home team made a fantastic start, blowing the game wide open in the opening minutes. Vladimir Tkachyov unlocked the Salavat defense to Dmitry Silantyev to make it 1-0 after 65 seconds. Two minutes later, Alexander Siryatsky’s first of the season doubled the lead. And seconds later it was 3-0 when Stepan Starkov combined with Tkachyov for the latter to add to his early assist.

Visiting goalie Semyon Vyazovoi’s evening was done inside four minutes, and Nikita Bogdanov came to the crease. The visitor was still struggling to generate offense, while Magnitka converted its first power play of the night when Johnson redirected a shot into the net to add a goal to two earlier assists.

Up 4-0 at the first intermission, Metallurg could be forgiven for thinking the game was won. But the home team kept up its dominance and Ruslan Iskhakov made it five in the 26th minute with a shot on the turn. There was one brief highlight for the visitor when Maxim Zagrebin scored his first ever KHL goal with a classy wrist shot, but it was never going to be more than a consolation effort.

This was very much Metallurg’s day: Sergei Tolchinsky added a sixth on the power play, a 33rd-minute tally was called back for a high stick and Johnson got his second goal and fifth point of the night in the third. That made it 7-1, the Steelmen’s biggest win over Salavat Yulaev in the KHL, and its second victory over Viktor Kozlov’s men this season.

Dynamo Moscow 2 CSKA Moscow 5 (0-1, 2-3, 0-1)

CSKA celebrated a 10th successive victory with a derby triumph over Dynamo. The win also keeps Igor Nikitin’s team out in front in the First Cup, an on-going mini tournament between the six KHL team who were represented in the first Soviet hockey championship 80 years ago.

Dynamo won that inaugural competition, but looks far from a championship team this time. This was a sixth straight loss for Leonids Tambijevs’ team, which is languishing outside the playoff places.

Two goals apiece from Prokhor Poltapov and Maxim Sorkin led the way for the visitor here. Maxim Mamin, who played for Dynamo last season, was also on target for CSKA.

Poltapov put the visitor in control. He opened the scoring in the seventh minute and added to the lead on the power play early in the second.

Dynamo pulled one back through Pavel Shen, his second in as many games, but then suffered on the penalty kill. Igor Martynov was assessed a major penalty for a slash, then a too many men call left the Blue-and-Whites with a three-on-five situation.

CSKA took full advantage, with first Sorkin then Mamin finding the net to stretch the lead to 4-1.

Home defenseman Mario Patalakha got into a fight with Nikita Okhotyuk after the CSKA man’s high stick. That not only unleashed some Dynamo frustration, it also gave the home team its first power play of the night. Nick Merkley converted on 37:21, giving some hope before the intermission.

But there was no way back. Nikitin’s teams rarely blow leads in the third period and today followed the coach’s favored script. Dynamo struggled to generate chances and Sorkin, assisted by Poltapov, added a fifth midway through the session to banish any doubts about the outcome.

Spartak beats Sochi again

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

For the second time in three days, Spartak won at Sochi. For the second time in three games, the Leopards failed to score. Despite the efforts of star signing Nikita Gusev, the league’s basement club continues to struggle.

Part of the issue, perhaps, is Gusev’s game. He’s always been more of a creator than a finisher. That’s a role that often requires team-mates on the same wavelength. Sochi’s forwards, by and large, are less clinical than the men who have accompanied Gusev elsewhere. It is, of course, hard to collect assists when your partners aren’t hitting the target.

For Spartak, meanwhile, this South coast jaunt came at the right time. Alexei Zhamnov’s team was struggling for form and confidence, but took full advantage of an opponent dealing with its own troubles. After a 5-2 win on Wednesday, this was a result that strengthened the Red-and-Whites’ top eight spot.

The visitor got a great start, opening the scoring in the second minute. Joey Keane raced down the left into the Sochi zone and sprayed the puck to Yegor Filin on the opposite wing. He found Alexander Belyayev on the slot, who beat Damir Shaymardanov just 74 seconds into his first KHL start of the season.

Sochi had an even share of the play in the rest of the first period, but the damage was done. The home team struggled to test Ivan Fedotov in the Spartak net until late in the second period, when a neat passing combination set up Nikolayev for a shot that dinged the piping.

Spartak heeded the warning and increased its lead on a power play goal at the start of the third. Alex Galchenyuk was the scorer, with Keane again involved in the build-up. And that was the end of the scoring as the visitor closed out the win.