Loko back on top. October 17 round-up

A 6-3 win at Sochi saw Lokomotiv go back to the top of the Western Conference, level on points with CSKA. Saturday’s other action saw a thrilling fightback in Khabarovsk, where Salavat Yulaev turned a 0-3 deficit into victory. Barys got a 1-0 verdict at Sibir thanks to Mason Morelli’s goal and stay second in the East.

Fightback win for Ufa

Amur Khabarovsk 3 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 4 (1-0, 2-3, 0-1)

Salavat Yulaev rallied from 0-3 to claim victory in Khabarovsk, moving ahead of the Tigers into the top four in the Eastern Conference.

The visitor headed on its Far East tour without Dean Stewart and Danil Alalykin, both injured. However, defenseman Yaroslav Tsulygin returned after missing the previous game.

Amur head coach Alexander Andriyevsky pushed center Vitaly Abramov up the lines in place of Alexei Kruchinin and also recalled Konstantin Lukin, Ivan Chekhovich and Raul Akmaldinov to the team.

The home team dominated the first period, with three times as many shots on goal in the first period. One of them found its target, when defenseman Dmitry Kostenko converted the first power play of the game. Visiting goalie Semyon Vyazovoi was busy throughout, and his most notable save denied 17-year-old goalie Yaroslav Dyominsky with a flash of the glove.

Salavat Yulaev had an on-going problem getting the puck out of its zone, and Amur found the net for a second time late in the frame. However, it proved too late: the hooter had gone before the puck crossed the goal-line.

There was less than 20 seconds of play between that near miss and the home team’s second goal as Slava Voynov began the second period with a mighty shot past Vyazovoi. Then Fyodor Khrapov padded the lead with his first ever KHL goal to put Amur in a strong position.

But Ufa hit back and managed to tie the game before the intermission. Devin Brosseau set up Sheldon Rempal to start the fightback. Then came a quickfire double: first Alexander Zharovsky, then Denis Orlovich-Grudkov scored 51 seconds apart to tie the game. Andriyevsky called a time-out and replaced Maxim Dorozhko with Alexander Trushkov, who had gone unbeaten for 122 minutes ahead of today’s game.

But Trushkov’s streak ended in the third when Zharovsky set up Matthew Maggio on the counter to pot the winning goal. After that, the visitor killed a penalty and closed out an impressive comeback win.

Morelli shoots down Sibir

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

This game promised goals. Barys arrived with a league-leading 58 in  15 games, while Sibir had allowed 47 in 16, the second highest in the Eastern Conference.

Yet this encounter remained goalless until the 48th minute, when Barys’s Mason Morelli potted the only score of the day to keep the Kazakhs in second place in the East.

Instead of rip-roaring offense, fans saw defensive discipline. Between them, the teams blocked 41 shots through 60 minutes. Both goalies were on point: Andrei Shutov made 31 saves to take the win, his opposite number Anton Krasotkin had 32 stops in a losing cause.

Admittedly, things might have been very different if a first-period goal for Barys had stood. The visitor found the net in the 15th minute, but a smart bench challenge saw Justin Bailey’s effort ruled out for interference on Krasotkin.

Bench challenges became the theme of the day. When Barys got ahead for real, precisely as Maxim Sushko left the box, Sibir again challenged the call. There was no concern about Morelli’s touch as he glided in front of Krasotkin to steer a Logan Day shot into the net. But the home coaching staff thought there was an offside in the build-up, a view not shared by the officials.

Sibir killed the delay of game penalty but was starting to run out of time. Barys, helped by its power plays, held the host to just three shots in the third period until Morelli sat for holding. Then the home team stepped up its attacking efforts. Shutov made a fine glove save to rob Anton Kosolapov of a tying goal, then one-time Kazakh international Darren Dietz flashed a shot just wide and the post denied Semyon Koshelev an equalizer.

Then came a third, and final bench challenge. With 65 seconds left, Sibir found the net after Arkhip Nekolenko forced an elevated puck over the line from close range. But a bench challenge revealed the use of a hand, and Barys made the most of its reprieve to edge a 1-0 verdict.

Sochi stung by strong start

HC Sochi 3 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 6 (0-3, 3-2, 0-1)

A powerful start from the defending champion left Sochi with too much to do on Saturday, and the Railwaymen wrapped up a convincing win on the Black Sea coast.

Dmitry Kvartalnov made a bunch of changes to the team that fell 2-5 to Severstal: Alexei Melchinuk started in goal, with Stepan Falkovsky, Daniil Tesanov and Denis Alexeyev returning to the team. Sochi went with the same team that won 3-2 in Kazan last time out.

But in its second successive game against one of last season’s finalists, the Leopards could not produce a similar result. Lokomotiv took control early, got in front on a Giovanni Fiore goal in the ninth minute and padded that lead thanks to further tallies from Alexei Bereglazov and Artur Kayumov, the latter on the power play.

At the start of the third, Alexeyev marked his return from injury with his team’s fourth goal, sending Damir Shaymardanov to the bench in favor of Pyotr Andreyanov. Perhaps the visitor thought it was all too easy: the tempo seemed to drop and Sochi found an unlikely route back into the game. Denis Vengryzhanovsky pulled a goal back, and Lokomotiv ran into penalty trouble. Nikita Cherepanov’s kneeing major was the first of three penalties in quick succession; while he sat out, Dmitry Kagarlitsky and Timur Khafizov got Sochi back to 3-4.

The fightback was firmly on, and when Sochi got another power play late in the second, the home team could picture a tied scoreline at the intermission. Instead, it went into the final frame down by two: Alexander Yelesin’s hopeful chip down the ice somehow deceived Andreyanov and slipped into the net.

Sochi had chances in the third, including another five-on-three power play. But the home team could not take advantage and its hopes were finally extinguished by Alexander Radulov’s empty net goal three seconds from the end.