Winning start for Shafranov. October 24 round-up

Metallurg’s new head coach Konstantin Shafranov started with a 5-1 win over Sibir, consolidating his team’s position at the top of the KHL standings. In the Western Conference, Torpedo and Dinamo Minsk were tied through 60 minutes before …

Magnitka moves into new era

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (0-0, 3-1, 2-0)

Konstantin Shafranov took charge of Metallurg for the first time, and the new head coach celebrated a 5-1 win in his opening game.

Shafranov, 58, played for Metallurg in the 1990s. The forward was also a two-time Olympian with Team Kazakhstan. As a coach, he was one of Bob Hartley’s assistants when Avangard won the cup in 2021. His only previous game as a head coach in the KHL came as an interim at SKA.

The new head coach left the first two lines unchanged from the previous game, a shoot-out loss to Salavat Yulaev. However, there were tweaks to the bottom six. Sibir handed a debut to Alexander Kisakov following his move from Traktor, putting him on the second line.

Sibir’s defense came under early pressure but managed to turn the game away from Mikhail Berdin’s net. A couple of power plays helped the visitor gain the initiative before the intermission and, soon after the break, Maxim Sushko’s shot from the boards surprised Yegor Zavragin in the home net.

Metallurg replied midway through the game when Andrei Kozlov struck in comparable fashion: closer to the net, but from a tighter angle. Daniil Vovchenko escaped the visiting defense to convert a Nathan Todd feed from behind the net and give the home team the lead, and that advantage doubled on a power play goal from Valery Orekhov just before the second intermission. Orekhov’s hot streak extends to six games.

Having turned the game around, the Steelmen made it safe early in the third. Luke Johnson quickly added a fourth, chasing Berdin from his net. Incoming netminder Anton Krasotkin was beaten after 44 minutes as Ruslan Iskhakov made the final score 5-1.

Last second review reprieves Dinamo

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 Dinamo Minsk 2 OT (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)

Dinamo was a fraction of a second away from defeat in Nizhny Novgorod, but survived to claim an OT win.

Torpedo thought it had the game won in the final second when a power play led to the home team getting the puck behind Zach Fucale. However, a video review found that the puck crossed the line after the hooter, leaving the game tied at 1-1 and bound for overtime.

In the extras, the Belarusians killed the remaining 30 seconds of the penalty before Sam Anas potted the winning goal. The American forward picked up Chris Tierney’s pass in the right-hand circle, moved towards the center and whipped a wrister beyond Denis Kostin in the home net.

That completed a fightback for Dinamo, and added to Torpedo’s sense of homesickness at the VOLGA Arena. While Alexei Isakov’s team has been strong on the road this season, its form at its new home has been inconsistent.

Today, the home team got in front in the ninth minute thanks to Vladimir Tkachyov. He collected Yegor Vinogradov’s pass from the left-hand board, stick-handled his way between Dmitry Kuzmin and Nikolai Salygo then placed a wrister beyond Fucale.

That lead survived to the end of a first period that was light on big chances, but Dinamo tied the game early in the second through Sergei Kuznetsov. He got on the end of Brady Lyle’s pass from behind the net and his one-timer was too good for Denis Kostin.

Late in the second, Dinamo had the puck in Kostin’s net once again, but a bench challenge saw that effort called back for a high stick as the puck was deflected past the goalie.

But frustration over that video call was replaced with relief at the last-gasp decision in Minsk’s favor – and joy at Anas’s eventual winner.