Spartak scores five in revenge win, Barys climbs to second. October 30 round-up

A day after losing at Severstal in a shoot-out, Spartak recovered to win 5-1 in Cherepovets. A Tyce Thompson hat-trick helped Barys climb to second in the East on a 4-2 win at Shanghai Dragons. Lada snapped a four-game skid with an overtime verdict against Avangard, while Ak Bars won after six losses on home ice, beating Amur 3-1. Dinamo Minsk defeated Traktor 3-2.

Motormen snap skid

Lada Togliatti 3 Avangard Omsk 2 OT (1-1, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Guy Boucher arrived in Togliatti looking to secure his 100th win as a KHL head coach – but Avangard fell short in overtime. Lada snapped a four game skid but remains at the foot of the standings, one point behind Sochi.

The Motormen’s early enthusiasm threatened to go against them: an early power play presented Avangard with the initiative and the opening goal arrived when Yegor Afanasyev’s redirected Kirill Adamchuk’s shot home. The Hawks looked to build on that advantage, but after several shifts of pressure on the Lada net the home team managed to get some attacking possession and Arsen Taymazov tied it up before the intermission.

The second period saw Lada get up for the first time in the game. Ben King produced a fine shot for a power play goal after Semyon Chistyakov’s foul. The home PP was helped by Avangard rushing forward on the counter and struggling to get back in time when play came back down the ice.

The next attack saw Andrew Poturalski forced to foul the goal-bound Dmitry Kugryshev. The home forward picked himself up and tried to convert the penalty shot, but Nikita Serebryakov shut the door. Later came a fight between Adamchuk and King, but midway through the frame an Avangard power play saw Josh Leivo score from close range off Konstantin Okulov’s feed.

In the third period, the visitor took control of the play. Avangard did not force the pace, but tried to keep the play in Lada’s zone, bringing it to the puck and looking for varied shooting lanes. The host was reduced to a counter-attacking game, and the contest moved into overtime.

In those extras, Lada produced a fine play with Nikolai Makarov and Vyacheslav Osnovin combining for Nikita Setdikov to pot the winner.

Revenge win in style for Spartak

Severstal Cherepovets 1 Spartak Moscow 5 (0-1, 0-3, 1-1)

What a difference a day makes! Twenty-four hours earlier, Severstal edged a shoot-out verdict over Spartak; today the Muscovites powered to a comprehensive victory.

Spartak scratched defenseman Will Reilly – scorer of yesterday’s opening goal – and forward Daniil Gutik. Severstal gave Vsevolod Skotnikov the start in goal and reshuffled several lines.

The Red-and-Whites dominated the opening stanza, outshooting Severstal 12-3. It was little surprise that the visitor took a lead into the intermission on Danil Pivchulin’s goal; the question was whether that one-goal advantage was a fair reward for Spartak’s superiority.

But the middle frame saw the Muscovites take full control with three unanswered goals. Pivchulin netted his second, and Alexander Belyayev and Alexander Pashin were also on target as the visitor padded the lead to 4-0.

This was triggering unhappy memories for Severstal fans, who saw their team lose 0-8 at Spartak back in September. Young forward Ilya Kotlyarov made it 5-0 before the home team stopped the rot and eventually got a consolation goal from Ilya Ivantsov.

Kazan celebrates home win at last

Ak Bars Kazan 3 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (1-0, 2-1, 0-0)

Anvar Gatiyatulin’s team needed this win: before today’s game, Ak Bars had lost its previous six on home ice, most recently a 0-4 reverse against Avangard. The return of Albert Yarullin, wearing the ‘C’ tonight in Alexei Marchenko’s absence, boosted the defense; Maxim Arefyev replaced Timur Bilyalov in goal.

The home team had the better of an entertaining opening and it was no great surprise when the home team opened the scoring. Kirill Semyonov found Denis Zernov open on the slot and the recent acquisition made no mistake.

Amur responded with some quick counterattacks and Oleg Li forced Arefyev into a foul, only for the home PK to squash hopes of a tying goal.

The start of the second period saw Ak Bars take control of the game. After 18 seconds, Grigory Denisenko doubled the home lead in unlikely fashion: falling behind the goal-line, he fired the puck from a dead angle and saw it bounce off Maxim Dorozhko and into the net. Within five minutes, it was 3-0 when the visiting defense got out of position and nobody could disturb Raul Yakupov as he shot into the open side of the net. The home lead might have been greater – Nikita Dynyak forced a fine save from Dorozhko, Denis Komkov attempted a Michigan. But the next goal went to Amur just before the intermission when Yegor Voronkov’s point shot slipped through the goalie’s defenses.

In the third period, Ak Bars did a good job of limiting scoring chances: Amur managed just eight shots on target, hardly enough to trouble a two-goal deficit. At the other end, Stepan Terekhov hit the post but there was no further scoring.

Bison stop the rot

Dinamo Minsk 3 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 (0-0, 0-0, 3-2)

The Belarusians improved after a run of four losses in five games, and returned to the playoff spots with Friday night’s win.

For two periods, goalies were on top. Zach Fucale made 18 saves for Minsk, Dmitry Nikolayev had 23 for Traktor as the game went goalless through 40 minutes.

That all changed in the third. Dinamo started on the penalty kill, but grabbed a shorthanded goal 26 seconds into the frame. An inexplicable defensive lapse allowed Daniil Sotishvili to score from a tight angle.

Traktor had an answer to that, with Grigory Dronov tying the scores in the 45th minute. But Dinamo took the game away. Another defensive mix-up gifted Sergei Kuznetsov the 2-1 goal a couple of minutes later, then Vladimir Alistrov made it 3-1 midway through the final stanza. Again, lax defense contributed to Traktor’s downfall. The game wasn’t quite done: a needless penalty for Jake Bischoff presented the visitor with a power play, converted by Mikhail Grigorenko, but that was as close as his team could get.

Thompson treble downs Dragons

Shanghai Dragons 2 Barys Astana 4 (1-0, 1-2, 0-2)

The Dragons lost a four-game winning streak after blowing a 2-0 lead at home to Barys. Tyce Thompson’s hat-trick tipped the game in the Kazakhs’ favor, and former Dragons’ head coach Mikhail Kravets saw his team climb to second in the Eastern Conference.

Things started well enough for the host. In an even first period, Vyacheslav Barulin opened the scoring midway through. Then, at the start of the second, Brennan Menell doubled the Dragons’ lead. That was followed by a fight as Givani Smith tangled with Alikhan Asetov, and the game changed in the aftermath.

Shanghai got frustrated, and began to frequent the box. That gave Barys a five-on-three advantage and Thompson scored twice to tie the game by 30:46. And the stats – 18-4 on shots for the visitor, 6:08 vs 2:29 on attack – pointed to an underlying shift in the teams’ fortunes.

Those stats proved reliable. The third period saw Barys get in front. In the 55th minute, Asanali Sarkenov scored his first ever KHL goal to put the visitor in front. And the 20-year-old’s effort proved to be the game-winner; Thompson put a fourth into an empty net to seal the deal for Barys.