Dynamo edges SKA, CSKA thrashes Torpedo. November 11 round-up

Wednesday’s play saw two games go to overtime, while the other was one-sided. CSKA got the big win, beating Torpedo 5-1 thanks to a flying start in Moscow. City rival Dynamo travelled to SKA and took a 2-1 OT verdict in the first game since Leonids Tambijevs’ departure. And Lada held off a Sochi revival to win 4-3 in the extras beside the Black Sea.

Life after Tambijevs starts with win for Dynamo

SKA St. Petersburg 1 Dynamo Moscow 2 OT (0-0, 1-1, 0-0,  0-1)

The SKA revival hit a bump as Dynamo left St. Petersburg with the win. The Blue-and-Whites took an OT verdict to return to the playoff places in the West after a hard-fought encounter.

SKA came into the game buoyed by a 7-1 thrashing of Spartak. That made it three wins from four for Andrei Razin’s team. By contrast, Dynamo parted company with head coach Leonids Tambijevs after an unimpressive start to the season. Oleg Orekhovsky was in interim charge of the Muscovites.

His team made a strong start and should have taken a lead from the first period. SKA was held to just one shot on goal, in stark contrast to the offensive flair we saw days before. Dynamo’s team was not greatly different from the one that lost at Torpedo in Tambijevs’ final game, but a dominant first period saw 19 shots at Sergei Ivanov in the home net.

The opening goal had to wait until the 34th minute. Dynamo got on the power play, then for some reason all the players drifted onto the same wing, leaving Igor Ozhiganov alone in front of the net. The visiting defenseman had time to wait and pick his spot before scoring on his former club for the fourth time since his departure.

SKA came close to an instant reply, but Danil Aimurzin’s shot dinged the crossbar. A tying goal had to wait until seconds before the intermission when Vasily Atanasov beat Vladislav Podyapolsky.

Goals were again hard to come by in the third period. As tensions grew, the game went into overtime before Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi set up Yegor Rimashevsky for the winner.

Fast start for CSKA leaves Torpedo floundering

CSKA Moscow 5 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (4-0, 1-0, 0-1)

On a night of close games that went to overtime, this was the exception. CSKA blasted into a 4-0 lead in the first period and Torpedo never recovered. The visitor allowed five goals on the road for the second time in three days, while the Muscovites returned to the top of the Western Conference, two points clear of Lokomotiv.

After a 2-5 loss in Kazan, Torpedo head coach Alexei Isakov lamented that his team did not start playing until it was down by two. In Moscow, things got worse as his team allowed four goals in 13 minutes. CSKA scored four goals on eight shots.

Nikolai Kovalenko, once of Torpedo, got two of them. Klim Kostin and Maxim Sorkin also found the target. Visiting goalie Denis Kostin’s evening was over and Dmitry Shugayev came to replace him.

Torpedo wasn’t without chances after that: Andrei Belevich got clear on a rush, Nikita Kamalov, Yegor Vinogradov and Vladimir Tkachyov also threatened but Dmitry Gamzin held firm in the home net.

The visitor started on the power play in the second period, but CSKA defended bravely. Nikita Okhotyuk alone blocked three shots, suffering an injury in the process. But back at equal strength, the home team looked far more comfortable and largely controlled the game. The first CSKA power play of the night saw Prokhor Poltapov score from the deep slot to make it 5-0 at the second intermission.

In the final frame Torpedo tried to make inroads, but could not find a goal until 29 seconds from time. Sergei Goncharuk denied Gamzin a shut-out, but could not affect the final outcome. The third period was more memorable for a fight that saw Klim Kostin ejected from the game for attacking Scooter Brickie

Pautov secures OT win for Motormen

HC Sochi 3 Lada Togliatti 4 OT (0-1, 1-2, 2-0, 0-1)

Yury Pautov’s overtime goal – his first of the season – gave Lada victory in Sochi. The result leaves the two locked on 17 points at the foot of the Western Conference standings.

The Motormen now have four wins from their past six games, while Sochi has four losses in the same run.

Two weeks earlier, the Leopards left Togliatti with a 4-3 win. On that occasion, Lada lost an early lead and never recovered. Today, again, Sochi came from behind but its fightback from 1-3 was halted in the extras.

The visitor got in front in the 14th minute when Ben King scored the only goal of the first period. Sochi had its chances, but Nikita Podskrebalin made 14 saves to preserve his team’s lead.

Lada doubled the lead early in the second as Vyacheslav Osnovin put away a rebound for his first goal since joining the club. Dmitry Kagarlitsky soon got Sochi on the board and not long after that, Nikita Gusev almost tied the game with a shot that beat Podskrebalin but rebounded off the post. Gusev was unable to extend his club record 11-game hot streak. Instead of tying the game, Sochi fell further behind when Nikita Setdikov added to his earlier assists on King’s opener and made it 3-1 before the second intermission.

The home team fought back in the third and its aggression was rewarded. Matvei Guskov made it 2-3 in the 46th minute, then a video review denied Sochi an equalizer. Nonetheless, midway through the session Alexander Khokhlachyov scored a legitimate goal to tie the scores and take the game to overtime.

In those extras Pautov, playing only his second game of the season, got the decisive goal.