Repeat wins for Magnitka, Admiral; Dorozhko impresses on debut

Two days after Metallurg and Admiral picked up victories over Amur and Salavat Yulaev, Saturday’s rematches delivered similar outcomes. On both occasions, the outcome was closer, but the eventual victors were the same. In Saturday’s late game, Lokomotiv snapped a three-game skid with a shoot-out win over Vityaz, but struggled to solve rookie goalie Maxim Dorozhko who made 42 saves in his first KHL start.

Magnitka hunts down the Tigers again

Amur Khabarovsk 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (0-1, 1-1, 1-1)

Metallurg defeated Amur for the second time in three days, but this was a tighter affair than Thursday’s 3-0 success.

Once again, the visitor hit three goals, but this time the Tigers stayed in contention after solving Eddie Pasquale at last.

In the first period the teams were evenly matched, but the Steelmen went into the break with a one goal advantage. Yegor Korobkin’s touch steered. Ilya Nikolayev’s point shot beyond Evgeny Alikin in the eight minute to open the scoring.

Midway through the second, Magnitka increased its lead when Ilya Khokhlov advanced and launched a powerful shot past Alikin. However, Amur responded with a power play goal from Cam Lee as the Canadian defenseman marked his KHL debut with a goal.

That had the game intriguingly poised going into the final stanza. However, Metallurg quickly restored its two-goal lead thanks to Semyon Koshelev’s goal 22 seconds into the third period. Amur refused to roll over, and kept up the pressure until the end. Igor Rudenkov’s late goal kept things interesting until the final hooter but Magnitka held on for the win.

Admiral up to third

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 OT (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

It’s three straight wins for Admiral and three successive losses for Salavat Yulaev as the teams played out their second instalment of a double header on Saturday. After the Sailors won 2-0 on Thursday, they followed up with an overtime success to climb to third in the Eastern Conference.

Ufa, meanwhile, is still something of a work in progress under new head coach Viktor Kozlov. Salavat Yulaev is much changed following the departure of its flying Finns and the new line-up has yet to gel as hoped.

That did not stop the visitor getting ahead in this game. A power play midway through the first period saw Nikolai Kulemin open the scoring when he forced home the rebound from an Ivan Drozdov shot.

However, Admiral’s Libor Sulak has been a big performer this season and the home captain delivered a tying goal early in the second session. He smashed home a feed from Alexander Gorshkov to score for the third game in a row and underline his status as the key figure on the Sailors’ power play.

Both teams had chances to win it in the rest of the game, and the final moments of regulation were particularly frantic with a power play for each team in the closing stages. But the action went to overtime before Leonid Metalnikov’s stretch pass sliced open Ufa’s defense to release Evgeny Grachyov for the winning goal.

Defiant Dorozhko’s memorable debut

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Vityaz Moscow Region 0 SO (0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Maxim Dorozhko had a KHL debut to remember after stopping 42 saves to frustrate Lokomotiv. The 24-year-old started a game at this level for the first time in his career, having previously come off the bench late in his team’s loss at CSKA last week.

Dorozhko was busy from the start in a game that Lokomotiv dominated, but pulled off save after save to keep his team in contention. In the first period, the home team outshot Vityaz 14-7, with a Pavel Kraskovsky effort forcing Dorozhko’s best stop of the opening session. The middle frame saw the host enjoy a 19-4 advantage without finding a way past the rookie. Gradually, though, the visitor began to clamp down on Loko’s offense and the flow of chances began to slow. Late in the second, there were even signs of danger at the other end when Stepan Starkov hit the piping and Tyler Graovac missed the target when an open corner presented itself.

The third period, and overtime, were tight as both teams recognized the high cost of any error. In the end, it was another KHL newcomer who settled the outcome. Stepan Nikulin, 21, was playing only his sixth game in the league. However, he was the only man to convert his attempt in the shoot-out, winning it for Lokomotiv with the 17^th shot of the extras. Vitaly Popov then missed the chance to keep Vityaz alive and the Railwaymen halted their three-game losing streak.

Source: en.khl.ru

Sibir downs Avangard in derby. September 13 round-up

The big game of the day saw Sibir extend Avangard’s miserable start to the season. The Siberian derby saw the Hawks suffer a fifth straight loss, although there was the consolation of a bonus point after forcing the game to a shoot-out. Elsewhere, Barys got its first win of the season with a 3-1 success at home to Traktor, while Amur won 2-1 at home to Kunlun Red Star.

Tigers beat Dragons again

Amur Khabarovsk 2 Kunlun Red Star 1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1)

Amur picked up its second win over KRS in the space of a week as the Tigers made a winning start on home ice.

Yaroslav Likhachyov, last season’s MVP in the Junior Hockey League, continued his bright start to life in the men’s game with an early goal here. His second-minute strike makes it three goals in four games for the youngster, on loan to Amur from Lokomotiv. The home team might have extended its lead in the first period, but found Jeremy Smith a formidable obstacle in the visitor’s net. The Chinese national team goalie pulled off a particularly good save late in the frame, reaching behind himself to stop Vladislav Barulin’s power play effort.

In the second period, Red Star had more of the play without finding a way to test Evgeny Alikin. Early in the third, though, the visitor drew level when Jake Chelios launched a thunderbolt past the home goaltender.

However, the Dragons were unable to take anything from the final game of their road trip. Igor Rudenkov grabbed the winner after a breakdown on the blue line left the Red Star defense exposed.

First win for Barys

Barys Nur-Sultan 3 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (2-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Barys got its first win of the season with Andrei Skabelka’s team making a successful start to its home program. Linden Vey scored twice to pace the win for the Kazakhs, while Traktor suffered a fourth loss in six games.

Playing in front of its home fans for the first time, Barys got off to a good start. Vey opened the scoring in the seventh minute, and Kirill Savitsky doubled that lead in the 16^th. Both goals were assisted by Nikita Mikhailis, who is getting back to his best after a sluggish start to the campaign.

Traktor managed a response late in the opening frame when Teemu Pulkkinen struck on the power play. The visitor had marginally the better of the game but chances were hard to come by at either end and the second period saw no change to the score.

The visitor thought it had tied the game in the 55^th minute. However, a bench challenge for goalie interference wiped out the goal when the video showed Anton Burdasov’s stick hitting Nikita Boyarkin’s helmet. In the final seconds, Vey scored into the empty net to wrap up the win for Barys.

Avangard grabs a point at last

Sibir Novosibirsk 3 Avangard Omsk 2 SO (0-0, 0-0, 2-2, 0-0, 1-0)

Avangard got its first point of the season after taking this Siberian derby to overtime, but Dmitry Ryabykin’s team is still seeking a first win this term. The Hawks snatched a late tying goal to take the game into the extras, but ultimately lost out to Taylor Beck’s decisive effort in the shoot-out.

For two periods, these teams cancelled each other out. Avangard had the better of the game, outshooting Sibir 18-6 through 40 minutes, but could not score on Denis Kostin. The goaltenders’ collective stranglehold on the game was broken early in the third when an Avangard power play brought goals at each end. First, Evgeny Chesalin’s short-handed tally put Sibir ahead. Within 30 seconds, though, Reid Boucher had the game tied.

That sequence almost repeated itself late in the frame. Sibir again grabbed a short-handed tally to regain the lead, this time with Vyacheslav Litovchenko finding the net. This time, the penalty kill saw off Avangard’s attempts for an immediate reply. However, with just over a minute to play Nail Yakupov tied the scores during a spell of 6-on-5 action.

Avangard could feel a little unfortunate not to claim the win in regulation. Over 60 minutes, it outshot Sibir 31-13 and the visitor took that attacking intent into overtime. The Hawks enjoyed a power play during the extras but could not force a winning goal and ended up defeated in the shoot-out after Valentin Pyanov saved Sibir with a goal in the final attempt before the teams moved to sudden death.