Thursday brought two KHL games, with Avtomobilist playing for the first time this year and getting a valuable 5-2 win over Severstal. SKA edged Sochi 2-1 to go four points clear at the top of the Western Conference.

Motormen return with win

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 5 Severstal Cherepovets 2 (2-0, 2-2, 1-0)

Avtomobilist returned to action with a bang after the Motormen got a clean bill of health following the recent COVID outbreak on the team. Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team dropped to 10th in the Eastern Conference during that period of inactivity, and despite having three games in hand on eight-placed Barys and five on Neftekhimik in seventh, there’s a lot of work to do to get into the playoff picture.

That work started today against Severstal, and the first assignment was completed successfully. Avtomobilist snapped its six-game losing streak, serving notice that it was still an active player in the battle for the top eight. The home team made a strong start to the game, opening the scoring in the ninth minute through Stanislav Bocharov and doubling that lead before the intermission thanks to Shane Prince.

Severstal, looking to build on a three-game winning streak, came out hard in the second period. Daniil Vovchenko potted a spectacular lacrosse goal to reduce the deficit and post an early contender for goal of the year. Then, just before the midway point Ivan Yemets tied the scores. However, the home imports rallied to restore that two-goal lead before the second break. First, Prince got his second of the game, then he released Brooks Macek for a one-on-one with goalie Dmitry Shugayev. Macek converted the chance, Severstal challenged the play but the video found no evidence of offside and the visitor was left to kill a penalty. Shugayev made way for Vladislav Podyapolsky, but the understudy goalie could do nothing to stop Bocharov getting his second of the game in the third period.

SKA edges past battling Sochi

SKA St. Petersburg 2 HC Sochi 1 (1-0, 0-0, 1-1)

SKA moved four points clear at the top of the Western Conference thanks to its second victory over Sochi this season.

The home team had the better of the first period and got its reward with the opening goal in the 16th minute. SKA won an attacking face-off and after Maxim Tretyak blocked Alexander Volkov’s shot, Marat Khusnutdinov followed up to convert the rebound.

Tretiak pulled off a big save at the start of the second period, robbing Mat Robinson of a power play goal. After that, the visiting defense began to tighten up its play: SKA was limited to seven shots on goal in the middle session, with Sochi blocking 10 efforts.

That stalwart defensive effort kept the visitor alive in this game, and not even a 5-on-3 power play helped SKA to extend its lead. Nikita Zorkin — one of several former SKA players on the Sochi team — did superbly to prevent Andrei Kuzmenko from firing into an unguarded net, and subsequently Tretyak kept the home offense at arm’s length until the teams were back at full strength.

However, the Leopards were unable to generate the necessary offense to find a way back into the game there was always a sense that SKA would successfully finish the job. Kirill Marchenko almost settled it with a shot against the piping before Mikhail Vorobyov added a second goal in the 56th minute.

Earlier in the season, Sochi failed to score in its home game against SKA. Today the visitor at least escaped a second blank thanks when Kuzmenko’s error led to a late consolation goal for Dmitry Kolgotin’s. Briefly, the visitor threatened to drag the issue into overtime, but the Army Men responded with a disciplined finish to seal a 2-1 victory.

Two goals in the last three minutes sent league leader Traktor spinning to a 2-4 loss at playoff chasing Neftekhimik. In Wednesday’s other game, Admiral edged Sibir 2-1 to maintain at least a theoretical chance of making the top eight.

Sibir misses chance to take fifth place

Admiral Vladivostok 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (0-0, 1-1, 1-0)

Admiral secured its third successive victory and denied Sibir the chance to overtake defending champion Avangard and move into fifth place.

Sibir, which arrived on a two-game winning streak, made a strong start to the game. However, home goalie Nikita Serebryakov was in fine form, snuffing out several dangerous moments. Vyacheslav Litovchenko, Nick Shore and especially Nikita Korotkov all had good chances to open the scoring, but Serebryakov came up with the answer each time.

Admiral, by contrast, waited for Sibir to offer up a chance at the other end. And, when nobody closed down the shooting lane for blue liner Libor Sulak, that chance arrived. Harri Sateri did not see the moment of release and was beaten as the home team opened the scoring in the second period. Even prior to that, the Sailors had a couple of presentable chances to break the deadlock in the middle frame. However, the teams would be level at the second intermission when the home power play broke down and Denis Golubev forced a turnover that took him down the ice to beat Serebryakov at last.

Overall, having weathered that first-period storm, Admiral looked the more likely winner. And so it proved. Midway through the third, an odd-man rush presented Mark Verba with the game-winning goal and Sibir was surprisingly slow to prepare any kind of response. Only in the closing stages, playing 6-on-5, did the visitor pose much of a threat to Serebryakov’s net and by that time the clock was already working against Andrei Martemyanov’s team.

Poryadin’s goal defeats league leader

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 (2-1, 0-1, 2-0)

Two late goals gave Neftekhimik victory over table-topping Traktor. The win opens a six-point gap to ninth-placed Amur as the home team looks to secure its playoff place.

Neftekhimik opened the scoring midway through the first period thanks to Eduard Gimatov. Traktor responded almost immediately through Andrei Stas, but the home team finished the opening frame in front thanks to yet another goal from Vyacheslav Leshchenko. After joining Neftekhimik from Vityaz, Leshchenko scored in each of his first seven games; today he moved to eight goals in 10 games for his new club. That’s the most prolific spell in the 26-year-old’s much-travelled career to date.

Traktor, though, was defending a seven-game winning streak and began the second period in determined fashion. That effort was rewarded, but not until late in the middle frame when Lukas Sedlak converted Artyom Shvaryov’s feed to tie it up going into the third.

For much of the third period, defenses were on top. Indeed, overtime was looking inevitable by the time Pavel Poryadin changed everything with a couple of minutes to go. The Neftekhimik forward pounced on an error by Traktor defenseman Nick Bailen before racing into the visitor’s zone and firing into the far corner of Roman Will’s net. The league leader called Will to the bench in search of another tying goal, but instead Dan Sexton put Neftekhimik’s fourth into the empty net to seal the deal.