Crazy Moscow derby

Avangard Omsk seems quite unstoppable at the moment. Today they earned a 4-2 home win against Vityaz Chekhov in which they twice lay behind. Pavel Chernov and Josh Hennessy had brought the guests in front during their first two power plays. On the other side Anton Kuryanov and Dmitry Syomin scored the equalizer before the second intermission. When Nikita Nikitin used an early man advantage in the third period to turn the game around completely in favour of Avangard, the outsiders Vityaz found no answer anymore and instead Sergei Kostitsyn added another one for the hosts from Omsk. For Avangard it was alraedy their 7th win in the last 8 matches while Vityaz suffered a setback after two consecutive away wins at the end of their three-game long road trip.

Salavat Yulayev Ufa almost gave away a three-goal lead against Metallurg Novokuznetsk. Igor Mirnov, Andrei Konev and Yuri Trubachyov were successful for the home team already in the first period. With his goal at the end of the middle period Dmitry Megalinsky raised hopes for the guests that were even strengthened when Alexander Bumagin cut the lead to just one at 50:44. After a timeout Metallurg decided to pull out their goalie during the last minute of regulation but they couldn't force the equalizer anymore. While Ufa extended theri winning streak to three, Novokuznetsk suffered their 7th loss in the last 8 matches.

Goalie Vladislav Fokin earned a 31-save shutout during Traktor Chelyabinsk's 4-0 win against bottom side Spartak Moscow. In the middle period Petri Kontiola, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Stanislav Chistov pathed the way for the win before again Kuznetsov added another one at 52:52. After their high surprise win over St. Petersburg guests Spartak Moscow have lost all three games during their road trip and were shut out for the second time in a row.

For some reason Metallurg Magnitogorsk with all their lockout stars is in a low in recent weeks and today they suffered their 4th loss in the last 6 matches. Against Donbass Donetsk it was Sergei Bernatsky who put the hosts in front at 22:07 but around "half time" Tuomas Kiiskinen tied the match for the Ukrainians who later went on to even win all three points in regulation through a late power play strike by Peter Podhdradsky at 58:14. For Donbass their three-game road trip to Russia ended with a perfect record and they won all nine possible points. Now they are just one point behinds the other two league newcomers of Bobrov Division - Lev Prague and Slovan Bratislava.

Dinamo Riga (now 32 points) managed to become the second-last team to jump over the 30-point hurdle - by defeating the only team that stays below, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. A double by Jamie Johnson in the first 10 minutes pathed the way for the three points win  At 44:23 Artyom Kryukov brought hope back to the home fans but Martins Karsums destroyed it when he scored with three minutes left in regulation.

Belarussian side Dinamo Minks kept the match in Astana close during the first half hour before they were crushed heavily by local Barys. Maxim Spiridonov, Victor Hedman and Brandon Bochenski were there for a 3-1 lead until 21:30 with a the equalizer through Janne Niskala in between. Not even a minute later Dmitry Meleshko brought Dinamo as close as to a one-goal deficit. Before the end of the middle period though did Roman Savchenko, Konstantin Rudenko and Talgat Zhailauov decided the game early. Nigel Dawes even made it 7-2 at 47:33.

Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk could stop a three-game losing streak with a close 3-2 at home against Severstal Cherepovets. Niclas Bergfors and Petr Caslava had tied a two-goal deficit for Severstal but at 37:08 Igor Skorokhodov scored the game winner in power play for Yugra after he had already scored both their first two goals.

Top team Ak Bars Kazan was able to get the 5th win in the last 6 matches and the third in a row with just one goal difference by beating the outsiders from Far East - Amur Khabarovsk. Although Alexei Morozov brought the hosts in front already at 07:10, they were behind twice later and needed a hard fight to turn the match into their favour. First Anton Poleshchuk and Nikita Gusev made it 2-1 for Amur before Kirill Petrov answered at 34:33. At the begin of the third period Timofei Shishkanov restored the Amur lead but Alexei Tereshchenko and Denis Kulyash won the match for the hosts even in regulation. Now Amur stayed without a single point in all the last four matches.

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk underlined their playoff ambitions with a 2-0 in their own arena against Sibir Novosibirsk through goals by Tomas Netik and Andrei Subbotin. Matt Dalton in the Neftekhimik net made 26 saves and earned a solid shutout. While Sibir suffered their fourth consecutive loss, Neftekhimik won the second in a row.

SKA St. Petersburg earned an important home win against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod to stay in touch with league leaders Dynamo Moscow. The only goal of the match was scored by Dmitry Kalinin at 11:39 in power play. In a game without many scoring chances SKA goalie Sergei Bobrovsky earned a shutout due to his 25 saves.

The matchday ended with the big Moscow derby between CSKA and Dynamo. In the first two periods it was one of the most one-sided games of the whole KHL season. Dynamo was in attack almost the whole time. Still they could only score once in the first period through Alexander Ovechkin in power play. With the begin of the second period through they simply overrun the hosts CSKA with goals by Sergei Soin, Marek Kvapil and Richard Gynge - the last one after a bad pass of a CSKA defender. This was also the point where Rastislav Stana had to leave the home team's net and was substituted by Ilya Proskuryakov. Just two and a half minute later he also took the first goal against when against Marek Kvapil scored for Dynamo. Afterwards CSKA looked very shocked and they had problems to even get out of their own zone. A double by Pavel Datsyuk and Mikhail Grabosky at the begin of the third period, let the hosts hope again and after goals by Alexander Radulov and again Pavel Datsyuk an epic come back looked close. When the hosts risked everything by pulling out their goalie for an additional attacker it was Nicklas Bäckström who decided the match for Dynamo with an empty netter. It was the 7th win in the last 8 matches for Dynamo. 

 

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