Barys stops Lev Prague

Severstal Cherepovets made the long trip east to face Amur Khabarovsk. Denis Kazionov and Vadim Shipachyov (2) made perfect the third win of the young KHL season for the guests and the second in their current away trip. Mika Pyorala had cut the lead for Amur at 52:36 but after a week long trip to to the western border of the league, the hosts had not enough power left to turn the result around.

For Sibir the start of the season came at the right time. Today they beat the Belarussian side Dinamo Minsk with 2-1. Jori Lehtera, leading the league in scorer points (14), and Nikita Zaitsev pathed the way for the fifth consecutive win for the Novosibirsk-based team, making it 6 wins out of 7 games. With 4:51 left Geoff Platt could only cut the lead in power play but even with the additional attacker for goalie Kevin Lalande in the last 30 seconds, Minsk could not avoid their already fifth loss.

Vityaz Chekhov is showing an improved version of themselves this year but they were rewarded only partly for their efforts in the last matches, accumulating five consecutive losses. This series was stopped today by beating Metallurg Novokuznetsk away with a score of 3-0. At 1:50 the guests were already in front with two goals through Evgeny Timkin and Nikita Dvurechensky. Again Timkin at 15:36 decided the game in the first period. Ivan Kasutin even earned his first shutout this season. Both Metallurg Novokuznetsk and Vityaz Chekhov now have collected a total of 9 points.

Salavat Yulayev Ufa is slowly climbing in Chernyshyov Division, positioning themselves behind leaders Sibir Novosibirsk, after defeating Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 2-1. Andrei Kuteikin and Vitaly Proshkin were succesful for Ufa, the guests had scored the equalizer in between through Rastislav Spirko. For the hosts it was the third win in a row.

Once again Alexander Radulov made the difference to give his team CSKA Moscow all three points. The star forward gained a hat trick against in the 4-2 over Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk. Latvian Janis Sprukts added the other goal for the home side. Yugra, which stays the worst squad in the league to this point with only three points and couldn't avoid loss number six, even had scored the 0-1 lead through Igor Skorokhodov. Ivan Khlyntsev did the other one for Yugra.

Traktor Chelyabinsk stays in an excellent form. Today they ended the five-game long winning series of Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk in the top match of Kharlamov Division. Stanislav Chistov and Maxim Karpov earned a 0-2 lead for Traktor after the first period. At 54:41 Oskar Osala brought the hosts on the scoreboard but recent NHL reinforcement Andrei Kostitsyn from Belarus, who came from the Nashville Predators, used an empty-netter to make everything clear with 23 seconds left on the clock. Due to the gap in games played Neftekhimik (16) still is four points ahead of Traktor (12) with 2 matches more played.

Getting NHL stars to play for you doesn't mean necessarily that this will bring a huge advantage in such a competitive league as KHL is. This was what Metallurg Magnitogorsk experienced today again. Dmitry Obukhov had opened the score for Ak Bars before NHL stars Sergei Gonchar and Evgeny Malkin assisted to the equalizer through Justin Hodgman in power play at 17:22. Still the two had to go through their second consecutive loss with Magnitka as Alexei Morozov won the game in shootout for Ak Bars. Before Sergei Mozyakin (Metallurg) and Denis Abdullin (Ak Bars) had been also succesful. Malkin's penalty shot was stopped by a strong Konstantin Barulin who made 34 saves today.

Another series that ended today was the one of Czech newcomers Lev Prague after five consecutive wins. On home ice they lost against Kazakh side Barys Astana 2-4. The guests had a weak start this year but earned 10 out of 12 points in the last four matches. Talgat Zhailauov and twice Brandon Bochenski earned a two-goal advantage for Barys after the first period. Lev could only score through Petr Vrana after an assist by Jakub Klepis. In power play Jakub Voracek brought tension back at 21:56 but in the same period Nigel Dawes decided everything for Barys.

With the help of their fans - today Bratislava received another 10,000+ spectators - Slovan is adjusting better and better to the higher competition of KHL. Against last year's Gagarin Cup finalists Avangard Omsk they already gained their fourth win in the last five games. After goals scored by Miroslav Satan, Michal Vondrka and lockout reinforcement Lubomir Visnovsky, Slovan was already away with a 3-0 lead at 25:23 but within only five minutes fellow Slovakian Tomas Zaborsky and Alexander Popov cut the lead to just one. A power play by Libor Hudacek at 50:18 brought the decision for Slovan that now is third in Bobrov Division with 12 points behind Lev Prague and Dynamo Moscow. For Avangard the campaign is really disappointing so far, making them last of Chernyshyov Division with 8 points in the same number of games.

 

Advanced player search

Tweets by @eurohockey