Avangard the team of the hour

Without doubt Avangard is in a good mood. Alexander Perezhogin and Sergei Kostitsyn pathed the way today for the home wina gainst Ukrainian newcomers Donbass Donetsk who only could cut the lead through superstar Ruslan Fedotenko at 54:25. For Avangard which is now third in Chernyshyov Division it was already the 7th win in the last 8 matches. They only lost in Nizhni Novgorod in the last three weeks.

Alexander Radulov no brought any gifts when he visited his ex club from Ufa with CSKA. Instead he had an assist and a goal to give the guests a two-goal lead. Even before the end of the second period Alexei Marchenko had put another one into the net for the team from the capital. In Power play did Alexander Svitov get the home side on the scoreboard but with 18 seconds left on the clock Andrei Sergeyev even made it 1-4 - also in power play as all the last three goals of CSKA today.

Second shootout win in a row for Lokomotiv Yaroslav - and again with the result of 3-2. This time they visited Traktor Chelyabinsk and twice went in front through Emil Galimov and Sergei Plotnikov but Maxim Karpov and Jan Bulis scored the equalizer. In the shootout Alexei Kruchinin was the only scorer to give Lokomotiv the extra point in the fifth round.

A two-point game by Evgeny Malkin put Metallurg Magnitogorsk as close as to a two-point difference only with the first place of Kharlamov Division. In the first period Maxim Potapov had tied the match for Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod. Before Enver Lisin had put Magnitka in front. In the middle period Malkin fist assisted the 2-1 through Mats Zuccarello before he added the 3-1 himself with an assist by Nikolai Kulemin. When Mikhail Varnakov cut the lead to one with only 36 seconds of regulation remaining, that came way too late.

First home win since 20 September for bottom side Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. Fyodor Malykhin earned the game winner against Atlant Moscow Oblast with the only strike of the match at 47:59 - a shorthander. For Avto goalie Christopher Holt it was the first time this season to get a shutout by making 30 saves.

Another shutout was gained by Barys Astana goalie Teemu Lassila but he had a calmer day for sure against Latvian side Dinamo Riga. When the hosts from Kazakhstan dominated the middle period clearly they earned the 1-0 lead through Nikolai Antropov at 35:14. Four goals within a 7-minute span decided the match until 51:03 and Barys earned an easy 5-0 win.

4th win in the last 6 matches for Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk who defeated Spartak Moscow with the score of 6-3 despite laying behind 0-1 and 1-2. Five consecutive goals in the second and third period let it be a solid home win though for Yugra. Oleg Gubin's shorthander at 57:06 for Spartak was only consolidation.

SKA St. Petersburg earned win number 7 in the last 8 matches by beating 4-2 against Metallurg Novokuznetsk. Randy Robitaille and Yuri Nazarov had gained a 0-2 lead for Metallurg until 24:02 before Patrick Thoresen brought the home side back into the game. In the first six minutes of the third period Petr Prucha, Tony Martensson and Alexei Semenov made sure the winning streak SKA would continue.

Vityaz Chekhov are the away stars this season. Ironically they gained six of their seven wins on the road. Today they managed to grabb all three points from Severstal Cherepovets. Alexander Korolyuk had brought Vityaz in front at 26:51 but only four minutes later Niclas Andersen scored the equalizer for Severstal. Two goals late in the third period by Anton Korolyov and Evgeny Timkin for the 1-3 were decisive for Vityaz.

Not so much left of the Lev Prague we saw at the begin of the season. At Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk they already received their 6th loss in the last 7 matches. Nail Yakupov and Igor Polygalov twice earned a lead for Neftekhimik but Jiri Novotny and Marcel Hossa made sure at least a point would stay with HC Lev.  In the shootout Czech forward Petr Koukal gained the game winner against his fellow countrymen.

Slovan Bratislava also had to go into the shootout in their visit at Ak Bars Kazan but with a better end. Marko Dano and Martin Stajnoch earned a lead twice for Slovan, answered by Jarkko Immonen and Dmitry Obukhov. In the shootout Miroslav Satan won the extra point for Bratislava in the fourth round.

 

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