SKA butchers Donbass

After their last-minute home loss to Dinamo Riga the plan for SKA St. Petersburg was to show a positive reaction against Donbass Donetsk and the team did so in a brilliant way. In the first 20 minutes the very effective home team already was up 3-0 through goals by Igor Makarov, Vladimir Tarasenko and Kevin Dallman. Super star Ilya Kovalchuk who is in the vote for the European Player of the Month of October had two assists in the first period. Around "half time" Alexander Kucheryavenko even added another one for SKA before Sergei Varlamov and Evgeny Belukhin brought Donbass on the scoreboard. But this was the only real sign of life of the Ukrainians as SKA would go on to score five consecutive goals in the third period where Kucheryavenko and Makarov scored their second of the night each. The other strikes came from Gleb Klimenko, Anton Burdasov and Tony Martensson. In the end it was a 9-2. For Donbas it was not only the highest number of goals against in their short KHL history but also the biggest goal difference since they start in Europe's maximum competition.

In the Moscow derby hosts Dynamo lived up to the expectations and beat Spartak with a three-goal difference. Until the mid of the game Dynamo managed to get a 4-0 lead through Maxim Solovyov, Richard Gynge, Janne Jalasvaara and Denis Barantsev. At 33:25 Branko Radivojevic gave the guests a little hope that was destroyed before the second intermission by Konstantin Kasyanchuk. In the last 20 minutes Dynamo did not more than necessary and so could Eduard Lewandowski make it 5-2 and the result a bit more comfortable for Spartak. With this win Dynamo defended their five-point advantage in Bobrov Division towards SKA.

Vityaz Chekhov with their amazing away record this season could also hope for points in Magnitogorsk against top team Metallurg for at least the first 40 minutes. Anton Korolyov brought the guests in front at 37:50 but just 28 seconds later Dmitry Kazionov already tied the match for Magnitka. With 9 seconds left in the second period Daniil Markov allowed himself a tripping penalty that was punished at 40:22 with a power play strike from Viktor Antipin. Evgeny Malkin and Sergei Mozyakin even made it 4-1 till the final whistle. With the better goal difference they are now first in Kharlamov Division.

Traktor Chelyabinsk turned a one-goal deficit into a solid 3-1 home win against Severstal Cherepovets but had to give up the lead in Kharlamov Division to Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The last two goals were scored by Stanislav Chistov.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl beat Salavat Yulayev Ufa away in shootout. After Artyom Anisimov scored the 2-3 for Lokomotiv at 55:57 the guests could hope for a win in regulation but just two minutes later Tomas Rolinek with his second of the evening extended the game to overtime. This one stayed goalless before Emil Galimov and Viktor Kozlov won the extra point for Yaroslavl with their strikes in shootout.

Today Avangard Omsk was for most part of the away match against Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk the better team but the game winner only came at 56:14 through Dmitry Syomin. In the last minute of play Alexander Popov added an empty netter for the 2-0. Eduard Reizvikh earned a 23-save shutout.

Another big setback for Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. Again they couldn't defend a 3-1 lead, this time against Belarussian side Dinamo Minsk. Charles Linglet had brought the guests in front but even before the first intermission Denis Sokolov, Alexei Simakov and Nikolai Pronin made it a two-goal lead for Avtomobilits. After that Dinamo took over the initiative and already in the second period they scored the equalizer through Zbynek Irgl and Teemu Laine. At 62:56 Irgl scored the game winner in overtime to get Minsk also the extra point, leaving Yekaterinburg once more without the full benefit for their work.

A once more good Konstantin Barulin shut out Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and was a key factor for the 4-0 Ak Bars Kazan win with his 28 saves. Veteran Danis Zaripov with a double, Evgeny Skachkov and Dmitry Obukhov were the goal scorers for Ak Bars.

At the moment the long road trips are having their impact on Amur Khabarovsk. Against CSKA Moscow they ended their three game journey without a single point. In the second period they were outscored 4-1 by CSKA and lost the game 6-2. Another POTM candidate, Alexander Radulov, made two assists for the team from the Capital.

 

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