KHL Sunday recap

Bottom side Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg showed a great performance at home against Barys Astana but still they couldn't end their month long losing streak. The hosts opened the score through Sergei Nemolodyshev already at 04:49 before Roman Starchenko scored the deserved equalizer after exactly 12 minutes. In the following two periods Avtomobilist showed great moral as they tied a Barys lead three times. Dmitry Upper, Talgat Zhailauov and Dustin Boyd had brought the Kazakhs in front each time but Josef Straka, Artyom Kryukov and Denis Sokolov were there to tie the match again. In the third period both teams had best opportunities to win but the decision only cam in overtime when Nigel Dawes scored the game winner for Barys after just seven seconds.

For the third time in a row did Salavat Yulayev Ufa outscore their opponents heavily at home. Visiting side Dinamo Riga was simply overrun in the second period where Ufa had earned a solid 5-1 lead before Martins Porejs brought some hope back for the guests. Just a minute later though Antti Pihlström scored his second of the day to restore the three-goal advantage. In the third period Pihlström even completed his hat trick after Martins Karsums was there for the Latvians. In the end it was an easy 7-3 win for Ufa which is now back on the second spot in Chernyshyov Division.

Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk also won the second game within 9 days against the star team of Metallurg Magnitogorsk which continues to struggle in November. The fans in Magnitogorsk had to wait for a long time for goals and then the first one even was scored by their opponents Yugra at 39:49 when Igor Skorokhodov used a power play after Viktor Antipin sat in the penalty box for shoting the puck outside the playing area. In the third period the game was really one sided and Metallurg played a lot better but they only could score the equalizer through star forward Evgeny Malkin at 48:35 when he also was successful in a power play. At 54:49 Magnitka took a time out to change their tactics for the last minutes of regulation but they couldn't avoid overtime anymore. There it was Anton But who with the first Yugra shot on goal won the extra point for the guests at 61:23, making it the fourth loss for Magnitka in November already.

Without their injured regular goalie Michael Garnett the team of Traktor Chelyabinsk is only half as good. In the top match of two division leaders they had a leat four times but a not always stable performance by their substitute goalie Andrei Mezin cost them the three points against Avangard Omsk. Twice Jan Bulis, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Vyacheslav Belov had each time opened the score for Traktor while Alexander Perezhogin, Tomas Zaborsky, Sergei Kalinin and Igor Volkov tied the match for the guests. In the third period Kirill Lyamin brought the guests from Omsk in front for the first time and Mezin was substituted himself by third goalie Vladislav Fokin. At 58:16 Traktor took a time out and tried it with an additional attacker for their goalie but this only brought the sixth goal for Avangard when Sergei Kostitsyn scored into the wide open net.

Severstal Cherepovets had a great come back at home against Dinamo Minsk. Teemu Laine, Alexander Kulakov and Zbynek Irgl earned the guests from Belarus a 3-1 lead by 45:58 with the equalizer by Niclas Bergfors in between for Severstal. In a strong third period performance the hosts came back with two fast goals through Nikolai Kazakovtsev and Vadim Berdnikov that let the game extend to overtime. This one stayed goalless so that the shootout had to bring the decision. There it was again Vadim Berdnikov who won the extra point for the team from Cherepovets. It seems that Severstal has learned something from the loss to Dynamo Moscow on Friday were they threw away a 3-0 lead to lose 3-5.  

In their home match against Spartak Moscow the hosts Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk again left out many good scoring opportunities but at least they were able to score some goals and beat them 2-1 - unlike two days earlier when a lone goal was enough for struggling Dinamo Riga to win in Nizhnekamsk. Petr Koukal and Alexander Seluyanov pathed the way for the home win before the second intermission. When Mikhail Mamkin cut the lead to the half with 17 seconds left on the clock there was a little hope for them but in the end Neftekhimik had no trouble to keep all three points in the city.

Ak Bars Kazan gained the lead in Kharlamov Division after defeating Ukrainian league necomers Donbass Donetsk at home with 6-4. Ak Bars was already in front with a 5-1 lead during the second period before they let the guests come as close as to two goals. Donbass' Finnish forward Tuomas Kiiskinen seemd to be rather over motivated after he scored the 6-4 as he was sent off the ice not even half a minute later with a game misconduct penalty. For Donbass a disappointing road trip with three losses has ended while Ak Bars could reconcile with their fans for the surprise home loss to bottom side Spartak Moscow earlier the week.

SKA St. Petersburg was once more able to turn around a game when they defeated Vityaz Chekhov but also taking over the lead in Bobrov Division from Dynamo Moscow didn't save their head coach Milos Riha from being fired afterwards for the lack of dominance of his team. Anton Korolyov and Alexander Korolyuk had made possible a 2-0 lead for Vityaz after two periods but as so many times before in this season they couldn't get a reward out of it. Within ten minutes Patrick Thoresen, Maxim Rybin, Petr Prucha and Tony Martensson had scored four consecutive goals to give SKA a solid advantage but at 57:48 a power play strike by Josh Hennessy let them shiver till the very end.

For Lokomotiv Yaroslavl their trip to the European Union ended without points yesterday. After a high defeat to Lev Prague they were also beaten by Slovan Bratislava in regulation. Emil Galimov and Niklas Hagman twice tied the match for the guests after Libor Hudacek and Lubomir Visnovsky had put Slovan in front but the second goal by Hudacek at 40:34 was decisive for Slovan.

 

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