Spartak with triple comeback against Vityaz

Dinamo Riga started the day with quite a surprise by defeating playoff candidates Severstal Cherepovets on the road. After a very slow begin Girts Ankipans earned the lead for the guests at 16:46. Not even two minutes later Severstal gave the answer through Denis Kazionov who used a rebound for the equalizer. When Stanislav Yegorshev received the first penalty of the middle period, Kristaps Sotnieks used a power play to restore the Dinamo lead at 27:39. With less than five minutes left on the clock a spectacular play gave Riga a 3-1 lead. Aleksandrs Nizivijs skated behind the Severstal net, was fouled but while jumping to the ground he gave an pass to the center where Andris Dzerins had no problems to fire the puck into the corner. Again the answer by the hosts followed soon. Denis Kazionov used his second of the day to cut the Dinamo lead to just one at 57:05. When Severstal risked everything by pulling out their goalie Vasily Koshechkin for an additional attacker, Alexandre Giroux was there with an empty netter and the final score of 4-2 in favour of Dinamo. For the bottom team it was their third win in the last six matches while Severstal was stopped after two consecutive wins.

In the duel of two foreign teams Dinamo Minsk from Belarus received Donbass Donetsk from Ukraine. The hosts had no gifts as they need every point themselves to reach the Gagarin Cup playoffs. Goeff Platt, Andrei Stas and Teemu Laine grabbed a 3-0 lead until 20:51 already. Donbass only could score the consolation goal through their super star Ruslan Fedotenko at 58:51 who denied Dinamo goalie Lars Haugen a shutout. In the first four matches of their six-game long home stint, Dinamo grabbed 10 points and can still hope for the playoffs. Donbass received the third loss in the last four matches and is out of the playoff spots again.

In a Kharlamov Division meeting favourites Ak Bars Kazan grabbed the expected away win against Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk but only managed to do so in overtime. The guests led twice through Evgeny Medvedev and Ilya Nikulin but Yegor Milovzorov and Pyotr Khokhryakov tied the match until "half time". Neftekhimik was the better team in the following overtime but with their first shot on goal Ak Bars won the extra point when Evgeny Medvedev got his second of the day.

Vityaz Chekhov threw away another game where they led more than once just two days after an unnecessary loss against Donbass Donetsk. Against the also bottom side Spartak Moscow Georgy Belousov, Alexei Badyukov and Alexander Korolyuk earned a lead for Vityaz in each of the three periods but Mikhail Yunkov, Stefan Ruzicka and Denis Bodrov were there with the answering goals for Spartak. After a scoreless overtime, Mikhail Zhukov was the only player to transform his penalty shot attempt and the extra point was won by Spartak. The capitals still have a 16-point deficit towards the playoff spots so that a qualification is rather unrealistic for them.

 

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