Away team day in KHL

Eastern Conference leaders Avangard Omsk opened the matchday at home against Slovan Bratislava. A power play goal by Mario Bliznak at 10:50 was enough to give the guests from Slovakia a lead until the second intermission. In the third period both teams showed their will to get the win. First Anton Kuryanov tied the match at 42:01 before Milan Kytnar restored the guest lead three minutes later. With less than six minutes to go in regulation Tomas Zaborsky saved the day for Omsk against his fellow Slovakian countrymen with the equalizer for the 2-2. In the overtime Avangard was the more active side but didn't use their chances. This was punished by Slovan in the shootout where Peter Ölvecky transformed the decisive penalty shot to give Slovan the extra point. 

For the other league newcomers Lev Prague their long journey to Kazakhstan wasn't half as successful. Although Tomas Surovy brought the Czechs in front with an early shorthanded goal, 20 seconds of the 35th minute were enough for hosts Barys Astana to turn the game around completely through Viktor Alexandrov and Andrei Gavrilin. In the third period twice Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev and Roman Savchenko made everything clear for a solid 5-1 win for Barys that made a big step towards the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
 
For Donbass Donetsk, also in their first KHL year, a good performance against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was not rewarded with points today. Vaclav Nedorost only needed 47 seconds to give Donbass the lead before Daniil Apalkov and Alexei Kruchinin scored a double for the guests from Russia. At 07:10 Denis kochetkov answered for Donbass. Before the end of the first period Staffan Kronwall restored the Lokomotiv lead in power play. Around "half time" the Ukrainian hosts came back with the equalizer through Randy Robitaille but Sergei Plotnikov earned the game winner for Yaroslavl at 38:31. In the last 20 minutes the guests concentrated on defense and also avoided a goal against when Donbass used an additional attacker instead of the goalie during the last 30 seconds.

With a close 5-4 win in Riga guests Atlant Moscow Oblast might have saved their last chance for a playoff spot in the West - but they still have a seven-point deficit. Ilya Krikunov, Andreas Engqvist and twice Maxim Mayorov brought the guests in front with a 4-1 lead in the first 40 minutes with the equalizer through Miks Indrasis in between. With the start of the third period Mikhail Glukhov even added another one for the Russians. That was the moment when Dinamo decided to start a race to catch up through Arvids Rekis, Jekabs Redlihs and Martins Karsums until 59:32. After a timeout the Latvians played without their goalie but an additional skater in the remaining seconds but weren't able to force the equalizer anymore. 

Spartak Moscow, at the bottom in the West, grabbed their second consecutive win at home by defeating Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 2-1 in overtime. Around "half time" the guests opened the score through Martin Thörnberg. When everyone expected this to be the decisive strike it was Nikolai Bushuyev who tied the match for Spartak with just six seconds left in regulation and when Spartak goalie Jan Lasak had already left his net for an additional skater. With their second shot in overtime Spartak even won the extra point through Stefan Ruzicka.

CSKA Moscow continued their strong performances on the road by defeating Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk away with 4-1. Alexei Pepelyaev only needed 22 seconds for the Yugra opener but around "half time" Igor Radulov tied the match for the guests. With three goals in a five-minute span until 58:30 Vladimir Zharkov, Niklas Persson and Denis Denisov won the match for CSKA.

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