Medvescak victorious in Moscow

Matt Murley scored the game-winner as Medvescak lifts over Spartak and gains valuable points in their playoff quest. They're now tied in the standings with 6th placed CSKA Moscow.

Medvescak were up to a slow start, which coach Mark French admitted in the post-game press conference, and thus found themselves trailing as early as 8:10 on the powerplay. Mikhail Yunkov sent the puck from the left boards back to the point where Denis Bodrov had enough time and space to aim, Vyacheslav Kozlov was in front to deflect and bury the go-ahead goal past Barry Brust.

Medvescak ties the game through Charles Linglet. Spartak were a man short and wanted to clear the zone, Mark Popovic intercepts the clearance at the point and handles the puck into the slot, finding Linglet on the right side all alone, who strikes the puck right between Jeff Glass' head and the right post. Amazin accuracy by the Quebec native.

At 35:24, Spartak get their chance to resurrect. Igor Volkov bursts out on the breakaway through the right alley, and is alone with the goalie, Ivan Svarny realizes he won't make it to stop him, so he trips him in the slot and the referees have no choice to call for a penalty shot.

Volkov takes the puck straight to the net, and dekes Brust to the right from the slot, the net is open, and - he hits the post while the puck bounces off to the left and the score remains levelled.

Right at the beginning of the final frame in Sokolniki, Medvescak carried over a penalty from the second period, Spartak started off strong and had a promising opportunity early, but Brust denies Deron Quint while on the ice, lifting his leg and making an amazing pad save.

As they came back to full strength, Medvescak's high-forecheck almost paid off, when Jonathan Cheechoo was put into action. Erik Nystrom steals the puck in the Spartak zone, a tic-tac-toe play with Ryan Vesce gets the puck to Jonathan Cheechoo but he misses the net high on the backhander.

Spartak kept up the pressure, but were missing out on their opportunities.

And then Medvescak decided the play was over, it was time to get serious. First Murley brought the lead on yet another powerplay - Oleg Kvasha was serving the high-sticking call, Bill Thomas fired from the slot, picked up his own rebound and sent the puck to the right post, Cheechoo shows dazzling anticipation and finds Murley on the opposite post, who scores while Glass couldn't retrieve.

As the game's end was approaching, Spartak were a bit desperate and in the final minute pulled their goalie. Boyd Kane knew how to take advantage of it, and score the empty-netter from the blueline to seal the deal.

Barry Brust successfully deflected 35 shots, letting in only a single tally to keep his record at 97.2 SVS%. That was his 11th win in 22 starts this season.

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