KHL - Moscow - Round Up December 08-14, 2016

Hockey From Across The Moskva

CSKA

Thursday, December 8 - v Vityaz Podolsk 5-2

Just outside the playoff places, Vityaz failed to gain ground after suffering a heavy defeat at CSKA. The Army Men took control in the first period with goals from Kirill Petrov and Sergei Andronov and never looked back. Greg Scott and Alexander Nikulin traded goals in the middle period before Semyon Koshelev and Maxim Mamin put the result beyond doubt. Alexei Kopeikin grabbed a late consolation for Vityaz.

Dynamo

Thursday, December 8 - @ SKA St. Petersburg 1-2 (SO)
The rivalry between SKA and Dynamo has been one of the most compelling of the KHL era. It pits Russia’s biggest cities against each other, it’s generated several thrilling playoff series and now, for added spice, it puts SKA head Oleg Znarok up against the club he led to two Gagarin Cup triumphs. This season, though, the two teams are on divergent paths. While SKA is romping away at the top of the table, Dynamo is entrenched in a hard-fought battle to confirm a playoff place. On paper, it was no surprise that SKA extended its winning run to seven games; on the ice, it was a rather more hard-fought affair. There wasn’t much between the teams in the first period, and only a power play goal just before the intermission gave SKA a slender advantage. Vadim Shipachyov rattled one into the top corner from the left-hand face-off spot with just 17 seconds left on the clock.
In the middle stanza, Dynamo faced a tougher task as both teams put the accent on defense. Despite chasing the game, the visitor was limited to just two shots at Igor Shestyorkin’s goal. But come the third the Blue-and-Whites tied it up. Artyom Fyodorov, who was in the penalty box when SKA opened the scoring, atoned for his indiscretion by getting his stick on Ansel Galimov’s pass from behind the net. Game tied, 10 to play; all bets were off. Ultimately it needed a shoot-out. Again, SKA didn’t have it easy. Vladimir Bryukvin scored with Dynamo’s first attempt; Alexander Yeryomenko backed him up with a glove save against Pavel Datsyuk. Fyodorov hit the post, and Sergei Shirokov shot over Yeryomenko’s glove to tie it up again. Then, after Alexei Tsvetkov missed the target, Kovalchuk demonstrated his skills to outwit the Dynamo goalie and claim the win.
Dynamo’s defeat in St. Petersburg gave the other teams in the race for the top eight a chance to improve their positions – but all of the contenders who played last Thursday ended up worse off after losing in regulation.



Saturday, December10 - v Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 6-3

Dynamo maintained its recent upswing in form to tighten its grip on a playoff place with a high-scoring win over Loko. The Blue-and-Whites were under pressure a few weeks ago, but this win makes it six games in a row where Sergei Oreshkin’s men have taken at least one point, helping to build a six-point cushion over the teams in eighth and ninth place. This time, though, the home team did it the hard way, recovering a 0-2 deficit after Vladislav Kartayev and Max Talbot put Lokomotiv in a strong position by the 31st minute. Artyom Fyodorov was the architect of the revival, finishing with a hat-trick of assists. His first two came in the closing minutes of the middle stanza and helped Maxim Karpov and Ilya Nikulin to tie the game. Alexander Rybakov made it 3-2 off a Denis Kokarev assist, and Kokarev found the net himself in the 48th minute to give the home team some breathing space. When Artyom Podshendyalov made it 5-2 – off another Kokarev helper – Dynamo seemed to be cruising to victory.

Loko wasn’t finished, though, and Czech D-man Jakub Nakladal got his first for the club to set up an intriguing last couple of minutes. But Fyodorov wasn’t done either, setting up Alexei Tsvetkov for Dynamo’s sixth with a sweet no-look assist.

Spartak

* Spartak scored twice in the last minute to put a dent in Neftekhimik’s playoff prospects. The game was tied at 1-1 after Richard Gynge cancelled out Konstantin Glazachev’s fourth-minute opener, but Igor Mirnov gave the Red-and-Whites the lead on 59:23 and Ryan Stoa added an empty-net goal to wrap it up.
* Lada recovered from a poor start to win at Spartak in overtime. The Red-and-Whites dominated early on, scoring twice in the first 10 minutes through Lukas Radil and Konstantin Glazachev. But Lada revived at the start of the second period as Viktor Komarov and Georgy Belousov tied the game inside 25 minutes. There was no further scoring in regulation and it looked like overtime would be similarly inconclusive until Dmitry Kostromitin won it with his first of the season, 22 seconds before the hooter.