KHL - Moscow - Round Up January 03-10, 2016

CSKA

Dinamo Riga (a) 2-0 - Thursday, January 05, 2017
For two periods, there was little to choose between two teams at opposite ends of the Western Conference table. Dinamo more than held its own in the opening session, narrowly outshooting its high-flying guest as the scoresheet remained blank. The second period was dominated by CSKA, but a penalty shot squandered by Andrei Kuzmenko was as close as we got to an opening goal.
By the start of the third, though, the Army Men knew the score from Helsinki and realized that top spot was up for grabs. Kirill Petrov finally made the breakthrough in the 47^th minute, wrapping up a counter attack that started with Ivan Telegin surging down the right and feeding Alexander Popov for the killer pass to Petrov. Vladimir Zharkov added an empty-net goal to secure the victory, while Ilya Sorokin made 20 saves to claim a shut-out.

Dinamo Minsk (a) 3-1 - Saturday, January 07, 2017
League leader CSKA maintained its position on top of the pile with a solid win in Belarus, limiting the home team to just 17 shots on goal. Even so, it took a pair of quickfire goals in the 30^th minute to set the Army Men on the path to victory, with Kirill Petrov and Ivan Telegin cancelling out Alexander Pavlovich’s 12-minute opener for Dinamo. Petrov struck on the power play; Dinamo, still shell-shocked, allowed Telegin to score just 25 seconds later, irrevocably shifting the momentum of the game. Once ahead, CSKA was able to slow down the home offense in a game where clear-cut chances were often at a premium. Maxim Mamin added a third for the visitor with 10 minutes left to wrap up the win. SKA (h) 2-3 SO - Monday, January 09, 2017

SKA returned to the top of the KHL table after claiming the honors in a breathtaking Army derby in the capital. It took a shoot-out to separate the top two in a game that pulsated with excitement from start to finish, and SKA claimed its third victory in four meetings between the clubs: but only after surviving a mighty scare in overtime.
The moment of controversy came in the 62^nd minute when Igor Ozhiganov fired in a shot that Igor Shestyorkin couldn’t handle and saw the puck dribble slowly into the net. The home celebrations were delirious, but sadly premature. From the away bench, a challenge came in; the video officials checked it out and confirmed that the play began with an offside. No goal, 2-2, an on to a shoot-out. In that shoot-out, Shestyorkin proved invincible, stopping attempts from Dmitry Kugryshev, Geoff Platt and Andrei Kuzmenko. At the other end, Nikita Gusev beat Ilya Sorokin to secure the win. Both goalies were in the thick of the action at the start of the game as well, pulling off smart saves in the opening exchanges before Anton Belov gave SKA a sixth-minute lead on the first power play of the night.
Discipline, or the lack of it, was to prove significant: Kirill Petrov tied it up in the 13^th minute, with help from a kind deflection, as Pavel Datsyuk sat out a tripping call. Near misses followed, both teams pinging the puck off post and bar, before a visionary pass from Vadim Shipachyov set Gusev free to make it 2-1 in the 40^th minute. Maxim Mamin cancelled out that goal early in the third period, the only goal scored with both teams at full strength, to set up the dramatic denouement of the day’s events.

Dynamo

Avangard (a) 3-2 - Tuesday, Janaury 03, 2017
It took time for this game to ignite, with neither side creating clear opportunities in the first period. But the first intermission handed Dynamo a wake-up call. Juuso Hietanen was the first to respond, firing in a shot that deflected off Maxim Karpov to beat Dominik Furch and open the scoring in the 22^nd minute. A power play goal from Denis Kokarev doubled Dynamo’s advantage. Avangard had to wait until the 50^th minute to get on the scoreboard through Nikolai Lemtyugov, but Dynamo responded almost immediately as Karpov got his second of the night. That proved decisive, despite a late goal from Vladimir Sobotka as the home team pushed hard to salvage the game.

Sibir (a) 5-2 - Thursday, Janaury 05, 2017

All four of the goalies who dressed for this game spent time on the ice, albeit for different reasons. Sibir started with Ivan Nalimov between the piping, but swapped him for Alexei Krasikov after Vladimir Bryukvin made it 3-1 to Dynamo on 32:41. The change did not yield spectacular results: Lukas Kaspar scored on Krasikov after 28 seconds as Sibir spun to defeat. Dynamo, meanwhile, started with Alexander Lazushin, only to bring Alexander Yeryomenko off the bench for the final four minutes and 10 seconds. Yeryomenko was in place when Alexei Tereshchenko completed the scoring for the Blue-and-Whites with an empty-net goal. Earlier Sibir took a first-period lead thanks to a power-play goal from Maxim Ignatovich. But two quick goals from Dynamo late in the opening stanza saw Ilya Nikulin and Denis Kokarev turn the game around and set the visitor on the way to victory.

Metallurg Novokuznetsk (a) 3-0 - Saturday, Janaury 07, 2017
The visitor made it three wins in a row thanks to a third-period flourish, while Metallurg suffered its 8^th defeat in a row, all of them on home ice, and its fourth failure to score in that time. For two periods the game was goalless, although Dynamo built up a solid advantage in shots on target. But the deadlock was broken early in the third when Juusso Hietanen scored on the power play. Ansel Galimov, a former Metallurg player, scored Dynamo’s second and less than a minute later Lukas Kaspar’s good work behind the net set up Martins Karsums to make it 3-0. Metallurg’s task is unlikely to get much easier in its coming games: the next two outings see the Siberians travel to SKA and CSKA. Dynamo, once in danger of getting dragged into a battle to reach the playoffs, now looks comfortable in fifth place in the Western Conference.

Kunlun (a) 5-3 - Monday, Janaury 09, 2017

Two late goals, one shorthanded, the other into an empty net, saw Dynamo down a spirited Kunlun after trailing twice in the game. Ilya Nikulin grabbed the game-winner in the 59^th minute and Denis Kokarev fired into the empty net to seal the Blue-and-Whites’ fourth successive win in 2017 and give goalie Alexander Yeryomenko a victory to mark his 300^th game for the club.
Yeryomenko, one of the star players in Dynamo’s recent upswing in form, didn’t have it all his own way though. He was beaten in the sixth minute by Tuukka Mantyla after Zach Yuen did well to come away with the puck behind the net. The visitor replied quickly, Kokarev on the breakaway feeding Gorovikov for the equalizer. The pattern repeated in the second period, with less than a minute between Martin Bakos’ first goal of the game and Artyom Fyodorov’s leveler. But Dynamo changed the script in the third, going ahead for the first time thanks to Vladimir Bryukvin and securing the victory late on after Bakos got his second of the night to tie the game in the 56^th minute.

Spartak

Barys (a) 0-3 - Wednesday, January 04, 2017
Barys tightened its grip on sixth place with a shut-out win over a Spartak team that failed to make ground in the playoff race in the West. Kevin Poulin was the key player for the home team, making 38 saves as the Red-and-Whites failed to find a path to goal. He was busiest in the third period as Spartak fired in 15 shots on his net in a desperate bid to claw a way back into the game. That effort was in vain, however, and Dustin Boyd found the empty net late on to score with only the fourth Barys attempt of the final stanza. Earlier, Corey Trivino put the home team 1-0 up in the sixth minute and Nigel Dawes added a second just after the midway mark as Spartak found itself two men light following penalties on Lukas Radil and Alexei Bondarev.

Ugra (a) 2-5 - Friday, January 06, 2017
The outside hopes of Spartak sneaking into a playoff spot always seemed to hang on the team’s current eight-game road trip. And a heavy defeat against struggling Ugra dealt a big blow to the Red-and-Whites’ chances. But Ugra head coach Andrei Razin admitted that his team was fortunate still to be in the game after the visitor got off to a flying start. Dmitry Kalinin opened the scoring after five minutes and Spartak could have extended that lead before Anton Korolyov tied the game with his first goal of the season in the 13^th minute. By the intermission, it was 3-1 as Alexander Makarov and Evgeny Lapenkov extended Avto’s advantage. The middle stanza was goalless, and the third saw Spartak reduce the arrears thanks to Maxim Potapov in the 43^rd minute. Yet there was to be no big revival. Andrei Alexeyev quickly reinstated the two-goal advantage and Roman Lyuduchin completed the scoring with a goal against his first KHL club.

Avtomobilist (a) 3-4 - Sunday, January 08, 2017

Playoff hopes were in the balance in the Urals, with Avto’s narrow victory keeping the home team in contention while Spartak’s slow start to the year threatens to put it out of the race in the West. Despite leading twice, the Red-and-Whites ended up losing for the third time this year, and the fifth in six games, so the gap to eighth place remains a testing nine points. For Avtomobilist, inspired by two goals from Alexei Mikhnov, the margin in the East is six points.
The home team won this one in the second period, aided by a powerful offensive display that generated 20 shots on goal and allowed just three at the other end. That enabled Mikhnov to wipe out Maxim Potapov’s first-period opener for Spartak, and then saw Nikolai Timashov score on the power play to cancel out Denis Tolpeko’s effort. Just 45 seconds later, Avto went ahead for the first time as Jan Buchtele scored in the 38^th minute, and the home team never let its lead slip. Mikhnov’s second made it 4-2 early in the third and Vsevolod Sorokin’s swift reply could not put Spartak on the path to salvage the game.
Ufa (a) 3-5 - Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Neither team came into this game in strong form, but Salavat could at least point to the return of boy wonder Kirill Kaprizov as a cause for optimism. The youngster starred in the recent World Junior Championships, finishing as the tournament’s leading scorer to help Russia win a bronze medal. He is now strongly linked with a move to the NHL, and is reportedly in talks with Minnesota at present. For now, though, he’s a key man in Ufa, and delivered a timely reminder of his talents to his home fans. Salavat was under pressure, a goal down after 27 seconds after Ryan Stoa, a former line-mate of Kaprizov at Metallurg Novokuznetsk, got a quick opener. Things got worse: Denis Bodrov took a major penalty, and Stoa fed Dmitry Kalinin to convert the power play. 2-0 Spartak inside 10 minutes. It was all change in the middle stanza though. Tomas Mertl got Salavat on the scoreboard, then Kaprizov scored twice to put his team in front. All three goals were assisted by Linus Omark. Then Russia’s bright new star turned provider, getting an assist on Alexander Loginov’s power play goal late in the second and setting up Denis Kulyash’s empty-net marker in the last minute. The Kulyash strike settled home nerves after Alexei Kirillov set them a-jangle in the closing stages with a goal for Spartak, but this was unquestionably Kaprizov’s day.