Sunday, December 25th
Monday, December 26th
Torpedo v Vityaz 3-2
Avangard v Traktor 3-1
Avangard’s head coach Fyodor Kanareikin was suspended for this game after he was ejected for striking an official during last week’s 0-1 defeat at home to Dinamo Minsk. In his absence, though, Vladimir Semyonov led the team to a solid victory over Traktor, maintaining Avangard’s grip on second place in the East. After a scoreless first period, the host seized control early in the second with quickfire goals from Pyotr Khokhryakov and Maxim Pestushko. At the beginning of the third Pestushko turned provider, picking out the unmarked Mikhail Yunkov to make it 3-0; Nikolai Belov’s solitary strike in reply converted a fine pass from behind the net by Alexander Shinin but made little difference to the outcome.
Barys v Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5-3
Barys forward Nigel Dawes scored his eighth KHL hat-trick to lead Barys to a valuable win over the defending champion – and write his name in the league’s history books. Dawes led a first-period blitz to help his team into a 4-0 lead and become the first player to post eight trebles in KHL action. Nikita Ivanov was the other Barys goalscorer. Next on the list of hat-trick scorers is Sergei Mozyakin, and he kick-started Magnitka’s fight back in the second period when he converted a 5-on-3 power play. Barys’ Kevin Dallman was one of the players penalized prior to that goal, and moments after returning to the game he was dismissed once again, giving Tomas Filippi the chance to make it 2-4. The Czech then got an assist as Evgeny Timkin made it a one-goal game right at the start of the third, and Metallurg believed that a great escape was on the cards. It wasn’t to be. Barys, urgently seeking points to propel its playoff bid, held firm for the rest of the session and wrapped up the points with a Dustin Boyd empty-net goal in the last second. The three points lifts Barys to seventh in the East.
Lada v Severstal 3-4
After two battling defeats against SKA and CSKA, Lada hoped to earn points as well as plaudits when Western Conference outsider Severstal came to town, but a disastrous start cost the Motormen dear. Severstal took a 3-0 lead in the first period thanks to early goals from Maxim Trunyov and Yury Trubachyov, then a majestic shorthanded goal from Pavel Chernov added a third before the intermission. Lada still demonstrated its battling qualities to come back and tie the game. Stanislav Bocharev and Georgy Belousov scored on either side of the halfway mark and Dmitry Kostromitin made it 3-3 early in the third. But Severstal was not to be denied. Vojtech Polak grabbed the decisive goal with 10 minutes left to play.
Monday, December 26th
After staging historic and futuristic games last week, and losing both of them, Torpedo returned to the present day and got back to winning ways by edging Vityaz. The main incident of the first period was an injury to visiting goalie Harri Sateri, who was replaced in the 15th minute. But Vityaz shrugged that off to take the lead with a Roman Horak power play goal in the 26th minute. That goal sparked a flurry of scoring. Dmitry Semin tied the scores 26 seconds later and straight from the restart Nikolai Zherdev put Torpedo ahead. The excitement had barely subsided before Vityaz was level again, though, with Nikita Vyglazov completing a burst of four goals in just 84 seconds. The winner came late in the game when John Norman got his sixth of the season in the 57th minute, despite claims of offside from the visitor. Vityaz remains three points ahead of Sochi in the playoff race, Torpedo stays third in the West.
Admiral v Amur 2-3
Ilya Gorokhov, twice a Gagarin Cup winner at Dynamo, made his Amur debut and helped his new team to a derby win at Admiral, despite the home team dominating the early exchanges. James Wright put the Sailors ahead, Robert Sabolic missed a great opportunity for a second and Amur managed just three shots on goal in the first period … but ended up level when Anton Krysanov cashed in on a defensive error. Krysanov got his second early in the final stanza only for Dmitry Sayustov to tie it up again. But almost immediately Krysanov turned provider, collecting an assist as Igor Rudenko swept home the winner from the right channel.
Sibir v Ugra 2-3
Ugra finished a difficult year on a high with victory in its final game of 2016, but Sibir goes into the New Year with work to do to get into the playoff picture.
The visitor made the brighter start and got its reward thanks to Evgeny Artyukhin, but ended the first period killing a 5-on-3 penalty. That enabled Ugra to tie the game early in the second through Alexander Ugolnikov, and Roman Lyuduchin made it 2-1 in the 26th minute. Sibir levelled early in the third with a Joonas Kemppainen strike, but another power play goal, this time for Alexander Makarov, was enough to give Andrei Razin his second win behind the bench for his new club.
Tuesday, December 27th
Lada v Ufa 6-4A five-goal lead should be more or less impregnable, but Salavat Yulaev staged a third-period revival from 1-6 to give Lada a fright in this game. The first 42 minutes were almost perfect for the home team. Two goals from Vasily Streltsov, and further markers from Denis Zernov, Viktor Komarov, Nikita Filatov and Maxim Rybin put Lada in complete control, leading 6-1 at 41:30. A short-handed goal from Igor Grigorenko was the only blot for the Motormen.
But Salavat refused to give up, and scored three goals in four minutes through Dmitry Maltsev, Enver Lisin and Dmitry Makarov. Suddenly it was back to 6-4, and with 12 minutes to play, Lada had some work to do to secure its win. Edgars Masalskis withstood a late storm around his net as the home team held on to take the win.
Neftekhimik v Severstal 4-3
Neftekhimik snapped a four-game losing streak and moved to within three points of a playoff spot after edging Severstal. The home team made a great start as Dmitry Ogurtsov and Igor Bortnikov set up a 2-0 lead, but goals either side of the first intermission saw Maxim Trunyov and Daniil Vovchenko tie the game for Severstal. Richard Gynge’s 16th of the season kept Neftekhimik in front at the second intermission but it needed a second goal of the game from Ogurtsov to win it after Yury Trubachyov levelled for the Steelmen.
Wednesday, December 28th
Metallurg Nk v Sibir 0-1Ivan Nalimov had a perfect start to life as a Sibir player, recording a shut-out in his first game after moving from Admiral. Nalimov made 15 saves as Sibir dominated the game in Novokuznetsk and moved to within one point of eighth-placed Admiral in the Eastern Conference table. But the wealth of opportunities for the visitor did not produce a glut of goals. A solitary strike from Konstantin Okulov, firing a one-timer past Vladislav Podyapolsky direct from a face-off in the 52nd minute, was the only score of the game. Metallurg, rock bottom of the KHL table, finishes its 2016 program with a run of five straight defeats, three of them without scoring.
Sometimes it’s the team in greater need that finds the will to win through in difficult circumstances. Today’s game in Astana was one of those times.
Avangard arrived in Kazakhstan secure in second place in the Eastern Conference. Leader Metallurg Magnitogorsk is not out of reach, but the defending champion’s games in hand make it a clear favorite to top the section, while Traktor and Salavat Yulaev are 12 and 15 points back. Barys, meanwhile, began the day in seventh, anxiously eying the battle for a playoff place. Victory for the home team would offer a bit of security in the race for post-season.
At first, things went against the host. Despite allowing Avangard just three shots on goal in the opening session, Ilya Zubov gave the visitor the lead in the 19th minute. With the home offense also misfiring, it wasn’t easy to see where a fightback would come from as Barys mustered 12 shots in 40 minutes of play.
But the final stanza wrought a transformation: Kirill Panyukov tied it up in the 43rd minute and the spell on Dominik Furch’s net was lifted. Martin St. Pierre made it 2-1 in the 46th during a passage of 4-on-4 play and Avangard had to raise its own lackluster game on offense to get back into contention. That never really happened, and Konstantin Pushkaryov’s empty net goal served to underline a victory that lifts Barys up to sixth, five points clear of ninth-placed Sibir.
Thursday, December 29th
Kunlun v Admiral 1-4Birthday boy Sean Collins got the party started for Kunlun, but Admiral crashed his party to sail off with the points. Collins, who turns 28 today, celebrated with his 27th point of the season to convert an eighth-minute power play. But that was the highlight of the evening for Red Star: Admiral tied it up 43 seconds later through Yegor Yakovlev and went on to win the game fairly comfortably. Maxim Kazakov made it 2-1 to the visitor late in the first and the teams struggled to create any chances in a goal-less middle stanza. The third period, though, turned into something of a battle between Kunlun’s forwards and Admiral goalie Igor Bobkov. The home team fired in 18 shots on his net, but could not find a way past him. At the other end, two breakaway goals saw James Wright and Robert Sabolic wrap up a win that moves Admiral level on points with Red Star. Both teams have 64 points and lie in seventh and eighth places in the Eastern Conference.
Ufa v Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3-5
Veteran Finnish center Tommi Santala got his first KHL goal, at the ripe old age of 37. The former Atlanta Thrashers and Vancouver Canucks forward joined Metallurg Magnitogorsk from Kloten just before Christmas, and set up his new club’s New Year celebrations with the game winner in Ufa. Santala, who also picked up assists on two goals for his compatriot Oskar Osala in the first period, got his decisive strike in the 47thminute, snapping a 3-3 tie. It was a largely self-created opportunity, skating into the Salavat zone and spotting the gap as Konstantin Korneyev backed off, opening up a lane for a wrist shot from the top of the left-hand circle. Evgeny Timkin’s empty net goal rounded off the scoring. Magnitka might have felt that the game was won early on as Osala scored twice in the first three minutes and Jan Kovar made it 3-0 in the 28th. But Salavat struck back just after the halfway mark, with Linus Omark and Denis Kulyash scoring two goals in 15 seconds. Another goal from Finland, Sami Lepisto to Teemu Hartikainen on the power play, tied the game early in the final stanza, but Santala was not to be denied.
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