KHL Results - January 04-05, 2017

Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Avtomobilist v Sochi 1-5
HC Sochi’s resounding win at Avtomobilist moved the Black Sea team to within three points of a playoff spot in the Western Conference, while leaving the home team some way off the pace in the East. Sochi, which had been as high as fourth last year, came into the game on a wretched run of form, with just three victories in 11 games prior to the New Year break. But the holiday seemed to do Vyacheslav Butsayev’s men some good as the team raced into an early lead that it never relinquished. Alexei Pepelyayev opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a shot from the blue line that ricocheted into the net, then Ben Maxwell went through one-on-one to beat Ivan Lisutin 65 seconds later.
The second period brought two more quick goals. Andrei Kostitsyn fired home the rebound from Ilya Krikunov’s shot to make it 3-0 then Eric O’Dell added a fourth. Yegor Morozov wrapped up the middle stanza with his team’s fifth goal, emerging from behind the net to score on the backhand. Avtomobilist belatedly got on the scoreboard through Stanislav Chistov in the 53^rd minute, but with eight points to make up on the playoff pack, the Yekaterinburg team’s prospects look to be fading.

Ugra v Torpedo 0-2
Third-placed Torpedo proved too strong for lowly Ugra, with goalie Ilya Proskuryakov claiming his eighth shut-out of the season. The former CSKA man faced 17 shots in a lackluster game in Khanty-Mansiysk, with the host struggling to create good looks at his net. Torpedo won it thanks to a Vladimir Galuzin goal in the 33^rd minute. Ugra gambled on withdrawing its goalie, Alexander Sharychenkov, with more than two minutes to play after Galuzin took a tripping penalty. But the plan backfired: Dmitry Semin put a shorthanded goal into the empty net to seal the points for the visitor.

Thursday, January 05, 2017

Metallurg Novokuznetsk v Lokomotiv 1-2
Petri Kontiola scored two power-play goals to give Lokomotiv a 2-1 win at Metallurg Novokuznetsk. The Finn struck in the 34^th and 52^nd minutes, either side of Kirill Lebedev’s reply for the host.
Avangard v Vityaz 3-2
Vityaz, searching for points to boost its playoff push, went to Avangard looking to end a six-game losing streak in Omsk. For a time, it seemed that history might be changing: the visitor went 2-0 in front in the first period thanks to goals from Miro Aaltonen and Alexander Nikulin. But Avangard, which lost out by the odd goal in five against Dynamo on Tuesday, hit back in the second period to tie the game on goals from David Booth and Maxim Pestushko. Then a penalty late in the session saw the home team begin the final stanza on the power play, and Vitaly Menshikov capitalized on that opportunity to grab the game-winner in the 42^nd minute.Lada v Traktor 0-3
A shut-out from Pavel Francouz, who made 26 saves, and a goal in each period saw Traktor to a 3-0 win at Lada. The Chelyabinsk team was playing its sixth successive road game and made a perfect start when Artyom Penkovsky opened the scoring in the third minute. Paul Szczechura doubled the lead on the power play just after the midway mark then assisted as Konstantin Klimontov wrapped things up with an empty-net goal.
Neftekhimik v Metallurg Magnitogorsk 0-1
Defending champion Metallurg Magnitogorsk snatched a late, late win at Neftekhimik with a goal 19 seconds from the hooter. The game was scoreless, and fairly evenly poised, until a late penalty on the host gave Jan Kovar the chance to win it. The Czech forward dropped the puck off for Sergei Mozyakin before embarking on a sweeping circular move that enabled him to arrive at the back post unmarked in time to meet Mozyakin’s return pass and fire beyond Andrei Kareyev, who had previously denied 37 Metallurg attempts.
Vasily Koshechkin made 32 saves to claim his shut-out as Magnitka moves on to 99 points for the season. Dinamo Minsk v Severstal 1-2 SO
Dinamo Minsk suffered its first defeat in six, going down in a shoot-out at home to Severstal. Alexander Avtsin put the visitor in front early in the second period, but Andrei Stepanov tied the game midway through the third. Visiting goalie Jakub Kovar dominated the shoot-out with three saves as Maxim Trunyov got the winner.Slovan v Kunlun 1-2 OT
Slovan began the evening with a tribute to Miroslav Satan, one of the greatest players in Slovak hockey history, before doing battle with Kunlun for the first time. But this clash between the KHL’s oldest club and its newest went the way of the visitor from Beijing as Tuukka Mantyla got an overtime winner on the power play 32 seconds before the end. Jonathan Cheechoo opened the scoring for Slovan midway through the game, but the Chinese team tied it up in the 52^nd minute with a goal made in Slovakia. Martin Bakos was the provider, chipping an awkward looping shot at Justin Pogge, and Tomas Marcinko was on hand to shoot home the rebound. Medvescak v Amur 3-1
Two goals in the last minute saw Medvescak beat Amur 3-1 and post its fourth straight win. Yury Nazarov gave the visitor a first-period lead, and for a long time that seemed to be enough to take the game. But Tomislav Zanoski tied the scores in the 44^th minute with his first goal of the season and Alexandre Bolduc got the winner on 59:36. Lukas Lessio added an empty net goal in the last second to seal the win.