KHL - Round Up - October 01, 2017

Samsonov silences Lada
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Lada Togliatti 0 (1-0, 0-0, 1-0)
Ilya Samsonov blanked Lada’s offense to help Magnitka to its second successive victory. The 20-year-old understudy to Vasily Koshechkin made 28 saves to record his first shut-out of the season. At the other end, Metallurg opened the scoring with a goal from a familiar combination. Jan Kovar’s pass from the boards found Sergei Mozyakin gaining a couple of inches of space from his handler in the center. With one touch to take the puck away, and another to slip it past Alexander Lazushin on the backhand, Magnitka took the lead. But Lada is a tougher opponent now than its recent losing streak would suggest. Artis Abols’ team did not crumble, despite trailing. The home fans had to wait until deep into the third period before they saw their heroes attain a more comfortable margin. Oskar Osala was the scorer, sent through on goal by Matt Ellison’s pass from center ice to squeeze a shot off the inside of Lazushin’s pad and into the net.

Two-point Tolvanen takes down Severstal
Jokerit Helsinki 3 Severstal Cherepovets 1 (0-0, 1-0, 2-1)
Eeli Tolvanen is at it again. The 18-year-old Jokerit star is making this a rookie season to remember in the KHL, and Sunday saw his grab a game-winning goal at home to Severstal. For a teenager, Tolvanen is hardly lacking in confidence, and his 45th-minute strike in this game showed exactly why he’s mixing it with the big boys. Collecting the puck in the corner, he assessed the options and went for the throat: seconds later, he was dinging a wrister past Julius Hudacek to give Jokerit a 2-0 lead. That’s nine for the season for Tolvanen, a player who is living up to the hype surrounding his game.
The youngster also had an assist as Sami Lepisto opened the scoring early in the period, but Severstal tried hard to ensure this was not a solo show. Although the host dominated the first two periods, the visitor upped its game in the third and gave Ryan Zapolski a work-out between the piping. Daniil Vovchenko reduced the arrears with eight minutes to play, and Zapolski pulled off two big saves to deny Ruslan Karlin an equalizing goal. John Norman’s empty-netter finally extinguished the visitor’s hopes.

CSKA unlocks Torpedo’s defense
CSKA Moscow 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 (2-0, 1-0, 1-0)
After three shut-out wins for Torpedo, CSKA needed just 25 seconds to breach the Novgorod team’s defenses and set a path towards a comfortable victory.
Kirill Kaprizov got the opening goal, forcing home the rebound from Maxim Shalunov’s shot to give the Army Men a perfect start. And it soon got even better, as Konstantin Okulov added a second after five minutes. Visiting goalie Stanislav Galimov had gone more than 160 minutes without allowing a goal; now he was beaten twice in quick succession.
The home team’s progress was slowed late in the first, when Nikita Nesterov was ejected from the game for a high hit on Vyacheslav Kulemin. Torpedo, though, was unable to take advantage of the minor penalty and fell further behind in the second period once CSKA was back at full strength. Andrei Kuzmenko added the third in the 27^th minute and Shalunov made it four late on to wrap up a convincing victory.


Spartak edges overtime verdict
Slovan Bratislava 1 Spartak Moscow 2 OT (0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Alexander Khokhlachyov’s overtime goal gave Spartak the verdict after a 1-1 tie in Bratislava. The forward broke the deadlock two minutes into the extras to settle the outcome. Earlier, Ryan Stoa gave Spartak the lead in the 16^th minute. As the visitor pressed on the power play, Stoa reacted fastest to tuck away the rebound after Artyom Alyayev’s shot crashed back off the boards. Slovan tied it up late in the second period through Nick Ebert. The defenseman blocked an attempted clearance and smashed home a shot from between the hash marks to make it 1-1.