KHL - Round Up - October 05, 2017

Nichushkin orchestrates CSKA’s win
CSKA Moscow 3 Severstal Cherepovets 1 (0-0, 0-1, 3-0)
Valery Nichushkin’s three-point haul made the difference as CSKA moved up to second in the Western Conference after seeing off Severstal in Moscow.
The Army Men recorded their fourth victory in a row, but only after a scare in the second period when Valery Vasilyev put the visitor in front. That goal was somewhat against the run of play: CSKA dominated the first period without finding the answer to Alexei Artamkin in the visitor’s net, and the home team continued to create chances in the middle session.
But Severstal’s lead lasted until the final stanza, when the host finally found its scoring touch. Alexander Popov tied the game with a power play goal in the 45^th minute. Valery Nichushkin picked up an assist on that one and found the net himself five minutes later on another CSKA power play. That goal proved to be the winner; Sergei Andronov wrapped it up with an empty netter as Nichushkin got his third point of the night.

No end in sight for Riga’s slump
Vityaz Podolsk 4 Dinamo Riga 1 (1-0, 1-1, 2-0)
Dinamo Riga’s miserable run of form continued with a 14^th successive loss. After taking CSKA to overtime in Tuesday’s game at CSKA, the Latvians had hopes of snapping their long losing streak, but Alexei Kopeikin’s 11th-minute goal for the host left Girts Ankipans’ team with that familiar sinking feeling.
Nikolai Zherdev, a recent addition to the Dinamo roster, gave some hope to his team with an equalizer in the 28^thminute, but his first goal for his new club was cancelled out soon after when Ivan Petrakov restored the Vityaz lead with the third goal of his rookie season.
That proved to be the game winner, although the game remained in the balance until the final stages. But Dinamo was unable to carve out a tying goal and Maxim Afinogenov made it 3-1 with a power play marker on 56 minutes. Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi wrapped it up with an empty-net goal.


Torpedo back on miserly form
Slovan Bratislava 0 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (0-1, 0-0, 0-0)
Torpedo’s defense returned to its impressive form of late September with another shut-out to frustrate Slovan. Ivan Lisutin made 31 saves to deny the home team as Torpedo made it four shut-outs from its last six games and recovered from back-to-back losses against CSKA and Jokerit. The game’s only goal came from Denis Parshin in the 15^th minute. The forward intercepted a pass from Pavol Skalicky inside the Slovan zone and unleashed a shot that beat Marek Mazanec and rattled off the camera in the back of the net. Play initially continued, but a brief check of the video confirmed that the goal was good.