KHL - Round Up - September 03, 2017

Shoot-out win lifts Kunlun to second place
Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 Kunlun Red Star 5 SO (3-0, 1-3, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Mike Keenan is making an immediate impact at Kunlun Red Star, and today’s victory lifted the team up to second place in the Eastern Conference.
Kunlun has now won three in a row after recovering from a 0-3 deficit at the end of the first period. Traktor’s early dominance bore fruit with goals from Maxim Yakutsenya, Paul Szczechura and Yury Petrov, but the visitor hit back impressively.
It took just six minutes of the second period for Red Star to draw level with one goal from Alexei Ponikarovsky and two from Cory Kane. Ivan Vishnevsky’s power play goal put Traktor in front once more, but Kunlun tied it up in the third when Brandon DeFazio scored on the power play with six minutes left. Wojtech Wolski picked up three assists in the fightback.
The game went to a shoot-out, Kunlun’s first of the season, and after Petrov beat Tomi Karhunen with Traktor’s first attempt, the visitor once again came out on top. Karhunen proved unbeatable, while Geoff Kinrade, Cory Kane and Jesse Blacker all beat Pavel Francouz.

Salavat Yulaev keeps on scoring
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 6 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 0 (1-0 1-0, 4-0)
After scoring 11 against Sochi during the week, Salavat Yulaev showed that it still had an appetite for goals with a 6-0 thrashing of Neftekhimik.
The visitors, who had made a bright start to the season, slipped to a second successive loss in the face of some powerful Ufa offense and the punishment started early. Ilya Zubov opened the scoring in the third minute, with the only goal of the first period.
The middle session was also tight: Denis Kokarev doubled Salavat’s lead midway through, but the game was still very much alive at the second intermission.
That all changed in the closing stages. The home team scored four in five minutes, with Maxim Mayorov, Anton Lazarev, Philip Larsen and Kokarev’s second of the game giving a 6-0 margin and making it 17 goals in two games for the men in green. Ben Scrivens made 25 saves for his first shut-out at his new club.

Gareyev and Chesalin get their first goals, Avto gets the win
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (2-1, 0-0, 2-0)
Artyom Gareyev and Evgeny Chesalin scored their first goals of the season for Avtomobilist to help the team to a convincing win at home to Admiral. Gareyev put the gloss on a bright start from the host when he scored in the 13^th minute, adding to Anatoly Golyshev’s early strike.
Admiral hit back through Maxim Kazakov, but there was no further scoring until midway through the third period. Chesalin then stepped up to open his account for the campaign, making it 3-1. Taylor Beck added an empty-net goal to complete the win.

Mozyakin edges Dawes in clash of the sharp-shooters
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 Barys Astana 2 SO (1-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)
This game was a meeting of the KHL’s all-time leading scorer, Sergei Mozyakin, and the all-time top-scoring import, Nigel Dawes. Both men played a big role in determining the outcome.
Dawes made the first significant contribution of the pair, scoring twice as Barys recovered from 0-2 to force overtime. Unusually, Mozyakin had not been among the points as the home team built its lead. Instead Matt Ellison opened the scoring on 16 minutes and Oskar Osala converted a power play in the 28^th.
Dawes’ double took the game into overtime, and thence to a shoot-out. Now the two strikers were pitched head-to-head. Dawes saw his first attempt saved by Vasily Koshechkin; Mozyakin replied by beating Henrik Karlsson. Anton Shenfeld put Magnitka 2-1 up, and Dawes saved the game when he scored on Koshechkin. Mozyakin rose to the challenge, though, and converted the next attempt at the other end. Linden Vey fired wide and the game went to the host.

Amur late show shocks Lada
Lada Tolyatti 1 Amur Khabarovsk 2 OT (1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 0-1)
Amur claimed its second win in a row, but was 92 seconds away from defeat at Lada. The home team took the lead in the first period through Alexander Nesterov, and held on to that advantage fairly comfortably for much of the game. But Tomas Zohorna tied it up with a late power play goal, and Alexei Byvaltsev snatched the win in overtime to leave Lada deflated.

CSKA moves to the top of the table
CSKA Moscow 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 1 (3-0, 0-0, 0-1)
CSKA, regular season table-topper for the last three years, is back in a familiar position after this win. The Moscow team holds first place ahead of SKA – but only by the narrowest of margins. The teams are level on points and have three regulation-time wins apiece, CSKA has played a game more, but claims the edge by virtue of having won more games in overtime.
There was little danger of any extras being needed to decide this encounter. The host wasted little time in seizing control. Kirill Kaprizov opened the scoring in the fifth minute, then Maxim Shalunov added a second on the power play. Shalunov was assisted by Sergei Shumakov: two ex-Sibir players plotting their old club’s downfall.
Another Sibir penalty led to another CSKA goal, with Andrei Kuzmenko making it 3-0. Konstantin Okulov became the third former Sibir man to pick up a point in the game. There was some consolation for the visitor in the third period, when Patrik Zackrisson scored his first goal since returning to the KHL, but the result was long since decided.

Makeyev stars in Vityaz romp
Vityaz Podolsk 6 Avangard Omsk 2 (3-1, 3-0, 0-1)
Vityaz snapped its three-game losing streak in fine style, crushing Avangard 6-2 in Podolsk. Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi, impressive in Friday’s 2-3 loss against Ugra, made a good start here. He opened the scoring in the second minute and added an assist as Alexei Semenov made it 2-0 in the fifth. Semyon Koshelev halved the deficit, but Semenov got his second of the game on a power play late in the first, chasing Dominik Furch from the net as Vityaz went 3-1 up.
The second period was dominated by Alexei Makeyev. The 25-year-old, quiet this season after a break-out campaign last time around, opened his 2017-18 account with a short-handed goal, assisted on Maxim Afinogenov’s effort and added a power play marker to make it 6-1 at the second intermission.
With the game out of reach, Avangard restored a little pride in the final stanza. Andre Petersson scored the only goal of the period to make the final score 6-2.

Slovan’s mini-revival stalled by Ugra
Slovan Bratislava 2 Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk 3 SO (0-1, 0-0, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)
After two home wins, life looked a lot better for Slovan. The team had struggled at the start of the season, but was settling down on home ice … until Ugra arrived.
The visitor, now under the guidance of Igor Zakharkin, is proving a tougher proposition than in recent years. Today it produced a battling performance that ended in a shoot-out victory. The visitor got the lead midway through the first period through Ivan Lekomtsev, and that advantage endured until the beginning of the third.
Then Slovan hit back. Marek Viedensky on the power play to tie the game, Andrej Meszaros with his third goal in three to make it 2-1. Ugra rallied and Daniil Ilyin tied it up once again.
On to a shoot-out, and the visitor kept its nerve. Pavel Varfolomeyev scored with the opening attempt, piling the pressure on Slovan. Ilya Proskuryakov, something of a shoot-out specialist, proved unbeatable. Konstantin Panov added a second to put the game out of reach.