KHL - Round Up - September 12, 2017

Foreign legion in charge in Ufa
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 Dinamo Riga 1 (0-0, 1-0, 1-1)
Salavat Yulaev’s imports combined to secure a narrow victory at home to Dinamo, with Linus Omark having a hand in both goals.
The home team shaded the opening session without getting on the scoresheet, but needed just 74 seconds of the middle stanza to put that right. Joonas Kemppainen was the architect, outsmarting Dinamo’s Miks Indrasis before feeding Omark for the shot. Omark himself turned provider early in the third, lurking at the back post to set up Philip Larsen for a slap shot as the home power play gave the Latvians the run-around. Dinamo got one back thanks to Brandon McMillan, but a late penalty on Terry Galiardi hampered its hopes of taking anything from the game.


A painful night for Ugra
Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk 0 Avangard Omsk 7 (0-2, 0-3, 0-2)
The first of two meetings between the teams this week ended in a crushing defeat for the host. The seven-goal margin was Ugra’s heaviest loss in its KHL history, while Avangard recorded its biggest road victory since the competition was founded in 2008.
Semyon Koshelev led the scoring with two goals, the first and the fourth of the game, with Dennis Everberg, Valentin Pyanov, Maxim Berezin and Dmitry Kugryshev also finding the net while Ilya Mikheyev had a hat-trick of assists. Alexander Perezhogin scored the seventh, celebrating his recent new contract extension with his first goal of the season. Dominik Furch had 27 saves at the other end.
For Ugra, it was a day to forget: penalty trouble cost the team dear, with four of the goals coming on the Avangard power play. But the team has a chance to get revenge quickly when it travels to Omsk for Sunday’s return match-up.

Spartak Max-es out Ak Bars
Ak Bars Kazan 3 Spartak Moscow 4 OT (0-1, 2-2, 1-0, 0-1)
Spartak sprang a surprise in Kazan thanks to a game-winning performance from Ben Maxwell. The forward scored twice before claiming an assist on Ville Lajunen’s overtime winner. Maxwell stole the puck from home captain Andrei Markov and, after his attempt was saved, continued the play to set up the Finnish defenseman for the decisive goal.
In regulation, the teams exchanged the lead on the way to a 3-3 tie. Spartak opened the scoring early thanks to Ryan Stoa and held that 1-0 advantage until the first intermission as Markus Svensson held the home offense at bay.
The first turnaround came early in the second. Anton Glinkin tied the scores and Justin Azevedo put Ak Bars up on the power play in the 27^th minute. But then Maxwell, a summer signing from HC Sochi, took the opportunity to really introduce himself to the Red-and-White faithful. He made it 2-2 shortly after the midway mark and added a power play goal to reinstate the visitor’s lead. Igor Mirnov assisted on both efforts.
The home team was long frustrated in its search for another equalizer, and had to wait until the 56^th minute before forcing the game into overtime. Albert Yarullin got the all-important goal, rifling home from the face-off spot after good work from Jiri Sekac.

Dugin completes Torpedo recovery
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 OT (1-0, 1-2, 0-0, 0-1)
Yegor Dugin’s overtime goal saw Torpedo record a third successive victory, despite trailing 0-2 at Neftekhimik.
Dugin struck in the 64^th minute, circling through the home team’s zone to find a shooting lane and beat Ilya Ezhov.
Earlier, Neftekhimik opened a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Damir Sharipzyanov and Emil Galimov, but the home team was pegged back by a double strike from Denis Barantsev. The former Dynamo defenseman converted two power plays in quick succession. First, he delivered a slap shot from the opening face-off after Sharipzyanov was sent to the box, then he scored again from a similar position off another Ziga Jeglic feed to tie the game.