Sunday 6 - Ak Bars v Torpedo 1-2
It’s been a long time coming, but Torpedo finally picked up a victory in Kazan after an eight-year wait. There was also a bit of a wait for action around either net in this game. The first period was goalless, and chances were hard to come by at both ends as the teams played cautiously. For Torpedo, thumped 5-0 at home by Ak Bars earlier in the season, it was important to stay in the game early on.
In the second period, though, the visitor did more than stay in contention. A shorthanded goal, clinically finished by Evgeny Mozer, gave Torpedo a 22nd-minute lead, then a baseball-style swing from Ivan Zakharchuk doubled the advantage midway through the game. That was a specially sweet moment for the 28-year-old, as his brother Stepan was on the ice for Ak Bars at the time. Ak Bars hit back, with Nikita Yazkov reducing the deficit. But Torpedo held on, even after a major penalty against Gennady Stolyarov in the third period gave the home team a golden chance to level the scores.
Sunday 13 - Ak Bars @ Dinamo Minsk 1-4
Dinamo sprung a surprise against Ak Bars to keep Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s team away from the Eastern Conference summit. The first period was all Dinamo, but despite outshooting Ak Bars 14-2, the Belarusians remained deadlocked at the first intermission. That all changed with Yegor Sharangovich’s power play goal at the start of the middle session, as Emil Garipov finally yielded in the visiting net. However, giving up that marker also galvanized Ak Bars, and Mikhail Glukhov hauled the Tatars level in the 27th minute. At this point, it seemed that the visitor was poised to take control of the game, but Evgeny Kovyrshin had other ideas and made it 2-1 to Dinamo against the run of play. In the final session, the Bison were able to reinforce that lead. Charles Linglet made it 3-1 on the power play, and Marc-Andre Gragnani added a fourth into the empty net.
Tuesday 15 - Ak Bars @ Vityaz 4-1
Ak Bars took advantage of Barys’ earlier slip to return to the top of the Eastern Conference thanks to a comfortable road win at Vityaz. The home team handed a debut to goalie Tomi Karhunen, recently of Kunlun Red Star, but the new guy had to retrieve the puck from his net four times as the visitor dominated. Stanislav Galiyev opened the scoring after 17 seconds and Albert Yarullin doubled the lead in the first period before Maxim Afinogenov got one back for the host in the middle session. The third period was a reminder of Vityaz teams of old: the host accrued 50 minutes of penalties, including 10-minute calls against Sergei Gimayev and Evgeny Katichev, plus Artyom Voroshilo’s ejection from the game. But there were no power play goals to be seen: Artyom Lukoyanov and Jiri Sekac extended Ak Bars’ lead during five-on-five play.
Thursday 17 - Ak Bars @ CSKA Moscow 0-3
The leader in the East headed to Moscow to face the second-placed team in the West … and lost its way inside the first 10 minutes. CSKA made a blistering start to this game, taking the lead through Nikita Nesterov after 67 seconds and doubling the advantage when Andrei Kuzmenko got a power play goal in the ninth minute. Kuzmenko is enjoying a good week after picking up 2+1 in the Army Men’s 3-0 victory over Salavat Yulaev on Wednesday. This game also finished 3-0, thanks to a third-period goal from Kirill Petrov and 13 saves from Ilya Sorokin. For the second game running, CSKA not only enjoyed a comfortable win, but did a good job at muting a dangerous offense. Two successive shut-outs came after allowing just 30 shots in total.
Sunday 20 - Ak Bars v Avangard Omsk 3-4 SO
The day’s big clash saw top play second in the Eastern Conference … and after a roller-coaster game, the two teams finished level on 60 points following a shoot-out win for Avangard. Looking to overhaul a one-point deficit at the top of the table, the Omsk team made the better start. Goals from Alexander Perezhogin and Maxim Chudinov gave Avangard a 2-0 lead early in the second period, but Ak Bars recovered to tie the game shortly after the midway point. Albert Yarullin and Nikita Yazkov brought the host level to set up a compelling third period. Yaroslav Kosov got his first goal since moving to Ak Bars from Magnitogorsk to put his team in front with eight minutes left. That was almost enough to win it, but Avangard saved itself in the last minute. Andre Petersson’s shot was parried across the face of goal where Ilya Mikheyev was waiting unmarked to tuck away the rebound. Ak Bars swapped goalies for the shoot-out, bringing on Timur Bilyalov in place of Emil Garipov. But the switch did not pay off: Kirill Semyonov found the way past the new man, while Oleg Shilin denied all of the home attempts
Tuesday 22 - Ak Bars @ Salavat Yulaev Ufa 5-0
The first ‘Green Derby’ of the season renewed the old rivalry between Salavat Yulaev and Ak Bars. The teams had not met since last season’s playoff, when Ak Bars cruised to victory in five games … and today’s clash came against a background of disappointment in Ufa over the team’s inconsistent form. A home win would have gone a long way to quashing questions about the future of head coach Erkka Westerlund, and could have given Salavat something to build on after a morale-boosting 3-1 win at Sochi last time out. Instead, though, Ak Bars delivered a five-star show in what turned into a demolition derby. Admittedly, there wasn’t much in the game early on. Neither side created many chances in a tight opening period, but Ak Bars took the initiative when Vladimir Tkachyov converted a power play late in the session. The door inched open, and that was all the visitor needed. Alexei Potapov added a second power play goal and Anton Glinkin took the lead to 3-0 in the 38th minute.
Most of the game’s secondary indicators – shots on goal, time on offense – suggested that Salavat was more than competitive, but the scoring told a different story. While Emil Garipov dealt with everything the host could throw at him, Ben Scrivens found life tougher at the other end. He was beaten twice more in the final stanza as Tkachyov got his second and Yaroslav Kosov wrapped it up.
Apart from the convincing margin of victory, the discipline of the visitor was also impressive. Ak Bars did not take a single penalty over the course of the game, and punished both of Salavat Yulaev’s trips to the sin bin
Friday 25 - Ak Bars v Barys Astana 2-0
There was no role for Danis Zaripov
, cleared to play for Ak Bars after his drug ban was reduced from two years to six months, but the four-time Gagarin Cup winner watched the Eastern Conference leader picked up a handy win against a fellow high-flyer. The visitor has been full of goals this season, and Emil Garipov’s shut-out was crucial to Ak Bars’ victory. That defensive feat was a team effort, with Barys limited to 21 shots on target, and there was help from the officials when Linden Vey’s effort late in the second period was ruled out for an infringement on the goalie. At the time, the game was still goalless. Ak Bars made the most of its reprieve to take the lead just before the second intermission on a Rob Klinkhammer goal. That was his first tally for Ak Bars following his early-season move from Dinamo Minsk and it proved decisive. Anton Glinkin scored an empty-net goal to wrap up the win; Garipov’s fifth shut-out of the season is a personal best for the goalie.
Sunday 27 - Ak Bars @ HC Sochi 3-1
Eastern Conference leader Ak Bars came from behind to take the win at Sochi as captain Alexander Svitov got his 100th KHL goal. The home team had the better of the first period, and got its reward in the 12th minute when Vadim Shchegolkov set up Evgeny Lapenkov for the opening goal. But Ak Bars did not panic, and turned the game around with two goals early in the middle frame. Rob Klinkhammer got the tying goal, shooting home Andrei Markov’s pass from behind the net as the visitor enjoyed a power play. Then Vasily Tokranov finished off a well-worked play to make it 2-1. Svitov’s big moment came five minutes from the end to bring up his landmark and secure the win.
Tuesday 29 - Ak Bars v Salavat Yulaev Ufa 0-1
Salavat Yulaev pulled off a significant win at the home of old rival Ak Bars. The single-goal margin may have been tight, but this was a big success for a team facing a rising tide of criticism amid a lackluster run of form. The visitor avenged a painful 0-5 loss in Ufa just one week earlier and, while it can hardly now claim to be back on form after a run of eight losses in 10 games, there was plenty of character on display in this game. Goalie Ben Scrivens made 27 saves to collect his third shut-out of the season, while the team dug deep to repel an Ak Bars team that spent almost a third of the game on the attack without finding a way to goal. A cagey opening session finished goalless, but the visitor took the lead early in the second through Anton Burdasov. Fyodor Belyakov’s pass to Enver Lisin turned defense into attack, then Lisin picked out Burdasov in a central position for a one-timer past Emil Garipov. Into the final frame, and Ak Bars tightened the screws. However, Salavat Yulaev stood firm, despite intense pressure. As the frustration increased, the host briefly found itself at a two-man disadvantage, a chance that went unpunished but helped to run down the clock in the closing stages. Danis Zaripov, four-time Gagarin Cup winner and three-time World Champion, has agreed a two-year contract with Ak Bars, the team with whom he won his first two KHL Championships (in 2009 and 2010). The 36-year-old winger spent 12 years with the Kazan team before moving in 2013 to Magnitogorsk, where he repeated his success with Metallurg, lifting the Gagarin Cup in 2014 and 2016.
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