Lev loses first O2 Arena match in Chara debut

The day started with quite a big surprise when Amur Khabarovsk, last in Chernyshyov Division, beat Kharlamov Division leaders Traktor Chelyabinsk. After four consecutive losses the begin of their home stint came at the right time for Amur. Until 7:04 Dmitry Tarasov and Mika Pyorala gained a very early two-goal lead. Immediately after the 2-0 Traktor took a timeout which helped to avoid further goals against but the guests themselves had problems to create scoring opportunities. Stanislav Chistov cut the lead at 49:47 with an assist by Evgeny Kuznetsov - who had to apologize for a twiitter joke about hotels in Khabarovsk, which caused some controversy prior to the matchup. In the end Traktor couldn't avoid their only third loss in 12 games. Amur stays last in their division despite the win.

On the other end of Chernyshov Division did Sibir Novosibirsk collect another three points against the so far weakest side in KHL - Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. Only at 28:01 did Stepan Sannikov open the score for Sibir but two minutes later Vasily Streltsov tied the match. A double through Alexei Kopeikin and Kristian Kudroc pathed the way for the home win before Alexei Simakov cut the lead another time for Avtomobilist. After a timeout the guests played the last 90 seconds without their goalie Christopher Holt but despite having an additional attacker they couldn't avoid their 7th consecutive loss. Of 21 possible points in these games Yekaterinburg earned - zero !

In the duel of the two Metallurgs in the league, the "little" Novokuznetsk managed to win against the star-filled squad of Magnitogorsk. Around "half time" Sergei Mozyakin brought the guests in front and everything looked like the game would go the "normal" way but within less than six minutes Damir Zhafyarov and Alexei Yefimov turned the result around completely. When Magnitka had to take a high risk and pulled out goalie Ari Ahonen. The consequence was the decision through Brent Sopel and Nikita Vyglazov who both were clever enough not to miss the empty net for the 4-1.

After 40 minutes Avangard Omsk was in front 3-0 in Yaroslavl against local side Lokomotiv through Anton Belov, Alexander Perezhogin and Nikita Pivtsakin. When Lokomotiv had to react they did so. Artur Amirov and Dmitry Maltsev cut the lead to just one but Perezhogin with his second made everything clear. Tomas Zaborsky even added an empty-netter for the 2-5.

Barys Astana added another win to complete a perfect day for the Chernyshyov Division - 5 teams in action, 15 points. In their away game against Atlant Moscow Oblast it was Nigel Dawes who needed only 66 seconds to get the Kazakhs in front. At the begin of the second period Maxim Mayorov tied the match before again Dawes with a penalty shot at 39:44 get the lead back to Barys. A shorthander by Konstantin Rudenko was decisive in the third period.       

Punctually to Lev Prague's long-awaited first game in the modern O2 Arena, Boston Bruins lockout star Zdeno Chara gave his KHL debut for them. Anton Burdasov and Viktor Tikhonov shocked the home fans wiht a double for SKA St. Petersburg in the first period but in the middle period the hosts answered with a double by Marcel Hossa and Ondrej Nemec in a bit more than one minute. Shortly after that Fyodor Fedorov earned the lead back for SKA. Lev didn't give up and came back through Jakup Klepis in the last period but Vladimir Tarasenko won the game at 57:35.

Lev Prague had aimed to get a new league attendance record in the big arena but "only" 12,787 spectators were reported - at least a new franchise record for Lev.       

 

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