KHL Friday recap

Avangard Omsk gained their expected win in their visit to Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. For the second time in five days they defeated the last in the KHL table with a three-goal difference but the hosts kept the game open until the start of the third period. Nikita Tryamkin and Rastislav Spirko twice tied the Avangard lead through Pavel Valentenko and Alexander Frolov for a 2-2 after 40 minutes. Four consecutive goals within ten minutes then let the guests secure the three points when Tomas Zaborsky, Sergei Kostitsyn and twice Dmitry Syomin put the puck into the net. At 54.22 Josef Straka only could make the result a bit more comfortable for Avtomobilist but they couldn't avoid another loss this season.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk conquered the second place in Kharlamov Division after a convincing 5-1 victory against Barys Astana from Kazakhstan. In the first period Cal O'Reilly and Nikolai Kulemin put them twice in front while Maxim Spiridonov had scored the equalizer for the guests in between. A double by Dmitry Kazionov and a strike by Sergei Gonchar decided the game already before the second intermission. In the last 20 minutes Magnitka didn't more than necessary and Barys was able to keep the result in decent limits.

First in Kharlamov Division ahead of Magnitogorsk stays Traktor Chelyabinsk after their 2-1 win against Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk. In the second period that was cleary dominated by the hosts, Traktor pathed the way for their win with goals by Yegor Dugin and Maxim Yakutsenya while Yugra was even lucky as 17 to 2 shots didn't harm them more. Instead the guests even cut the lead to the half at 52:40 through Maxim Belyaev but the result didn't change anymore.

Salavat Yulayev Ufa got a clear revenge for last week's loss against Donbass Donetsk. Already after 24 seconds could Igor Musatov score the first one for the hosts but they didn't gain too much confidence as Donbass took over the initiative immediately and scored the equalizer through Clay Wilson at 09:04. Six minutes later one of the few Ufa attacks in the first period still led to the 2-1 through Igor Mirnov. A double within 36 seconds in the 23rd minute through Antti Pihlström and Nikita Filatov brought the decision for the favourites already. Donbass was in power play for large parts of the game but their special teams failed in all their attempts. On the other side it was Andrei Konev who at 47:03 added the final 5-1 for Ufa with the man advantage.

Spartak Moscow with a huge surprise win in Kazan. Against Ak Bars they won in overtime but it could have been also a point mote. Alexander Suglobov and Alexei Yemelin twice put the team from the capital in front while Janne Pesonen and Alexei Yemelin tied it - the 2-2 only came at 57:15. With their second shot in overtime Spartak won the extra point through Branko Radivojevic at 63:28.

The last in Bobrov Division, Latvian side Dinamo Riga is slowely but steadily collecting points recently. Today a lone goal by Paul Szczechura at 25:24 away against Neftekhimik Nizhenamsk was already enough to get their 4th win in 8 matches. Despite 47-16 shots on goal for the hosts Neftekhimik the Latvians even maneged to get their first shutout of the season.

After two consecutive losses against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl the traditional super power CSKA Moscow found back into the winning track against Torpedo Nizhni Novgorod. The begin though was not very promising as CSKA saw themselves behind with a two-goal defecit after strikes by Vladimir Gorbunov and Dmitry Makarov. Within four minutes of the third period the hosts came back through goals by their star forward Alexander Radulov and lockout star Pavel Datsyuk. After a scoreless overtime, Sergei Shirokov was the only one to transform his penalty shot to gain the extra point for the capitals.

Dynamo Moscow defended their first spot in Bobrov Division but until that point it was more work than expected. At the begin of period number two the current Gagarin Cup holders saw themselves down with a 0-3 deficit after goals by Alexander Ryazantsev, Bogdan Kiselevich and Teemu Laakso before Dmitry Pestunov, Filip Novak and twice Alexander Ovechkin turned the game into Dynamo's favour within less than ten minutes of the same period. At 54:59 Swedish forward Nicklas Bäckström used a power play to decide the match. With this strike he had crowned his performance with three assists.

For SKA St. Petersburg today's game against Dinamo Minsk was pretty similar to the one against Severstal Cherepovets two days ago. Vladimir Tarasenko and Tony Martensson had used a double within 19 seconds around "half time" before Charles Linglet and Jere Karalahti tied it for the Belarussians. Although SKA won the match in the end, this time they had to give up a point as the game winner by Yuri Alexandrov came only in overtime at 63:53.

The 8,632 specators in Prague's Tipsport Arena won't forget this evening for a long time. Against the top team Lokomotiv Yarsolavl their home team Lev Prague earned a spectacular 7-3 win, getting revenge for last week's overtime loss against the same opponent in Russia. Roman Cervenka, Tomas Surovy, Martin Skoula and Lubos Bartecko already had earned a 4-0 lead for Lev before Alexei Kalyuzhny brought Lokomotiv for the first time onto the scoreboard. Jakub Klepis for Lev and Sergei Plotnikov for Lokomotiv made it 5-2 after 40 minutes. Early in the third Yury Petrov even cut the Lev lead to just two but again Lubos Bartecko and Michal Repik made the secon win this week for the Czechs perfect. It was also the highest number of goals they scored in their short KHL history.

Slovan Bratislava earned their second win after the national team break and their first at home by defeating Atlant Moscow Oblast for the second time within a week. Against the 2011 Gagarin Cup finalists who are in a deep crisis this season, they started with a lot of pressure and were brought in front by Peter Ölvecky at 12:52. But the 10,055 fans in the again sold-out arena in the Slovakian capital saw how Atlant even turned the result around until "half time" through Alexei Mikhnov and Viktor Bobrov. Just two minutes after the 1-2 it was Marko Dano who brought Slovan back into the game. When it seemed the game might be extended to overtime it was Roman Kukumberg who scored the game winner at 54:57. 

 

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