Barys consolidates playoff spot

In the duel of two times fighting for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference of KHL the hosts Barys Astana won surprisingly high with 6-2. Just two days after beating the top team Magnitogorsk away, Yugra showed a weak performance in defense. Still they managed to take the lead with their first shot on goal at 02:17 through Maxim Belyaev. The Kazakhs answered with a lot of pressure but Yugra goalie Mikhail Biryukov had a great first period and stopped them several times with saves in the last moment. When it looked like this tactic would be enough for Yugra, it was Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev who scored the equalizer with just nine seconds left in the first period after a pass by Talgat Zhailauov into the center.

In the second period Barys started again with a lot of pressure and gave a first taste of what would come. The before very well-playing Biryukov let through three consecutive goals by Fyodor Polishchuk, Talgat Zhailauov and Maxim Spiridonov. Afterwards he had to leave the ice and was substituted by Edgards Masalskis. But also the Latvian couldn't do much with a non-existing defense in front of him and already the first shot he faced was in through Roman Savchenko for a 5-1 Barys lead at 26:43. In the following minutes of the period the guests tried to calm down and get some attacks by themselves but when a Yugra defender didn't pay enough attention Konstantin Rudenko was able to steal the puck from him and use the break away to make it half a dozen at 35:05.

In the last 20 minutes both teams took a lot of unncessesary penalties and both teams were happy - Barys with the three points, Yugra not to lose in a even worse way. At 45:13 Linus Videll used one of the few chances by the guests to score the final 6-2.

Barys Astana now has a three-point advantage towards the non-playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

 

Advanced player search

Tweets by @eurohockey