Favourites do their homework

22 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende

In the nine KHL games on Friday there were no real surprises. All the top teams were able to win against the outsiders.

SKA St. Petersburg earned an easy victory on the road against the recently struggling Amur Khabarovsk. Viktor Tikhonov with a double, Kevin Dallman, Ivan Nepryayev and Igor Makarov earned a 5-0 advantage before Topi Jaakola brought the hosts for the first time on the scoresheet at 51:41. Just half a minute later Vladimir Tarasenko extended the lead again for SKA. Another Finn, Janne Lahti, managed to get an at least a bit more comfortable result for Amur with the 2-6 at 58:42. For Amur it was the fifth consecutive loss without gaining a single point. On the other side SKA extended their winning streak to four.

Dynamo Moscow defended their four-point advantage towards SKA with an away win against Metallurg Novokuznetsk but twice lay behind after goals by Alexander Islamov and Nikolai Skladnichenko. Dominik Granak and Sergei Soin both times scored the equalizer for Dynamo before Nicklas Bäckström turned around the result for the first time into favour of the guests, with an assist by Alexander Ovechkin who went on to make it 4-2 himself at 52:01, this timme assisted by Bäckström.

Bottom side Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg grabbed the lead in the first period on the road against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl through Stanislav Zhmakin but had to see how Artyom Anisimov tied the match just two minutes later. Maxim Trunyov scoerd the 2-1 for Loko in the middle period before Sergei Plotnikov and Dmitry Maltsev made everything clear in the last 20 minutes.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk had their second away win after the two-week national team break and now they are just two points behind the lead in the Eastern Conference. Against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod they had a terrible start and after goals by Pyotr Schastlivy, Alexander Semin and Radek Smolenak they were behind with 3-1 after just ten minutes. Only Nikolai Kulemin had scored the equalizer for Metallurg in between. With his second-period goal Justin Hodgman gave the start for the Magnitka comeback that was completed by Ryan O'Reilly, again Kulemin and super star Evgeny Malkin (empty netter). With four consecutive goals the guests made it 5-3.

Spartak Moscow don't find out of their hole. A lone goal through Vitaly Sitnikov in power play late at 51:59 was enough for guests Yugra Khanty-Mansyisk to take all three points with them away from the capital. Guest goalie Mikhail Biryukov made 22 saves that were enough for a shutout. Spartak, at the bottom of Western Conference, lacks offensive power in recent weeks. For the fourth time in a row they didn't even score a single goal and always lost in regulation. For Yugra this win was very important to stay in touch with the playoff spots in the East.

For Traktor Chelyabinsk the up and downs continued also in their away match against Atlant Moscow Oblast but in the end they earned an shootout win. Maxim Mayorov with his second of the day made it 2-2 at 23:52 for Atlant after Andrei Kostitsyn and top talent Evgeny Kuznetsov had turned the game around for Traktor in between. Still in the middle period Nikolai Lemtyugov earned the lead back for Atlant before again Kuznetsov made it 3-3. This result also stood after overtime and so the shootout had to bring the decision. There Maxim Yakutsenya and Evgeny Kuznetsov scored with the two first attempts for Traktor and won the extra point for the guests already after the second round.

During the evening the three league newcomers played with mixed results. Czech side Lev Prague was very effecitve and beat 2011 Gagarin Cup winners Salavat Yulayev Ufa with 6-1. Nicklas Danielsson had opened the score for Lev at the end of the first but just two minutes later Andrei Zubarev managed to get the equalizer for Ufa. Within 19 seconds Jakup Klepis and Jakub Voracek made it 3-1 in the 35th minute before again Danielsson, Lubos Bartecko and also Voracek with his second made it an easy win for the Czechs.

For a long time the first-period lead through Ivan Svarny looked to be enough for Slovan Bratislava but when guests Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk risked everything by pulling out their goalie for another attacker, Igor Polygalov tied the match at 59:15. At this time the equalizer was more than deserved as the guests dominated the game. After a scoreless overtime, Igor Polygalov and Petr Koukal won the extra point for Neftekhimik in shootout.

Ukrainian league newcomers Donbass Donetsk even stayed without a single point. Against Kazakh side Barys Astana they soon lay behind when Dmitry Upper made it 0-1 after just 03:53. Though Lukas Kaspar used a nice solo run for the equalizer in power play in the middle of the period, Brandon Bochenski and Nikolai Antropov earned a two-goal lead for Barys afterwards that was cut to the half through Oskars Bartulis at 39:11. In the third period Donbass had the better chances and was close to the equalizer a couple of times but Konstantin Rudenko was able to get the decision for Barys with 19 seconds left on the clock in power play.