Riga upsets Omsk

22 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende

Two of the three Saturday games in KHL were decided in the shootout. The clear outsiders Dinamo Riga destroyed a long Avangard Omsk streak.

For Latvian side Dinamo Riga, secoind last in Western Conference, the game against Avangard Omsk, second best in Eastern Conference, began with a first-period lead through Kristaps Sotnieks. At the begin of the middle period Dmitry Syomin tied the match for Avangard in power play before Krisjanis Redlihs gained the lead back at 36:53. In the last 20 minutes Miks Indrasis and Kaspars Daugavins even made it a solid 4-1 home win for Riga. With 7 points in their last four matches they at least have come back into fighting distance with division neighbours Vityaz Chekhov. For Avangard a 10-week streak ended that let them gain at least a point in every game since 8 October 2012 - that means 21 matches of which 18 had been won.

In front of a full arena Dinamo Minsk missed a chance to get closer to the playoff spots. They earned a lead in power play twice in a first period full of penalties while Tom Wandell had scored the equalizer in between for guests Severstal Cherepovets. With the start of the middle period Severstal became the better team and the 2-2 through Evgeny Ketov was well-deserved. When Vadim Shipachyov used a power play at 51:33 it looked like the guests might even gain the full amount of points but Tim Stapleton - also with the men advantage - extended the game to overtime with his strike at 56:44. The five-minute overtime saw a very defensive Dinamo Minsk that wanted the shootout to decide over the winner of the extra point. Vadim Berdnikov and Vadim Shipachyov both scored for Severstal and gained the deserved away win.

Slovan Bratislava opened the score through Libor Hudacek late in the first period in this evening's game against Ak Bars Kazan. The guests were the dominating team though and also gained the equalizer through Jarkko Immonen at 37:33. Alexei Morozov even turned the result into the favour of the guests from Russia before Mario Bliznak made it 2-2 at 52:18. After a scoreless overtime, Michal Vondrka transformed the decisive penalty attempt in the shootout to win the extra point for Ak Bars.