No points for foreign teams on Christmas Eve

24 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende

There were just two games played this Monday and in both occasions the guests took all three points with them. Ak Bars takes the lead in the East.

Bottom side Dinamo Riga received Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk for a must-game win as both teams are well behind the playoff spots. The Latvian hosts came onto the ice with a lof of speed and just 50 seconds were played before Yugra's Dmitry Altaryov had to take the first penalty of the game. Just when their power play ended Dinamo scored through Alexandre Grioux at 02:54. On the other side the case was pretty similar when Igor Skorokhodov earned the equalizer just 8 seconds after Dinamo's Jamie Johnson returned from the penalty box. When Konstantin Glazachev used a rebound to turn around the game in favour of Yugra his strike was very surprising but it just was the game winner. Dinamo tried a lot but lacked offensive power and barely had big opportunities. When the home side had to risk everything and pulled out goalie Mikael Tellqvist for an additional attacker, Anton But ended all hopes for Riga points with his empty netter at 59:27. For Yugra it was the second consecutive win and they cut the deficit towards the playoff spots to five points.

The match in Prague started with a lot of penalties and most of them for the local Lions. When Erik Christensen and Petr Vrana sat in the penalty box Lauris Darzins used this 5 on 3 power play for the lead at 10:39. Just a couple of seconds later Nathan Oystrick took another penalty for Lev and the hosts found themselves back with two players less on the ice. When Petr Vrana returned to game action he couldn't avoid anymore the 0-2 through Janne Pesonen who scored just three seconds after his penalty ended. After a timeout Jakub Stepanek left his net for some time in the last minute of regulation but his team mates couldn't force the equalizer anymore. Emil Garipov in the Ak Bars net just needed 23 saves to secure his first shutout of the season - in his 6th start. With this win Ak Bars has 75 points and is back on top of the Eastern Conference with 75 points - one point better than Avangard Omsk.