KHL Saturday recap

Ak Bars Kazan regained their lead in Eastern Conference with a solid win against the also in Kharlamov Division playing Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk - for Ak Bars it was their 7th win in their last 8 matches. Konstantin Korneyev, Alexei Tereshchenko (2) and Artyom Lukoyanov earned a comfortable 4-0 lead until 35:00. This lead was cut to the half though even before the second intermission through goals by Maxim Pestushko and Martin Cibak for the guests. After a timeout Neftekhimik tried it early by pulling out their goalie for an additional attacker but without success.

For Severstal the win against Donbass Donetsk was not only valuable because they further improved their playoff chances but also because they held a direct competitior for a playoff spot in the Western Conference at distance. Denis Kazionov earned the lead for Severstal at 03:03 but just three minutes later Sergei Varlamov and Lukas Kaspar had turned the result already around completely for the Ukrainian guests. Still Pavel Dadunov and Vadim Shipachyov gained a 3-2 lead until the end of the first period. Around "half time" it was Alexei Medvedev who added another one for Severstal before Peter Podhradsky used a power play at 50:54 to keep the game close for the last 10 minutes. During the last minute of play Jan Laco left the Donbass net for an additional attacker but they couldn't force the equalizer anymore.     

In the duel of the two bottom teams of Bobrov Division home side VItyaz Chekhov had the better end for themselves. Artemy Panarin and Dinar Khafizullin twice earned a lead for Vityaz in the first 20 minutes with the equalizer through Alexandre Giroux in between. With one minute left in the middle period Evgeny Timkin made everything clear for Vityaz. Dinamo Riga tried it without their goalie in the last minute but also this didn't help anymore.

Dinamo Minsk cut the deficit towards the playoff spots in Western Conference to just one point by defeating bottom side Spartak Moscow more or less easily with the result of 3-0. At 06:51 Anatoly Nikontsev had the big opportunity to bring Spartak in front via penalty shot but his attempt was denied by the once more strong Dinamo goalie Lars Haugen. At the end of the period Goeff Platt did a better job on the other side during his penalty shot and deked out Alexei Yakhin for the Dinamo lead. A power play strike by Zbynek Irgl in the middle period and a well-placed shot by Janne Niskala at the start of the third made sure all three points would stay in Belarus. Lars Haugen had 30 saves and earned a shutout. Dinamo now has gained 13 out of possible 15 points in the first five matches of a six-game home stint.

 

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