CSKA gets revenge against Dynamo in Moscow derby

30 Dec 2012 | Dennis Mende

A total of 8 games were played in the KHL on Sunday. While Metallurg Magnitogorsk earned an easy win against Amur Khabarovsk with a four-goal game by Sergei Mozyakin, favourites Avangard Omsk were beaten with the minimum score by Atlant Moscow Oblast. SKA St. Petersburg took over the lead in KHL from Dynamo.

Favourites Traktor Chelyabinsk were beaten at home by Sibir Novosibirsk but after a race to catch up they at least secure one point. Sergei Shumakov and Kristian Kudroc gained a two-goal lead for Sibir until "half time" before Vladimir Antipov brought Traktor on the scoreboard for the first time with just 27 seconds left to play in the middle period. At 46:59 Andrei Kostitsyn scored another one for the hosts to extend the game to overtime. This one stayed without goals despite a two-minute power play for Traktor. In the shootout Jonas Enlund and Jori Lehterä transformed their penalty shot attempts and gave the extra point to Sibir while all shooters for Traktor failed.

In a strange game Atlant Moscow Oblast grabbed a lead on the road against Avangard Omsk through Rafael Batyrshin who used a rebound after a shot by Igor Ignatushkin at 25:55. In the scene immediately before this Nikolai Zherdev was stopped in his break away. Avangard at times had best triple chances but still failed to score a single goal, also because of the excellent performance of Atlant goalie Stanislav Galimov who earned a shutout with 51 (!) saves - on the other side Atlant had only 20 shots on goal. During parts of the last two and a half minutes Avangard goalie Karri Rämö had left his net for an additional attacker but the hosts couldn't force the equalizer anymore.

With their second consecutive loss on home ice Dynamo Moscow lost the lead in the KHL table. For guests CSKA Moscow who won their third in a row it also meant revenge for a bitter 4-6 loss against Dynamo from early December. Late in the first Denis Kokarev had opened the score for Dynamo before Igor Radulov and Niklas Persson turned around the game for the guests. In the last minute of the second period lockout star Alexander Ovechkin tied the match for Dynamo. Ilya Zubov in power play and Alexander Radulov with an empty netter made everything clear for CSKA in the last 20 minutes.

In a very one-sided game Metallurg Magnitogorsk beat outsiders Amur Khabarovsk clearly with the score of 7-0. In the first period Amur was still able to keep the result close as only Evgeny Malkin was able to score for Magnitka but the hosts used the following 20 minutes to run away with goals by their topscorer Sergei Mozyakin (3) and Viktor Antipin. At the start of the third period Mozyakin even earned his fourth of the day. Later Dmitry Kazionov added goal number seven. Ari Ahonen in the Metallurg net stopped all 26 shots he saved to earn a shutout.

Fyodor Malykhin brought the last in the KHL table, Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, in front with a double until 34:09 but had to see how Anton Lazarev and Alexander Bumagin scored the equalizer until the start of the third period. At 46:56 Alexei Simakov restored the Avtomobilist lead but Alexander Bumagin was able to tie the game once more in one of the following power plays. At 62:18 Dmitry Kagarlitsky used another power play chance for Metallurg to even win the extra point.

Despite a 3-1 lead during the first half hour of play home side Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk wasn't able to avoid a loss against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in a high-scoring game. Anton But, Anton Krysanov and Sergei Demagin had brought Yugra in front during the first period with the equalizer through Niklas Hagman in between. Just around "half time" Lokomotiv more or less decided the match with five consecutive goals. Emil Galimov (2), Maxim Trunyov, Artyom Anisimov and Niklas Hagman with his second of the night, made it a 6-3 lead for the guests. With exactly six minutes left to play in regulation Igor Magogin used a shorthander for the 4-6 but the race to catch up came too late.

Barys Astana won an exciting game between two playoff candidates in overtime against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. Vladimir Gorbunov and Martin Thörnberg had opened the score for Torpedo during the first period but Roman Savchenko and Talgat Zhailauov earned the equalizer during period number two. The situation became even worse for Torpedo when Nigel Dawes used a double to earn a 4-2 lead for Barys at the start of the third. Nevertheless Torpedo found back into the match with a double through Pyotr Schastlivy and Martin Thörnberg to extend the game to overtime. There it was Alexander Litvinenko who won the extra point for Barys at 61:24.

SKA St. Petersburg gained the lead in the KHL table by defeating Czech newcomers Lev Prague at home. Ondrej Nemec and Jakub Voracek twice earned a lead for the guests in the first period with the equalizer through Kevin Dallman in between. In the middle period Ivan Npryayev and Petr Prucha turned the game around in favour of SKA for the first time but Jaroslav Svoboda answered for Lev in the same period. SKA super star Ilya Kovalchuk then gave his team the win with a double in the third. First he brought them in front again at 42:40 before he added another one into the empty net with just one second left on the clock.