Ufa and Traktor win top games

Bottom side Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg gained one of their few wins in this KHL season by defeating Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 3-2. With one of their very few opportunities in the first 20 minutes Nikita Tryamkin opened the score for the hosts Avtomobilist at 19:45 in power play. In the middle period Petr Koukal and Tomas Netik turned the game around for the guests within less than three minutes but Artyom Kryukov made it 2-2 in the third before Eduard Gimatov earned the deserved game winner for Avtomobilist with just 24 seconds left to play. Neftekhimik tried it without their goalie and an additional attacker in the last seconds but without success. 

In one of today's top games on the paper a lot of penalties in the first 40 minutes avoided a high-class match. Still guests Salavat Yulayev Ufa managed to get in front against Metallurg Magnitogorsk at 11:38 through Kirill Koltsov. In an even last period Dmitry Kazionov gained the early equalizer for Magnitka before Alexander Svitov restored the guest lead at 56:20. Now the hosts took a timeout and risked everything by pulling out their goalie for another attacker. The result were two empty net strikes by Alexei Glukhov and Sergei Zinovyev that let Ufa run away with a comfortable 4-1 win. For Metallurg it was the second loss in a row after the departure of their lockout stars.

In the other top game of the day Traktor Chelyabinsk was able to cut the deficit towards Ak Bars Kazan to six points by beating them 3-2 on home ice. Janne Pesonen and Danis Zaripov brought the guests in front twice but Traktor invested more into the match and Stanislav Chistov tied the match in the first period before Deron Quint and Petri Kontiola turned everything around with a double within two minutes until 48:59. After a timeout by the guests, Traktor defended the small lead even with 4 vs 6 skaters on the ice.

Severstal Cherepovets earned the expected win against Metallurg Novokuznetsk but feared more for the three points than expected. Niclas Bergfors and Ignat Zemchenko grabbed a two-goal lead for Severstal until 21:30 that made the hosts look like the winner already during most of the time but Zakhar Arzamastsev used a power play at 52:20 to get tension back into the match. Still Severstal defnded their lead even against an additional skater.

Neither Vityaz Chekhov nor Amur Khabarovsk have a chance to reach this year's Gagarin Cup playoffs but still they showed a great game today. Artemy Panarin and Alexei Troshchinsky brought the hosts in front twice during the middle period with the equalizer through Evgeny Orlov in between. When everything looked like the small lead would be enough for Vityaz the guests took a timeout and pulled out their goalie for another skater. This led to the very late equalizer through again Orlov with just 19 seconds left to play in regulation. After a scoreless overtime, Dmitry Tarasov won the extra point for Amur in the 5th round of the shootout.

For Dinamo Minsk today's loss in regulation against Sibir Novosibirsk was a heavy setback in their fight for a playoff spot in Western Conference. The team from Belarus went in front at 18:59 through Geoff Platt in a break away while Sibir was barely visible and had almost no chances. Out of nowhere Alexei Kopeikin tried it with a shot from a sharp angle around "half time" that somehow went in through the pads of Dinamo goalie Lars Haugen. Early in the third period Sibir topscorer Jori Lehterä even brought the guests in front after being the first to reach a rebound. Now Dinamo had to risk everything by pulling out their goalie and this was punished by Jonas Enlund. 

Tweets by @eurohockey