Ak Bars keeping pace with KHL leaders

05 Oct 2013 | Matt Tidcombe

Ak Bars Kazan sure are keeping up with the pace in the KHL.

The low scoring club continue to hang with the top guns in the KHL as they grind out victories on a regular basis.

The last week was no different as Ak Bars got their winning streak to four games before losing their final game of the week to SKA.

A 2-0 home win against Lokomotiv Yaraslovl made it three straight wins for Ak Bars, in large part because of a big third period as well as outstanding goaltending from Konstantin Barulin.

Janne Pesonen and Tim Stapleton scored 28 seconds apart early in the third wand that was all Barulin and Ak Bars needed to pick up the three points. Barulin made 25 saves for the shutout.

Ak Bars got some much needed scoring against Atlant as they beat the Moscow based team 4-2 with four different players finding the back of the net to get the winning streak to four.

Alexander Svitov, Mikhail Varnakov, Alex Burmistrov and Vladimir Tkachyov all scored, while Emil Garipov gave Ak Bars enough goaltending to get the three points.

The week ended on a sour note though as league leaders SKA Saint Petersburg came to town and had their way with Ak Bars. Even without the injured Ilya Kovalchuk, SKA put three goals past Barulin to pick up the 3-1 road victory. Artyom Lukoyanov had the lone Ak Bars goal.

Burmistrov leads the team with 10 points, four of which are goals. Shaun Heshka is second on the team in scoring with nine points, which is good for second in the KHL for points among defensemen.

Barulin leads the KHL in save percentage with a ridiculous 95.0 and also has two shutouts this season in eight games.

Ak Bars are first in the Kharlamov Division and sit second in the Eastern Conference standings on 26 points.