Barys defender's poker, Dynamo goalkeeper's goal and Sochi's first victory in two months: what happens in the KHL regular season

SKA successes

The wards of Roman Rotenberg continue to dominate the KHL and fly at full speed to the title of the first team in the regular season.

Petersburgers have won four of the last five matches and have already solved one of the tasks for the season - they won a ticket to the playoffs.

The victory over Amur helped to guarantee a place among the 16 strongest, and one of the main characters in this match was the main stars of the army - Nikita Gusev and Dmitry Yashkin.

The first extended the hitting streak to four games, and also set the SKA club record.

Gusev scored points in 235 meetings and surpassed Ilya Kovalchuk (234) in this indicator.

In the confrontation with the Khabarovsk team, he limited himself to one transfer, but it was Yashkin who assisted, who for the third time in his career reached the mark of 30 goals for the tournament.

In addition to him, in the KHL, only the former Barys striker Nigel Dawes (four times) and the legend of Metallurg Magnitogorsk Sergey Mozyakin (five times) succeeded in this.

But the Czech hockey player of Russian origin failed to score CSKA.

Gusev's and Andrey Pedan's goals did not save the Petersburgers from their third defeat in a row in the army derby (2:4).

The score in this match was opened by Nikita Nesterov, who bypassed Yakov Rylov and became the best CSKA sniper among defenders during the club's performance in the KHL - he scored 33 goals.

Abundance of records

But not only Gusev, Nesterov and Yashkin managed to write their names in the history of clubs over the past week and a half.

One of these players was Daniil Vovchenko.

A native of Cherepovets made his debut for the main team in 2015 and in seven years has gone from being a debutant to one of the team's best hockey players.

In the first period of the away match with CSKA, he hit the gates of Dmitry Gamzin and helped Severstal equalize.

And although the army team still put the squeeze on the opponent (4:2), the attacker himself had a reason to rejoice.

After all, he bypassed Vadim Shipachyov and came out on top in the list of top scorers in the history of the yellow-blacks (203 points).

True, it took him 143 meetings more than the star center forward.

It is noteworthy that a week before that, Severstal also changed the record holder for the number of effective actions for the season among defenders.

In the 2011/12 regular season, Maxim Chudinov scored 35 (9 + 26) points, and only 11 years later, Robin Press managed to surpass his achievement.

In the confrontation with Kunlun, he assisted his partner and overtook the Russian with 36 (10 + 26) points, and again showed assistant skills in the meeting with Lokomotiv.

His colleague Alex Grant went even further.

Hockey player of the Kazakh "Barys" for less than 24 minutes of playing time upset the goalkeeper of the "Admiral" four times and was the first among the defenders to complete poker in the KHL.

And he managed to do it before the second break.

Previously, only Maxim Yakutsenya and Nigel Dawes could boast of such.

One of the main newsmakers of the week was Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper Ilya Konovalov.

First, he scored a shutout in a crucial match with Lokomotiv, and then showed sniper skills in a game with Torpedo.

Four minutes before the end of the match, he punished Nizhny Novgorod for the risk and threw it into an empty net, strengthening the advantage of the blue and white.

In addition to him, only Ilya Proskuryakov, Edgars Masalskis, Vitaly Eremeev and Yoni Ortio differed from goalkeepers in the KHL.

We managed to update the club's achievements in Sibir as well.

Trevor Murphy led the season in points among defensemen (34), Taylor Beck led outfield (47) and Alexander Sharov surpassed the achievement in the number of goals for the regular season.

The 27-year-old striker already has three goals more than the previous record holder of the team, Yevgeny Lapin (22), and by the end of the championship he may well reach another significant mark.

Comeback time

Sharov distinguished himself in two confrontations with Ak Bars, which were remembered for bright strong-willed victories.

And in both cases, the guests took over.

In Novosibirsk, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov's wards succeeded in a shootout (3:2), and five days later Sibir took revenge in overtime (4:3).

Moreover, their comeback turned out to be much more impressive.

9 minutes 24 seconds before the final siren, the team of Andrey Martemyanov was losing with a score of 1:3, but saved himself thanks to the accurate throws of Denis Golubev and Maxim Sushko, and then got two points thanks to Sharov's throw.

On the same day, Neftekhimik demonstrated the ability to get out of difficult situations on the road.

By the 38th minute, he was “burning” with the same score of 1:3, but before the end of the second period he reduced the gap, and in the final game segment he hit the gates of Barys three times.

True, the last missed goal was no longer on the conscience of the Kazakh goalkeeper Julius Gudachek.

Andrei Skabelka went for broke early enough and released the sixth fielder on the ice, but did not succeed.

In contrast to Barys, Traktor and Avtomobilist managed to avoid defeats on the flag in regular time last weekend.

Both conceded with a difference of one puck, but six of them were able to put the squeeze on the opponent and put the game into overtime.

Aleksey Byvaltsev restored parity in the match with Vityaz nine seconds before the end of the meeting, and Stepan Khripunov upset the goalkeeper of Minsk Dynamo eight seconds before the siren.

It is all the more frustrating that their efforts in the end were in vain.

Chelyabinsk lost on shootouts, and Yekaterinburg earned a removal and capitulated in overtime.

End of bad series

Nevertheless, last week the fans of the Urals had a reason to rejoice.

The wards of Nikolai Zavarukhin sensationally dealt with CSKA on their ice and interrupted the series of defeats.

By this time, she already had nine matches.

And although after that Avtomobilist lost to Dynamo, it seems that the team is gradually getting out of the crisis.

This was confirmed by the victory over Spartak (7:4), one of the main creators of which was Patrice Cormier, who scored a double and Anatoly Golyshev, who gave three assists.

Overcame a difficult period and Metallurg with Lokomotiv.

At the beginning of the year, Magnitogorsk could not succeed in three meetings in a row, but after that they came to visit the Ufa team, where Nikolai Goldobin scored a winning double (3:2).

The Yaroslavl people were in a slightly deeper hole.

After losing to CSKA in overtime, they lost four more times and allowed not only Torpedo, but also Dynamo to get close to themselves in the West table.

And if not for the victory over Severstal, the railway workers could well have fallen to fifth place in the conference.

However, a double and an assist from Maxim Shalunov helped score two points for the first time since December 28 (6:2).

And the most important event of the reporting period was the end of the record losing streak in the history of the Russian championships.

Sochi suffered 21 defeats in a row, rewriting SKA's anti-record of the 2000/01 season.

Young Matvey Michkov tried with all his might to prevent Torpedo from losing: he set the club's record for the number of shots per game (ten), but none of them reached the goal, and Nizhny Novgorod won in overtime.

The 18-year-old forward did not score in the meeting with Metallurg either, but helped Yegor Babenko open an account.

As it turned out later, this set the tone for the confrontation.

Wards of Sergei Svetlov led three times and eventually got two points.

For the Leopards, this victory was the first since November 15.