EASTERN FAVORITES LOSE, ALMAZ AND LOKO WIN IN MOSCOW REGION. JANUARY 12TH ROUND-UP

Sarmaty beat second best Eastern team on the road

Chayka Nizhny Novgorod, who continue their pursuit of Eastern Conference top team Irbis Kazan, faced off against Sarmaty Orenburg – a team positioned far off the playoff zone. Nevertheless, Orenburg haven’t been too keen lately on giving up points easily and managed to beat one of the Eastern favorites. Nikolai Gnezdilov opened up the scoring in the first period of play as he sent it past Chayka netminder Vyacheslav Buteyets ten minutes into the game. Second frame proved to be more high-scoring. After Bogdan Zorin improved the lead to 2-0 for Sarmaty, Nizhny Novgorod went on to restore the parity. Yefim Bystrov stepped into the spotlight and netted both tallies.

Early in the third stanza Sarmaty grabbed the lead once again as Kirill Bayev found the back of the net. Nizhny Novgorod looked to turn things around and pitched camp in Denis Vyalushkin’s zone but the goaltender made several huge saves for Orenburg and didn’t let the opposition force overtime on their final push for the equalizer. Sarmaty Orenburg win 3-2 in Nizhny Novgorod.

Ladiya edge Irbis in shootout

Irbis Kazan managed to use Nizhny Novgorod’s gaffe to their advantage only in part. Tatarstan team was up against pesky Ladiya Togliatti, who went on to enjoy a shootout win. It was a close contest throughout regulation. First period of action featured only one goal as Ladiya forward Albert Alikov found the back of the net. Midway through the second frame the visitors got a bench minor for too many men on the ice and Irbis capitalized on the ensuing power play attempt – Savely Kuvardin got the tally.

It took Togliatti just over a minute to improve their lead to two goals – Artyom Yakutov and Airat Asfandiyarov got a marker each. However, Kazan weren’t fazed by that and leveled it five minutes later – Adel Bulatov and Vladislav Fyodorov sent the game to overtime. Extra period of play solved nothing and the visitors took it in the shootout – Yegor Filippov’s attempt proved to be deciding.

Russkie Vityazi lose to Loko on home ice

Russkie Vityazi played hosts to Loko Yaroslavl in Chekhov, Moscow Region. Both teams currently find themselves in the upper half of the Western Conference table. However, in the opening period of play it felt as if the ‘railway men’ have set higher goals for the season as they scored four unanswered goals. Nikita Kiryanov notched a pair, while Ilya Chefanov and Ilya Rogovsky had a tally each to give Yaroslavl a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes of action. Home team managed to come to their senses after the knockdown and outshot the opposition in the second frame but nothing changed on the scoreboard.

Russkie Vityazi managed to solved Loko netminder Yegor Guskov only late in regulation as Alexander Mirzabalayev converted on Daniil Tesanov’s penalty. However, Yaroslavl scored their fifth goal of the game right after that to set the final score. Stepan Nikulin found his target and Loko rolled on to a 5-1 win on the road.

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