Sorkin stars for CSKA, Metallurg fires blanks. September 8 round-up

A hat-trick from Maxim Sorkin powered CSKA to its first win of the season, a 6-2 success against Admiral. Metallurg’s slow start to its title defense continues after a 0-2 loss at home to Neftekhimik. Kunlun Red Star missed the chance to go top of the KHL standings, going down 2-4 at home to Severstal. Salavat Yulaev took a shoot-out win over Traktor in Sunday’s other game.Defending champ blanked by battling WolvesMetallurg Magnitogorsk 0 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 (0-1, 0-0, 0-1)Neftekhimik’s defense put in a huge rearguard action to deny defending champion Metallurg. As well as 29 saves from goalie Artyom Zagidulin, the Wolves also had 21 blocked shots in a game that the home team dominated.However, while Magnitka created 65 attempts and spent 19:52 on the attack (against 9:54 for Neftekhimik), Andrei Razin’s team could not find the net. At the end of its opening three-game home stand, Metallurg has just one overtime win and two points to its credit in an underpowered start to its title defense.Neftekhimik did most of its attacking in the first period. The visitor thought it had an early lead, but a bench challenge wiped out a fourth-minute tally for offside. After that, Metallurg began to press, helped by the first power play of the game.But former Metallurg goalie Zagidulin was in good form and when Neftekhimik got the chance to break, it grabbed an unlikely lead in the 14th minute. Vladislav Leontyev dumped the puck behind the net, Andrei Belozyorov went to retrieve and his attempt to shot it to the open space in front of Alexander Smolin found the net via a deflection that deceived the young goalie.Home frustrations continued in a goalless second period, with Neftekhimik continuing to make it difficult to find shooting chances. And in the third, the visitor dug in for some impressive defending to preserve its slender lead. Blocking shots on a regular basis, the Wolves protected their goalie well. And when Metallurg did manage to get an overload in the 48th minute with a three-on-one break, Luke Johnson’s feed across the face of the net just got away from Dmitry Silantyev before he could finish the play.As the game went into the final couple of minutes, Metallurg could not gain sufficient control to call Smolin to the bench. And the youngster was beaten again on 58:42 when Vyacheslav Leshchenko advanced and fired in a routine shot that the goalie seemed to have in his grasp, only for the puck to wriggle behind him and into the net.Leivo gives Ufa a shoot-out winSalavat Yulaev Ufa 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 SO (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 1-0)This was the first meeting between these teams since Traktor dumped Ufa out of last year’s playoffs in the first round. Since then, Benoit Groulx has taken over as head coach in Chelyabinsk and celebrated his first win in the KHL at Barys on Friday. Salavat Yulaev continues with Viktor Kozlov behind the bench and improved to two wins from two with this shoot-out success.With a big home crowd in the building, Salavat Yulaev took the early initiative. However, after Gleb Kuzmin squandered a great chance, Traktor came into the game. Nikita Zorkin could only halt Maxim Shabanov’s rush with a foul; the visiting forward picked himself to convert the resultant penalty shot with some verve.The replay came in the final minute of the opening frame from Ufa’s imports. Alexander Chmelevski picked out a wonderful feed for Josh Leivo to wire a shot into the corner. The tied scoreline did not flatter Salavat, which had more time on attack, more shots on goal and more face-off wins in the first period.But that open and entertaining first frame did not continue. After the intermission, the game grew more cautious. Salavat wasted power play chances; Traktor defended watchfully.Sheldon Rempal was close to putting the home team in front at the start of the third with a shot that dinged the piping. Later, Traktor had chances to win it through Vitaly Kravtsov and Ilya Nikolayev. Then the iron denied Leivo a second goal and took the game to overtime.Traktor got on the power play in the extras but could not make the extra man tell. Instead, we needed a shoot-out and Leivo got the winner for Ufa after Shabanov missed his attempt in sudden death.Sorkin’s hat-trick leads CSKA to victoryCSKA Moscow 6 Admiral Vladivostok 2 (1-1, 2-1, 3-0)After a derby defeat at Spartak in its opening game, CSKA was looking for a confidence boost at home to Admiral. However, the Muscovites had to recover from an early shock before securing their first win of the season.Admiral made a flying start. The Sailors tested Ivan Prosvetov in the CSKA net in the second minute. The summer signing denied Anton Sagadeyev, but was beaten soon after when Pavel Shen put away the rebound from a Libor Sulak shot.However, when Shen went to the box midway through the first, the power play saw the home team back on level terms. It took some time to unlock the visiting PK, but eventually Konstantin Okulov’s feed invited Vitaly Abramov to launch a one-timer that brushed Ilya Konovalov’s glove on its way into the net.It would be hard to say that CSKA looked impressive in the first period, but Ilya Vorobyov’s locker room exhortations had the desired effect. At the start of the second, the home team got in front on another power play goal when Nikita Nesterov’s blast deflected off Maxim Sorkin’s leg and past Konovalov.Once in front, the home team kept up the pressure. Midway through the game, Ruslan Iskhakov made it 3-1, potting his first goal of the season. The 24-year-old was a second-round draft pick for the Islanders in 2018 and had spells in Finland and Germany before joining the New York organization. However, in the summer the forward joined the rush of players returning to Russia and signed a two-year deal with CSKA.Admiral got a chance to get back into the game with a power play in the 33rd minute and Sulak obliged with a point shot through traffic to make it 2-3 at the second intermission.CSKA started the third period with another goal, Abramov potting his second of the night to restore that two-goal cushion. Then Sorkin joined his team-mate on two goals as the home power play clicked for the third time in the game.Sorkin’s big day finished when he completed a hat-trick, making the final score 6-2 as those early worries were forgotten in Moscow.Severstal ends Dragons’ winning startKunlun Red Star 2 Severstal Cherepovets 4 (1-0, 0-2, 1-2)The Dragons looked to continue their winning start at home to Severstal. Mikhail Kravets was able to welcome back Brandon Yip and Tyler Wong, who missed the victories over Dynamo and Admiral. Goalie Konstantin Volkov came in for his KRS debut.Victory on Sunday would put KRS on top of the overall KHL standings. Early as it is in the season, that kind of form would reinforce the sense that Red Star has strengthened in the summer. Severstal, though, had its own ambitions: a second win in three games would put Andrei Kozyrev’s team among the early pacemakers.The only goal of an even first period came on the power play. In the 17th minute, Kunlun’s patient build-up led to Nail Yakupov scoring his third goal in three games.However, Severstal hit back with two goals in the second period. Andrei Churkin tied it up in the 33rd minute then Ruslan Abrosimov put the visitor in front with just one second left on the clock.In the third, Red Star pushed for an equalizer and managed to tie it up in the 56th minute through