Loko stays out in front, Spartak goes clear in second. September 28 round-up

The big games today came in the West. KHL leader Lokomotiv consolidated its position atop the standings with a 3-1 win over Sochi, while Spartak is now the sole occupier of second place in the West after a derby win over CSKA. Torpedo’s Denis Pochivalov scored a hat-trick in a 7-2 win at Amur; the 23-year-old went goalless through 52 KHL games before breaking his duck in style. Elsewhere, Maxim Dorozhko blanked Barys as Vityaz won in Kazakhstan.Pochivalov leads Torpedo past AmurAmur Khabarovsk 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 7 (1-4, 0-2, 1-1)Before today’s game, Denis Pochivalov had not scored in 52 KHL appearances for Torpedo. By the end, the 23-year-old forward was celebrating not just his first goal, but a first hat-trick. That helped the visitor to a big win, but Amur’s problems were apparent long before today’s star got his first of the game in the 14th minute.Torpedo made a blistering start: after 69 seconds, Mikhail Abramov opened the scoring when his pass across the front of the home net deflected off Alexander Shchemerov’s skate and over the line. Sergei Goncharuk doubled the advantage and Nikita Artamonov added a third in the ninth minute. That brought Dmitry Lozebnikov into the home net to replace a shell-shocked Ivan Bocharov.Although Pochivalov has 94 points from 186 VHL games since 2018, he had not scored in the KHL since making his Torpedo debut in that same season. He put that right with the visitor’s fourth goal, Amur again hampered by a deflection.Belatedly, Amur produced some offense: a five-on-three power play saw Jan Drozg get the home team on the scoreboard, but 1-4 at the end of the first told its own story.But this was always going to be Pochivalov’s day. He potted his second in the middle frame, then Bobby Lynch scored on the power play to make it 6-1. The third period saw Pochivalov complete his hat-trick before a shorthanded effort from Ignat Korotkikh offered some consolation for host.Dorozhko blank BarysBarys Astana 0 Vityaz Moscow Region 2 (0-0, 0-1, 0-1)Exactly a week ago, Vityaz handed David Nemirovsky his final loss as Barys head coach. Today, the Moscow Region team travelled to Kazakhstan and inflicted a first defeat on Nemirovsky’s replacement, Vyacheslav Butsayev. After opening with a 1-0 win over Sochi, Butsayev could not mastermind another success against the club he coached to the 2023 playoffs.The visitor shaded the first period but neither side created clear scoring chances. At one stage the teams played almost seven uninterrupted minutes before Kirill Panyukov took the first penalty of the game.After the intermission there were more penalties but both PKs worked well. The first real opportunity came when home forward Vladislav Kodola jumped out of the box and into a one-on-one with Maxim Dorozhko but failed to take full advantage. Vityaz survived another scare before Ivan Chekhovich put the visitor in front in the 34th minute, redirecting Yegor Rykov’s shot past Nikita Boyarkin.Dorozhko was in good form for Vityaz and stopped another solo rush late in the middle frame, this time from Mike McLeod. The visiting goalie would finish with 32 saves to backstop a win that was rubber-stamped late on when Nicholas Baptiste scored an empty-net goal.Railwaymen recover to sink SochiLokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 HC Sochi 1 (0-0, 2-1, 1-0)The Railwaymen got their expected win over Sochi to stay clear at the top of the standings. However, despite a dominant performance from the home team, it didn’t go entirely their way.The first period was one-way traffic. Lokomotiv outshot the Leopards 12-3 and limited the visitor to barely a quarter of the time on offense. However, there were no goals, with Yegor Zavragin standing up well in the Sochi net.Late in the first, Sochi got a power play. It didn’t produce anything, but maybe it reminded Sergei Zubov’s team what it was like to play with the puck. After getting a taste for it, the visitor surprised everyone by opening the scoring in the 25th minute on a goal from Sergei Popov. Then came more trouble for Lokomotiv: a penalty on Alexei Bereglazov arriving at the same time as Andrei Sergeyev gave away a penalty shot. Nikolai Chebykin failed to beat home goalie Alexei Melnichuk, and the PK did its job to keep it at 0-1 by the midway mark.However, Sochi could not hold onto that lead. A power play goal from Maxim Beryozkin tied the game in the 35th minute. A couple of minutes later, Alexander Yelesin fired Loko ahead for the first time. At last the scoreboard began to reflect something of the home team’s dominance of the game.In a one-goal game, dominance alone is not necessarily enough. Igor Nikitin has his players well drilled when it comes to protecting a lead but here there was a need for a bit more padding. In the 48th minute Loko thought it had a third goal. An initial video review established that the puck had made it over the line after a scrimmage on the paint. However, the Sochi bench challenged the play and a second review called the play back for interference on Zavragin.It was left to Alexander Radulov to establish the comfort zone that the home team sought. He potted his fourth of the season after 53 minutes to make it 3-1. Almost immediately afterwards, a confrontation between Georgy Ivanov and Daniil Seroukh saw double minors for those two, while an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Maxim Fedotov took a chunk out of Sochi’s remaining time to salvage something.Goldobin grabs OT winnerSpartak Moscow 3 CSKA Moscow 2 OT (1-0, 0-1, 1-1, 1-0)Spartak began its season with a 4-2 win over CSKA and went into the second of six meetings with its Moscow rival on a run of five wins from six. The Red-and-Whites had an eye on joining Lokomotiv at the top of the standings and, regardless of news from Yaroslavl, would stand clear in second place with victory today.CSKA also had designs on second place: victory in regulation would see Ilya Vorobyov’s team improve to four from five and move ahead of today’s opponent.That meant both teams were eager to get at it from the start and the first period went at a rapid tempo. The teams shared 23 shots on goal, with CSKA getting one more than Spartak. However, it was the home team’s Andrei Mironov who claimed the only marker of the opening stanza. His eight-minute shot took a deflection of an opposition skate to wrong-foot Ivan Prosvetov.At the start of the second, Prosvetov took the first penalty of the game. It proved to be the first of four on CSKA in the period, but the PK did its job, backed up by some good goaltending. The value of that resistance was highlighted seconds before the intermission when Ivan Drozdov tied the game. The former Salavat Yulaev forward could hardly have left it later, but a review confirmed that his shot crossed the line just before the hooter sounded to give him his first of the season.For Spartak, that must have been a sucker punch. The second-period play pointed to a second goal for the home team but instead it found itself level. However, Alexei Zhamnov kept his players’ minds in the game and saw the Red-and-Whites regain the lead on 46 minutes when German Rubtsov steered Roman Bychkov’s shot beyond Prosvetov. That lead proved short-lived; Ruslan Iskhakov got CSKA back on level terms within four minutes and ultimately sent the game to overtim