Magnitogorsk Loses to the Other Metallurg

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(6-0-3-2)

@

Metallurg

Novokuznetsk

(3-2-3-5)

Players You May Recognize

Randy Robitaille, Brent Sopel, Chris Simon

Recap

Coming off of a tight 2-1 victory, Paul Maurice opted for no changes in his lineup as Metallurg Magnitogorsk visited Metallurg Novokuznetsk.  Ari Ahonen started in net with the KHL's 2nd best Goals Against Average (1.46) and 4th best Save Percentage (.947).  Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin kept his new linemates from the 3rd period of the previous game, Nikolai Kulemin and Mats Zuccarello.

Tom Barrasso looked downright surly in this one.

The 6am EST start was brutal on a Saturday morning and the camera angle was awful throughout most of the game since the online stream did not zoom very often, but alas, hockey is hockey.  The first period was very quiet as neither team came up with a significant scoring chance.  Magnitogorsk had a powerplay opportunity late in the period when Mats Zuccarello used his speed and small stature to draw a hook, but it was negated on the powerplay when Nikolai Kulemin was called for a trip.  The only cause for any excitement was Evgeni Malkin hitting the far side post on a bad angle shot.  After the first, the game was scoreless.

The second period started much like the first as both teams skated up and down the ice without actually trading many chances.  Finally, Magnitogorsk got on the board as Sergei Gonchar showed some brilliant skating and puck handling to move around a defenseman and then threw a perfect pass across the slot to Sergei Mozyakin.  Mozyakin rifled a wrist shot instantly to beat Novokuznetsk goalie Klyuchnikov for a 1-0 lead.

The opening goal woke up Novokuznetsk though and they proceeded to score twice in a minute to take the lead.  The first of their tallies was on a 2 on 1 where Gonchar forced Damir Zhafyarov to the outside.  Zhafyarov put a very weak shot on net at the last moment and Ahonen let it trickle through his 5 hole.  Shortly thereafter, Novokuznetsk had another odd man break, this time a 3 on 2, and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky failed to cut off a cross-crease pass.  Alexei Efimov finished off an easy one-timer into a wide open net to give Novokuznetsk a lead they would not relinquish.

Whatever Maurice drew up for the last minute...
never do it again.

The 3rd period featured some nice highlight reel saves by both goalies, but unfortunately no highlight reel goals for Magnitogorsk.  Evgeni Malkin made some dazzling moves, splitting two forwards and deking between the third forward and a defenseman before ripping a backhanded shot off, but Klyuchnikov was up to the task.

Magnitgorsk had a powerplay in the last minute, but all it led to was two shorthanded, empty net goals.  After a timeout, Malkin lost the ensuing offensive zone faceoff cleanly to Randy Robitaille.  Robitaille won it back to Brent Sopel, who shot the puck from his own goal line into an empty net.  Thirty seconds later, Robitaille set up another empty netter, this time by Nikita Vyglazov.  In the battle of the Metallurgs, Novokuznetsk took this one by a very deceiving score.

Final Score:  Metallurg Novokuznetsk 4  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1  

Magnitogorsk drops to 6-0-3-3 and Novokuznetsk improves to 4-2-3-5.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin showed more moves and flash in this game than all of the others combined.  He finished the game with no points, 3 shots, and 15 for 30 in faceoffs over 22:03 of ice time.  Stats not withstanding, Geno looks quite ready to break out of his mini scoring slump in a big way.

Post-game interview.

Sergei Gonchar - Much like Malkin, Gonchar also had the moves going today.  He looked simply brilliant in setting up Mozyakin's goal, showing great offensive zone prowess.  He was hung out to dry again in the defensive zone a few times, dealing with some odd man rushes, but he handled each situation well and cannot be faulted for the first goal.  He finished with 1 shot in 21:41 of ice time.  One interesting thing to note is he he did not start the game and was not the defensive leader in minutes played this game.

Next Game:  10/8, 4am EST @ Amur Khabarovsk

Links:

Go to onhockey.ru for all of your streaming needs.  They are excellent and add feeds as they find them.

If you want highlights for the games, check out http://www.youtube.com/user/KHLofficialvideo.