KHL Resumes Play With a Magnitogorsk OT Loss

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(14-0-5-3)

vs

Avangard
Omsk

(10-6-2-6)

Players You May Recognize

Karri Ramo, Sergei Kostitsyn, Nikita Nikitin, Alexander Frolov, Alexander Perezhogin

Recap

What is that goat doing to Geno?

After 11 days off and an encounter with goats, it was finally time for Evgeni Malkin and Metallurg Magnitogorsk to get back to competitive play in the KHL.  Their first game after the break was a big one against the Chernyshev Division leaders, Avangard Omsk.  Ari Ahonen started in net for Magnitogorsk against Karri Ramo for Omsk.

After a ceremonial faceoff between Malkin and Omsk captain Alexander Frolov, play began at a tense yet sloppy pace.  Magnitogorsk had stronger breakouts, Omsk had better sustained pressure, but neither team put a quality shot on net through the first half of the period.  With less than 6 minutes left in the first, Omsk defenseman Dmitri Semin was called for a hooking penalty.  Metallurg's lethal powerplay took the ice and a 1-0 lead when Sergei Mozyakin capitalized on a turnover and blasted a slapshot past Ramo.  It was Mozyakin's league leading 14th goal of the season, his 7th on the powerplay.

This is generally frowned upon by coaches.

The first period ended 1-0 and the second started with more back and forth play that failed to produce quality chances.  Omsk then unexpectedly tied the game on what looked like a harmless wrist shot from the right circle by Alexander Popov that beat Ahonen high on his blocker side.  As Avangard gained momentum, Magnitogorsk fell apart in their discipline.  Evgeni Malkin was called for hooking and Mikhail Yakubov was then called for cross-checking 20 seconds into the penalty kill, resulting in a 5 on 3 for Avangard.  Sergei Kostitsyn gave Omsk a 2-1 lead during the 5 on 3 powerplay with a quick poke at a puck that was loose just outside of the crease.

Not sure what Ahonen thought he was going to save,
but Geno took care of it anyways.

Magnitogorsk killed the remaining 5 on 4 time, but struggled to gain any traction in the offensive zone for the rest of the period.  Alexander Frolov almost gave Omsk a 3-1 lead late in the period but was thwarted by a magnificent block from a diving Evgeni Malkin.  Avangard started the 3rd period with a 2-1 lead and both teams had fantastic chances within the first 5 minutes.  Malkin took another penalty, this time for high sticking, but this one was killed.

Halfway through the 3rd period, confusion spread as a pile of bodies and the puck all collided in Karri Ramo's crease.  Mats Zuccarello was the only person to react as if the puck went in and a lengthy review ensued.  Though we were never shown a definitive camera angle that had the puck crossing the red line, the result was called a goal and credited to Dmitri Kazionov.  Play continued at a solid pace and neither team found a winner in regulation.

In five previous overtime games, Magnitogorsk had yet to find a winning tally.  Their failed efforts continued in this game as Karri Ramo made some beautiful saves on Sergei Mozyakin and Justin Hodgman in the extra period.  Moments after Ramo played savior for Avangard, Nikita Nikitin, Sergei Kostitsyn, and Kirill Lyamin executed a perfect tic-tac-toe play that ended with a Lyamin slapshot in the back of the net.  Game over.

Final Score:  Avangard Omsk 3  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 (OT)

Metallurg drops to 14-0-6-3 and Avangard improves to 10-7-2-6.

Player Notes

Geno was swarmed at his hotel before the game.

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin was a force at both sides of the ice, registering 7 shots and playing some great defense including his massively important blocked shot.  At times he was an uncontrollable force though, taking 2 unnecessary penalties and also getting into multiple arguments with the refs.  He went 14 for 28 in the faceoff circle and finished with 22:54 of ice time, accumulating no points.

Sergei Gonchar - Gonchar had a very slow start to the game and seemed a little clutchy/grabby in the first 2 periods despite having no penalties called on him.  He played a much stronger third period and broke up two odd man breaks for Avangard late in the game.  He finished with 23:05 of ice time and 2 shots.

Omsk captain Alexander Frolov

Other Players - Sergei Kostitsyn had a goal and an assist for Avangard and looked very in sync with Alexander Frolov as his center.  The pair combined for a few very nice passing plays and one-timers, though Frolov appeared to be snake-bitten with his shot.  Nikita Nikitin finished with 2 assists and played extremely well in the defensive zone as he was often given the task of handling the Malkin line.  

Next Game:  11/16, 8am EST @ Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk

Note: Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended in the US, game times are 9 hours off of Moscow time.

**I'm going to miss this game but I will post the video recaps from the KHL later in the day.**

Links:

ESPN has added a schedule and standings page for the KHL: http://espn.go.com/nhl/khl

Magnitogorsk has a twitter page: https://twitter.com/MetallurgMgn

Go to onhockey.ru for all of your streaming needs.

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