Malkin's Hat Trick Leads Metallurg to First Place

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(23-0-9-7)

vs

Traktor

Chelyabinsk

(21-3-6-9)

NHL/Former NHL Players You May Recognize

Jan Bulis, Andrei Kostitsyn, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Deron Quint, Stanislav Chistov, Michael Garnett

Pregame Notes

• Evgeni Malkin was named attacker of the month and Sergei Gonchar was named defenseman of the month for December:  http://en.khl.ru/news/2013/01/01/24966.html
• Sergei Mozyakin was named attacker of the week for Week 15:  http://en.khl.ru/news/2013/01/01/24964.html
• Standings Update: Magnitogorsk sits in 3rd place in the West with 78 points.  Chelyabinsk is 4th in the West with 75 points.  Big game in the standings.
• KHL Scoring Race Update:  Mozyakin entered tonight's game with the lead (63), 4 points ahead of Malkin (59) and 15 points ahead of Alexander Radulov (48).
• Starting goalies: Michael Garnett for Chelyabinsk and Ari Ahonen for Magnitogorsk.
• Injury report remains the same: Cal O'Reilly, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Evgeny Biryukov out.

Recap

After a mini-break for the New Year (the KHL apparently has a break every 3 weeks), Magnitogorsk returned to the ice hoping to steamroll their third opponent in a row.  After a 6-0 win over Novokuznetsk, followed by a 7-0 win over Khabarovsk, it was easy to assume Metallurg would have a more difficult task in front of them with a MUCH better team in Traktor Chelyabinsk.  As I continually learn in the KHL, assumptions are wrong. Ari Ahonen and Metallurg extended their team shutout streak to 3 games with a dominant 3-0 win over Traktor.

Inseparable

The game began at a furious pace through the first four minutes, but neither team had much of a scoring chance during their rushes up and down the ice.  On a bad line change amidst the rushes, Traktor's Evgeny Katichev was forced into taking a holding penalty which ultimately led to the first goal.  Though the description changes, you can always guess the powerplay goal:  Evgeni Malkin from Sergei Mozyakin and Sergei Gonchar.  This one was mostly on Malkin's own effort as he received a pass from the neutral zone, cut across a defender and cut across the slot to throw a backhander past Traktor goalie Michael Garnett.

The rest of the first period continued along quietly with each team getting a powerplay chance but failing to convert.  Metallurg finished the 1st leading 9-6 in shots, which did not include a beautiful chance for Malkin with 18 seconds left where he shot the puck over a wide open net from two feet away.  Geno was left staring to the heavens in wonderment as the period came to a close.  Also of note, Washington Capitals' prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov (26th pick in 2010) had 4 of Traktor's 6 shots in the period.

Magnitogorsk started the second period with back to back powerplays as forward Konstantin Panov was called for tripping, came out of the box after the penalty was killed, and was called for tripping again.  Unfortunately they were unable to capitalize on either chance with Malkin ringing a slapshot off the post at the end of the second powerplay.  After the two kills, Traktor had a chance to tie the game with Malkin in the penalty box for hooking, but they only managed 1 shot on the powerplay.

Geno ROAR.

Malkin promptly made them pay for not taking advantage of the opportunity.  Just as Malkin exited the box, Mozyakin and Nikolai Kulemin jumped on to the ice to unite the first line in an effort to shift momentum.  Mozyakin skated out of the corner in the offensive zone with the puck and dished it to Kulemin at the left faceoff circle.  Kulemin passed it to the crease, where Malkin skated laterally with Garnett already down and slid the puck into a virtually empty net for a 2-0 lead.  Magnitogorsk had a few more chances in the period led by the line of Lisin-Hodgman-Zuccarello, but Garnett held strong and kept the score 2-0 through 2 periods.

Traktor had one more strong chance to get into the game early in the 3rd period with Mikhail Yakubov in the box for holding, but Metallurg's penalty kill was too aggressive for Traktor to handle.  A few minutes after the penalty was killed, Malkin finished his natural hat trick and capped off the scoring with a fanned shot that dribbled into the net.  Enver Lisin created the chance by skating the puck behind the net and attempting a wrap-around that sailed across the crease.  Mozyakin attempted to corral the puck, missed it, and let it slide to Malkin.  Malkin then fanned on the shot but still hit the puck hard enough that it slid past Garnett who was left scrambling.

With a 3-0 lead midway through the 3rd, the only things left to do were clean up the hats and preserve Ahonen's third shutout in a row.  Traktor never put a scare into the goalie as Metallurg kept all shots to the perimeter and cleared the front of the net to perfection.  With that, Magnitogorsk won the game and jumped into 1st place in the West with 81 points, 1 point ahead of Avangard Omsk and Ak Bars Kazan.

Final Score:  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3  Traktor Chelyabinsk 0

Box Score: http://text.khl.ru/en/35122.html

Magnitogorsk improves to 24-0-9-7 and Chelyabinsk drops to 21-3-6-10.

Player Notes

Things I miss: Geno celebrations

Evgeni Malkin - I don't have enough words to praise Malkin in this game.  He could have had 5 goals since he missed an open net and also beat Garnett but hit the post.  His final stat line was 3 goals on 6 shots, 7 for 16 (43.8%) on faceoffs, and 2 PIM in 23:02 of ice time.  Geno did a masterful job of creating space for himself with head fakes and speed changes throughout the game and simply looked in peak form.  He even played a strong defensive game, denying two Traktor forwards of chances in front of the net with perfectly timed stick lifts.  This may have been the best all around game Malkin has played all season.

Gonchar's inevitable reaction to Pens fan debates

Others (Metallurg) - Sergei Mozyakin, of course, assisted on all 3 of Malkin's goals and remains the KHL scoring leader.  The chemistry between the two players is a sight to behold as they perfectly measure where each other will be ahead of the play.  Gonchar, Kulemin, and Lisin also added assists in this game.  Mats Zuccarello had a plethora of chances but was robbed by Garnett on multiple occasions  Ryan O'Reilly went 12 for 16 in faceoffs.  Ari Ahonen is rising back into the Top 5 for goalie stats with his 3rd shutout in a row as both he and Metallurg's defense look impenetrable right now.

A couple more years of seasoning makes more sense now.

Others (Traktor) - Admittedly, the only Traktor player I focused on was Evgeny Kuznetsov, who looked like the focal point of Traktor's offense but was kept to the perimeter at all times.  Though he had 7 of the team's 23 shots, I was less than impressed with his willingness to drive with the puck into traffic.  He clearly seemed more interested in deking to the outside than inside against this Magnitogorsk team.

Next Game:  1/6, 11am EST @ Slovan Bratislava

Links:

Thank you to onhockey.ru (@onhockey on Twitter).  Not only have they been dependable for KHL streams, but they even named my blog on the stream for this game (as you can see in the screencaps).

Keep track of Malkin and the KHL scoring race here:  http://en.khl.ru/stat/leaders/222/.

Look for Ahonen stats too.