Played for the Penguins? Here's a Goal!

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(6-0-3-3)

@

Amur

Khabarovsk

(4-2-0-9)

Players You May Recognize

None, I literally didn't recognize a single person on Khabarovsk's roster.

Recap

Quite a long trip back home after this game.

For the final stop of their road trip, Magnitogorsk visited the KHL's most isolated member in Khabarovsk.  Amur Khabarovsk is 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) away from any other KHL team and much further away from Magnitogorsk.  For that reason, opening faceoff was at a slightly early, 4am EST.  Paul Maurice went with the same lines despite coming off of a 4-1 loss.  The only change to the lineup was Georgi Gelashvili in net instead of regular starter Ari Ahonen.

First periods over the past week have been rather quiet in Magnitogorsk games and the trend continued in this matchup.  Both goalies started off flawlessly despite a powerplay opportunity for each team.  Evgeni Malkin had at least three opportunities from the slot and also drew a penalty, but none of it was useful in trying to beat Khabarovsk goalie Alexei Murygin.

After a scoreless first, the home team came out with three strong shifts to open the 2nd period and drew a high sticking penalty.  Magnitogorsk killed it off and went on a short attack before Mats Zuccarello was called for a weak trip that looked very much like a dive.  Though Malkin argued the team's case, Metallurg went to the penalty kill and and succeeded yet again.

Roughly half way through the period, Magnitogorsk drew a powerplay which ultimately led to chaos and a goal.  Sergei Gonchar was unable to control a puck at the blue line and was beat in a race to the puck by an Amur forward.  The forward went in on Gelashvili at full speed on a breakaway, but the goalie stoned him.  As the play turned back to the offensive zone, Gonchar ended up with the puck and took three strides in from his point position before ripping a shot past Murygin for a 1-0 lead.  From potential goat to hero in about 30 seconds summed up Gonchar's powerplay shift.


The second period would end with more Magnitogorsk penalties.  First Nikolai Kulemin took a high sticking penalty late in the period, then Gelashvili was called for slashing on the penalty kill.  With the second period expiring, Khabarovsk would begin the 3rd period with a 5 on 3 for over a minute.

Tyler Kennedy could even finish this chance.

Metallurg continued to win the special teams battle, led by Evgeni Malkin on the 3 man penalty kill.  Both penalties were killed and play opened up as both teams took more chances to get an odd man break.  The play development benefited Magnitogorsk quickly as Cal O'Reilly found himself wide open at the backdoor of the net.  Sergei Mozyakin had no problem finding him for a pass and O'Reilly finished it off into a wide open net.

CHAOS

With a two goal lead, Magnitogorsk drew another penalty and chaos ensued yet again.  Gonchar was beat at the point again and another Amur forward had a breakaway chance.  This time, goalie Gelashvili came out to challenge the shooter/slide into him/take out his legs at least.  Players flew all over the ice and the referees deemed it to be a penalty shot scenario.  Gelashvili stopped the penalty shot and essentially put an end to any fight Khabarovsk had.

The scoresheet was missing just one Pittsburgh-connected player late in the 3rd and he had no intentions of disappointing his fans back in the US.  After taking a pass from Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin skated through a couple of Amur players and deked out the last defenseman.  As he finished his deke and was falling to the ice, Geno unleashed a backhander that found the back of the net for a 3-0 lead.

The game would come to a quiet end shortly thereafter as Magnitogorsk earned their 7th win of the season behind the firepower of Sergei Gonchar, Cal O'Reilly, and Evgeni Malkin and the goaltending of Georgi Gelashvili.

Final Score:  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3  Amur Khabarovsk 0

Magnitogorsk improves to 7-0-3-3 and Khabarovsk drops to 4-2-0-10.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - The goal was only Malkin's 2nd in 9 games, but certainly a step in the right direction.  He had 7 shots in over 23 minutes of ice time as he continues to throw the puck to the net with every chance he gets.  Overall, he had a strong game and played a big role in the perfect penalty killing effort for Magnitogorsk.  His only weakness was in the faceoff circle, where he went 8 for 24.

Celebrating PP goals like they've been there before...

Sergei Gonchar - Despite his attempts to destroy Gelashvili's shutout, Gonchar managed to play a good game in general.  At even strength, his play on offense and defense was solid.  On the powerplay, his offense was solid but his defense was non-existent.  The two breakaways that Gonchar allowed were simply horrendous.  For today though, he can live by the phrase "no harm, no foul."  He finished with a goal (his first of the season) and an assist in 25 minutes of ice time.

Cal O'Reilly - Going into this game, I was ready to complain that O'Reilly had shown very little chemistry with his new linemates compared to when he was with Nikolai Kulemin.  His work with Sergei Mozyakin changed my mind greatly though.  Aside from the goal (his first of the season), O'Reilly and Mozyakin showed a strong prowess for how to attack the net and provide puck support for each other.  O'Reilly has been impressively productive (11 points) for a guy who only gets roughly 15 minutes of ice time per game.

Next Game:  10/13, 7am EST vs Lokomotiv Yaroslavl

Links:

Go to onhockey.ru for all of your streaming needs.  They had 7 different links for this game.

If you want highlights for the games, check out http://www.youtube.com/user/KHLofficialvideo.  Here are this game's highlights in English.  I'll start finding these and adding them to the recaps: