Secondary Scoring Leads Metallurg to Victory

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(20-0-9-6)

@

Lokomotiv

Yaroslavl

(18-8-0-9)

Players You May Recognize

Dmitri Kulikov, Niklas Hagman, Sami Lepisto, Semyon Varlamov, Curtis Sanford, Artem Anisimov

Pregame Notes

Will Dan Potash do these interviews again?

• Back in the NHL world, Penguins fans were buzzing yesterday as rumors floated around that Ray Shero may be interested in reacquiring Sergei Gonchar.
• Evgeni Malkin is slowly but surely catching up to teammate Sergei Mozyakin in the KHL scoring race.  Malkin entered the game with 48 points, Mozyakin with 52.  For comparison's sake, third on the team is Nikolai Kulemin with 27 points.
• Metallurg spent yesterday visiting the Lokomotiv memorial in honor of the players who lost their lives in last year's plane crash.
• This is the final stop of a 3 game road trip for Magnitogorsk before they return home for 4 games.
• Starting goalies: Curtis Sanford for Lokomotiv and Ari Ahonen for Metallurg.  Magnitogorsk catches a break not having to face All-Star starter Semyon Varlamov.
• Injury report remains the same: Cal O'Reilly, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Evgeny Biryukov out.

Recap

Fans first cheered for a tribute to players lost in the crash,
and then had a goal celebration just seconds later.

After a terrible start and a come from behind victory in Friday's game, it was easy to assume that Magnitogorsk would come out focused and strong against a top tier Lokomotiv team.  Assumptions don't usually pan out though - it took just 21 seconds for Lokomotiv to take a 1-0 lead.  Forward Sergei Plotnikov had the puck behind Metallurg's net and was looking for an open pass.  Instead of a passing lane, he found Ari Ahonen cheating off the right post and banked the puck in off of Ahonen's leg.  The early goal inspired both teams to continually look for similar plays originating from behind the net.

Luckily for Ahonen and Magnitogorsk, the goalie on the other side of the ice would also make a poor play on his post later in the period.  Justin Hodgman skated the puck deep into the offensive zone and made an abrupt decision to circle behind the net after taking a path towards the crease.  Curtis Sanford went out to challenge Hodgman and was caught completely out of position as Hodgman looped behind the net and passed the puck in front to Mats Zuccarello.  Sanford had no chance to get back in position as Zuccarello tied the game easily.

The PK also looks better when abandoned sticks
help out.

Magnitogorsk had a chance to take the lead late in the first, but was unable to capitalize on a 5 on 3 powerplay opportunity.  When the second period began, the team quickly realized that they were better off at even strength.  Just like with the first 2 goals, this time Dmitry Kazionov took the puck behind the net and found Denis Platonov in front for an easy tap-in to make it 2-1 Magnitogorsk.  A few minutes later, they found themselves on another 5 on 3 which they could not score on.  Lokomotiv played exceptionally well on the penalty kill, keeping 3 men in the slot at all times and forcing all shots and passes to the outside.  Their PK style looked very similar to the New York Rangers.

After the second 5 on 3 was over for Metallurg, Lokomotiv had back to back powerplay chances but failed to score due to some very aggressive penalty kill work at the points.  Once play returned to 5 on 5, Magnitogorsk finished the second period with 2 daggers that would take all of the fight out of Lokomotiv.  With 2:24 left in the second period, Sanford made a sprawling save on Zuccarello.  The puck bounced to Ryan O'Reilly in front and Sanford was still laying on the ice as O'Reilly chipped it over him for a 3-1 lead.  Then with just 19 seconds left in the period, Viktor Antipin threw a puck into the slot towards Zuccarello and Malkin.  Though neither player got a clean shot off, the puck ended up glancing off of Zuccarello's stick and sliding past Sanford.

After the back-breaking 4th goal at the end of the second period, both Lokomotiv and Metallurg looked disinterested throughout the third.  Magnitogorsk upped the score to 5-1 roughly 5 minutes into the period as Sergei Bernatsky one-timed a shot past Sanford and both teams essentially just traded penalties for the rest of the game.  Semyon Varlamov came in for Lokomotiv after the 5th goal and allowed no goals in his short stint of play.

Final Score:  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5  Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1

Magnitogorsk improves to 21-0-9-6 and Yaroslavl drops to 18-8-0-10.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin had a very subpar game and simply looked sluggish and tired all night.  He finished with 1 assist, 9 shots, and 11 for 20 (55%) in faceoffs in 22:17 of ice time.  The high shot total is very misleading since most of it came during the 5 on 3 opportunities that Metallurg had.  None of the 9 were extremely challenging by any means.  Perhaps Geno was just sick (or hungover?) or just out of it for this game, but his speed, skating, and stickhandling were pretty much absent all game.

It will be interesting to see if Zuccarello gets
another NHL shot eventually.

Others (Metallurg) - Yet again, Justin Hodgman and Mats Zuccarello shined on the second line.  Their ice time has risen significantly towards the 15 minute mark as they continue to add secondary scoring for Magnitogorsk.  Sergei Mozyakin was held to 1 assist and still maintains a 4 point lead over Malkin in the KHL scoring race.  Ryan O'Reilly had his 2nd goal in as many games and looks more and more comfortable with each shift.

Others (Lokomotiv) - Dmitri Kulikov was the standout for Lokomotiv, neutralizing the first line on defense and playing a significant role on the penalty kill.  Niklas Hagman had a below average game, recording 0 shots and getting caught up in physical play frequently instead of paying attention to the puck.  Artem Anisimov had 4 shots but was rather quiet throughout the night.  Finally, goalie Curtis Sanford played much better than his 5 goals allowed might suggest, stopping 32 of 37 shots.  Sanford really fell victim to bad bounces and defensive lapses in front of him.

Next Game:  12/26, 8am EST vs Sibir Novosibirsk

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/.