Magnitogorsk Dismantles the "Other" Metallurg Team

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(21-0-9-7)

vs

Metallurg

Novokuznetsk

(11-3-4-18)

NHL/Former NHL Players You May Recognize

Randy Robitaille, Chris Simon, Brent Sopel

Pregame Notes

• The ceremony preceding Wednesday's game was for Sergei Mozyakin being named player of the month.
• Standings Update: Magnitogorsk sits in 3rd place in the West with 72 points.  Novokuznetsk is in 10th in the East with 43 points.
• KHL Scoring Race Update:  Mozyakin entered tonight's game with the lead (56), 5 points ahead of Malkin (51) and 10 points ahead of Alexander Radulov (46).
• Starting goalies: Yury Klyuchnikov for Novokuznetsk and Ari Ahonen for Magnitogorsk.
• Injury report remains the same: Cal O'Reilly, Oleg Tverdovsky, and Evgeny Biryukov out.
• Enver Lisin finally returned to the lineup, joining Justin Hodgman's line with Mats Zuccarello

Recap

Novokuznetsk was helped by a few key shot blocks
in the first period.

Coming off of a disappointing loss to Sibir Novosibirsk, Magnitogorsk made a tremendous effort to take control of this game early and they never let go.  A dominant performance began early as Magnitogorsk spent a majority of the first 6 minutes cycling in the Novokuznetsk zone.  Their efforts paid off with an offensive zone faceoff that led to the first goal of the game.  It started when Evgeni Malkin won a faceoff cleanly back to Sergei Gonchar at the point.  As Gonchar received the puck, Sergei Mozyakin skated back to the blueline across from Gonchar and opened up for a one-timer.  Gonchar's pass was perfectly timed and Mozyakin's shot hit the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.  The rest of the period was dominated by special teams play as each team took 3 penalties, but neither powerplay could manage a goal.  Novokuznetsk looked very strong on the penalty kill and played very aggressively and physically on defense.  Meanwhile, Magnitogorsk managed to control the puck on the penalty kill more than their opponent did.

Magnitogorsk then opened up the second period with a quick goal to double their lead as Alexei Bondarev found Mats Zuccarello streaking up the ice for a breakaway.  Zuccarello deked to his backhand and then forehand to get goalie Yury Klyuchnikov sprawling out of position as he slid the puck into the net.  Klyuchnikov steadied the ship for Novokuznetsk for a few minutes as Magnitogorsk continued an onslaught of shots (outshooting Novokuznetsk 12-3 in the period), but it was only a matter of time before the lead would increase.

It was a tough day for Klyuchnikov, who dealt with
traffic in his crease constantly.

Halfway through the period, Malkin carried the puck down the left side boards at full speed backing off both Novokuznetsk defenders.  As the defenders backed off, he dropped the puck off for Mozyakin, who skated through Malkin's wake directly to the crease.  As Klyuchnikov anticipated a shot, Mozyakin dished the puck to Kulemin, who was uncovered on the left side of the crease and had a wide open net to shoot at for a 3-0 lead.  Less than two minutes later, Ryan O'Reilly increased the lead to 4-0 as he streaked down the right side and simply fired a wrist shot that beat Klyuchnikov on his glove side.  Though Novokuznetsk's goalie looked angry and irritated after the 4th goal, he remained in the game.  Each team had another powerplay towards the end of the period, but both penalty kills were up to the task again.

Malkin was all smiles after 3 points in an easy win.

Magnitogorsk began the 3rd period on the powerplay after defender Brent Sopel knocked the net off of its moorings intentionally with 3 seconds left in the 2nd.  Though the final result was pretty much set, the penalty was still costly as Malkin added a goal of his own on a one-timer set up by Gonchar.  Facing a 5-0 deficit, Novokuznetsk gave up the fight as Magnitogorsk dominated in time of possession and looked like they were on a powerplay during 5 on 5 play.  Ryan O'Reilly capped off the scoring 5 minutes into the period by getting his 2nd of the night when he knocked a rebound past Klyuchnikov.  With a 6-0 score, the only excitement the rest of the way was a fight between Enver Lisin and Stanislav Romanov, for which both were given double minors for roughing.  Ari Ahonen was barely challenged as he recorded 22 saves to earn a shutout.

Final Score:  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 6  Metallurg Novokuznetsk 0

Box Score: http://text.khl.ru/en/35104.html

Magnitogorsk drops to 22-0-9-7 and Novosibirsk improves to 11-3-4-19.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin finished with 1 goal, 2 assists, 5 shots, and 13 for 22 (59.1%) in faceoffs in only 21:24 of ice time.  He had some dazzling moves against a weaker Novokuznetsk defense, once deking through 3 players and also almost completing a pylon drill around 4 players before drawing a slashing penalty.  He looked relaxed, confident, and happy in a complete game for him and his teammates.

Others (Metallurg) - Ryan O'Reilly continues to make the KHL look easy as he scored his 3rd and 4th goals in 6 games and added an assist.  The most impressive part is O'Reilly isn't getting much time on the powerplay or in the offensive zone but he is being very productive with his chances.  Mats Zuccarello and Enver Lisin had instant chemistry with each other while Justin Hodgman had a quiet game on that line.  Zuccarello and Lisin had multiple 2 on 1 chances and timed their attacks very well together.  Sergei Mozyakin "only" had 2 points to allow Malkin to gain some ground on him.  Nikolai Kulemin showed some very aggressive play to go along with his goal, racking up 8 PIM in this game.

Next Game:  12/30, 6am EST vs Amur Khabarovsk

**I might miss this one but will at least post highlights and stats if I do miss it**

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/.

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.