Malkin Scores Only Goal in OT Loss

On Sunday, Magnitogorsk hosted HC Yurga and lost in overtime (shocking, I know).  Here are the stats from the game:

HC Yurga 2  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 (OT)

Nikolai Kulemin - 1a, 5 shots, 20:34 ice time

Evgeni Malkin - 1g, 4 PIM, 13 shots, 26 of 39 faceoffs, 23:35 ice time

Sergei Gonchar - 2 shots, 2 PIM, 22:44 ice time

Sergei Mozyakin - 1a, 4 shots, 19:07 ice time



Next game: 11/28 @ Vityaz Chekhov, 10:30am

Current Metallurg players in the league leaders:

Points: Mozyakin (1st - 39), Malkin (3rd - 33)
Goals: Mozyakin (1st- 16)
Assists: Mozyakin (1st - 23), Malkin (2nd - 22)
GAA: Ahonen (4th - 1.80)
Save %: Ahonen (4th - .937)

Also, check out this interview done by Paul Maurice and his assistant coach (takes a little bit to load):

Mozyakin Sets Up 3 Goals to Power Magnitogorsk to a Win

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(15-0-6-5)

vs

Barys
Astana

(11-0-5-10)

Players You May Recognize

Nik Antropov, Victor Hedman, Andrew Hutchinson, Nigel Dawes, Brandon Bochenski, Dustin Boyd

Recap

Despite some struggles since the KHL's Euro Hockey Tour break, Metallurg Magnitogorsk should be perfectly fine as long as they get to play Barys Astana once a week.  Barys is the only team that Metallurg has defeated since the break, and both wins have been decisive victories with 5 goal outputs.

I kinda wish the Pens still had O'Reilly...
or were playing hockey...

Magnitogorsk got off to a very quick start, taking the lead within the first minute of the game thanks to a Cal O'Reilly one-timer from the slot.  Sergei Mozyakin recorded his first of 3 assists on the opening goal, which helped him pass Alexander Radulov for the KHL's scoring lead.  After dominating the first five minutes, Magnitogorsk ran into some penalty trouble when Evgeni Malkin was called for slashing.  Momentum shifted to Barys, who couldn't score during Malkin's penalty but drew another penalty on Mikhail Yakubov immediately after.  Their second powerplay needed just 35 seconds to score as Nik Antropov found Maxim Spiridonov alone across the crease for an easy tap-in goal.

That would be the only goal Barys scored though as Magnitogorsk fought back to gain momentum with their home crowd and got a little help from some poor goaltending as well.  With 5 minutes left in the 1st period, Nikolai Kulemin held the puck near the goal line by the Barys net patiently.  After surveying his passing options (there were none), he took a bad angle shot which somehow slipped into the net for a 2-1 lead.

Hedman won the battle of 71's here.

Barys put together another effort to tie the game late in the period after Cal O'Reilly was called for hooking and then given a 10 minute misconduct for arguing the call (Abuse of Officials, officially), but Magnitogorsk's penalty kill held strong.  The first 10 minutes of the 2nd period were filled with penalties and chippy play as Sergei Gonchar got into a scrum with Mihail Grigoriev.  The bad blood continued as Malkin went around the offensive zone and cross-checked 3 different players (no penalties were called) and then got into a small wrestling match with Victor Hedman which led to roughing minors for each.

Once tempers subsided on both sides, Metallurg went to work at putting the game away during the rest of the 2nd period.  Dmitry Kazionov scored 2 goals and Sergei Gonchar added a powerplay goal in a 5 minute span to take Barys completely out of the game with a 5-1 score.  After the 5th goal, Barys pulled their starting goalie Lassila and put in backup Pavel Poluektov.

Poluektov didn't let a shot in for the rest of the game and the 3rd period went very quickly and quietly as both teams appeared to be ready to move on.  There were more instances of YMCA, the wave, and thunder sticks being used in the crowd than quality chances on the ice.

Final Score:  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5   Barys Astana 1

Metallurg improves to 16-0-6-5 and Barys drops to 11-0-5-11.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin showed a lot of fire in this game with quite a few physical altercations.  He played well but certainly seemed more intent on causing chaos with his body than the puck today.  He only managed 3 shots, an unusually low total for him, and recorded just 1 assist in only 19:50 of ice time (also an unusually low number).  He was only 8 for 18 in faceoffs as well.  My guess is someone woke up on the wrong side of bed today.

I think he was going for the Mighty Ducks jersey pullover

Sergei Gonchar - In 19 minutes of ice time, Gonchar scored a powerplay goal and assisted on another in the easy win.  He was not tested much defensively, but was flawless in his own end when necessary.  He also showed quite a bit of fight today, getting into a couple shoving matches.  He had a talk with the refs after the 2nd period and was laughing with them though, so things couldn't have been too bad.

Others - Nikolai Kulemin was named Magnitogorsk's player of the game with only 1 goal recorded...I'm not sure why.  Mozyakin is the KHL's leader in points with 37 right now, followed by Alexander Radulov with 36 and Evgeni Malkin in 3rd with 33 points.  Cal O'Reilly only played 9:42 because of his 10 minute misconduct.  Head coach Paul Maurice was clearly unhappy and sat him much longer than necessary.

Next Game:  11/25, 6am EST vs HC Yugra

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.

Karri Ramo baffles Magnitogorsk in a 2-1 Game.

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(15-0-6-4)

vs

Avangard
Omsk

(11-7-3-6)

Players You May Recognize

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

Recap

A week ago, the Euro Hockey Tour break ended and Magnitogorsk visited Omsk in their first game after the break.  The game was built up as a heavyweight match between two of the top teams in the East and featured on ESPN 3.  Magnitogorsk lost that game in overtime, 3-2.  Unfortunately, the result was similar in today's match as Magnitogorsk lost 2-1 in regulation at home despite a plethora of chances to tie the game.

Karri Ramo started in net for Avangard Omsk and somehow that spelled the end for Magnitogorsk instantly.  Ramo played a fantastic game, stopping 32 of 33 shots including numerous breakaways and point blank chances.  Ari Ahonen stopped 29 of 31 shots for Magnitogorsk, but it wasn't enough for the snake-bitten offense to overcome.

Avangard Omsk took the lead early on a fluke play as Alexander Frolov streaked down the right side of the ice and tried to backhand a pass towards the crease.  His pass worked out better than anticipated as it deflected off of Sergei Gonchar's skate and into the air past Ari Ahonen for a 1-0 lead.

Both teams traded chances for the rest of the period, including three 2 on 1 breaks within the last two minutes, but the period ended 1-0.  Evgeni Malkin and Nikolai Kulemin looked fantastic after the first, but Karri Ramo was already the star of the game through one.

The second period started quickly with an Enver Lisin breakaway that was stopped by Ramo.  The ref proceeded to call a penalty shot because Lisin was partially slashed even though he got the shot off.  Ramo stopped Lisin yet again on the penalty shot to preserve the 1-0 lead.  The teams traded powerplays through a mostly quiet 2nd period before the energy skyrocketed again towards the end.

With four minutes left in the period, Igor Volkov snuck past both Metallurg defenders and received a breakaway pass at the blue line.  All it took was a quick forehand to backhand deke and Volkov lifted the puck past a diving Ari Ahonen for a 2-0 lead.  Less than 2 minutes later, Malkin worked his own offensive magic for Magnitogorsk.  Geno skated in and around two Avangard defenders before dishing a perfect pass to Sergei Gonchar across the slot.  Gonchar one-timed the puck past Karri Ramo to cut the lead down to 2-1.

The third period started with more insanity when Avangard received a penalty shot because Sergei Mozyakin covered the puck in the crease during a crazy scrum.  Ari Ahonen was up to the task and stopped the penalty shot to keep it at a one goal game.  Unfortunately Magnitogorsk was unable to find a tying goal as Ramo continued to dazzle in net.

Final Score:  Avangard Omsk 2  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1

Metallurg drops to 15-0-6-5 and Avangard improves to 12-7-3-6.

Player Notes

Evgeni Malkin - Malkin finished with 1 assist, 5 shots, 18 for 26 in faceoffs, and 21:22 of ice time.  He skated like he was shot out of a cannon all night and had some beautiful puck-handling moves in the offensive zone.  Despite the small offensive output, Malkin was a force in most of his shifts and created chances all over the ice with Kulemin.

Sergei Gonchar - Gonchar finished with 1 goal on 4 shots in 20:15 of ice time.  Gonchar's one-timer was beautiful, though his overall play was marred by the accidental 1st goal and being on the ice for the breakaway goal against.  Also, his reluctance to shoot on the powerplay and preference to feed it to Malkin on the half-boards is getting rather predictable for penalty killers to adjust to.

Other Players - Oleg Tverdovsky, who missed several games before the break with an injury, looked back up to speed and played quite well throughout the game. He had a great shot in front of the net but was stopped by the amazing Karri Ramo.  Enver Lisin and Justin Hodgman both had awful games in terms of turnovers and general positioning.  Nikolai Kulemin looked fantastic with Malkin but was robbed a couple times by Ramo and then missed the net on two tough chances.

Next Game:  11/23, 8am EST vs Barys Astana

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.