Malkin's Penalty in Overtime Leads to a Loss

The Matchup:

Metallurg 

Magnitogorsk 

(16-0-7-5)

@

HC Vityaz
Chekhov

(4-6-6-12)

Players You May Recognize

Alexei Zhamnov (General Manager), Trevor Gillies, Alexander Korolyuk, Daniil Markov, Brian Fahey, Andrei Markov

Recap

Oh, KHL streams...

A quick note on some changes over the past couple games.  Denis Platonov is no longer wearing the C, it was given to Evgeni Malkin when Platonov missed a game and Malkin kept it today with Platonov in the lineup.  Also, the new first line is Mozyakin-Malkin-Kulemin.  Now onto the game!

HC Vityaz Chekhov has had a miserable November so far, going winless for the month.  Their last win was October 31st in a shootout and they only have 4 regulation wins all season.  Despite that, I guess a team has to win eventually...

The first period started quite slow with a lot of neutral zone play and a few turnovers.  The game livened up significantly around the 10 minute mark when Metallurg's Justin Hodgman slashed goaltender Ivan Lisutin while trying to chip at a rebound.  Vityaz defenseman Daniil Markov took exception to this and flat out attacked Hodgman, jumping him from behind and repeatedly punching him with his gloves off.  Markov was given a double minor for roughing, a 10 minute misconduct, and ejected with a game misconduct.

A look at the scoreboard in Chekhov with no jumbotron.

Magnitogorsk did not score on the ensuing powerplay, but scoring chances increased for both teams as the pace picked up.  Mats Zuccarello opened up the scoring for Metallurg when he took a pass from Hodgman and skated across the crease to backhand a shot under a diving Lisutin.  Chekhov would tie the game less than 2 minutes later while Oleg Tverdovsky was in the penalty box for slashing.  Evgeni Malkin tried to pass the puck back to Georgi Misharin in his own end, but Misharin was not ready and the puck bounced off of his skate.  Alexander Korolyuk took the puck for a wide open chance in the slot and put a slapshot past goalie Ari Ahonen.

The second period was dominated by tight play and obstruction penalties as each team had two powerplay chances.  Neither team scored on their powerplays though and it looked like the period would pass along quietly until Aleksey Badyukov wristed a puck past Ahonen to give Chekhov a 2-1 lead.  With the period winding down and Magnitogorsk facing a 1 goal deficit, Sergei Mozyakin threw a slapshot at the net from the blue line with less than 10 seconds left.  The rebound came out perfectly to Nikolai Kulemin, who quickly shot the puck past Lisutin to tie the game with 5 seconds left in the 2nd period.

Maurice knew OT was trouble.

HC Vityaz Chekhov took the lead just over a minute into the 3rd period when Yakov Seleznyov shot a backhander from the slot past Ahonen, who did not look ready for the shot.  The period continued on quietly as Magnitogorsk could not mount much of an attack with Chekhov keeping 3 players back at all times.  Metallurg finally earned a break though when Korolyuk was called for slashing with less than 4 minutes left.  The powerplay succeeded and Victor Antipin tied the game as he backhanded a bouncing puck in the slot past Lisutin.

As the game went to overtime, not many could expect a Magnitogorsk win based on their 0-7 overtime record this season.  True to form, Evgeni Malkin was called for kneeing with 1:34 left in overtime and Brian Fahey scored on the first shot of the powerplay to give Chekhov the overtime win.  Malkin vehemently argued with the refs after the game about the call and received an additional 10 minute misconduct for abuse of officials after the fact.  Make that 0-8 in overtime.

Final Score:  HC Vityaz Chekhov 4  Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (OT)

Magnitogorsk drops to 16-0-8-5 despite outshooting Vityaz 49-20 and Chekhov improves to 4-7-6-12.

Player Notes

Not your best night, Captain Geno.

Evgeni Malkin - Geno registered 11 shots with no points, was 11 for 28 in faceoffs, and was given 12 PIM in 23:22 of ice time.  Many of those shots were bad angle shots on the powerplay and he was simply not his creative self today.  He was seen arguing with the refs over icing calls early in the 3rd and then again after his penalty at the end of the game, which absolutely was a penalty regardless of his argument.  This was not a great day as Captain for Geno and I'm sure Paul Maurice isn't happy with it.

Others - Sergei Mozyakin added 2 assists to boost his league leading point total to 41 and move him back into the assists lead with 25.  His stickhandling was beautiful today as he played keep away from Chekhov players multiple times in the offensive zone.  Nikolai Kulemin and Mats Zuccarello also put together strong performances with a goal each.  Both players spent a significant amount of time causing havoc around the Vityaz net.  Sergei Gonchar had a quiet game, recording just 3 shots, and he had an easy night in the defensive end.  

Next Game:  11/30, 11am EST @ Dynamo Minsk

If you haven't looked at it yet, check out my previous post to see an interview with Paul Maurice, who talks about Malkin's spin-around backhand goal against Cam Ward in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2009.

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.

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.