The Western Conference nominated its leader

The leader has changed in the regular season of the Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League. Metallurg lost to Dynamo Moscow 3:4 in shootouts, while SKA beat Sochi 8:1. Thus, the St. Petersburg team with 87 points caught up with the Magnitogorsk team in the KHL summary table and are ahead of them in additional indicators.

Of the three matches of the next game day in the KHL regular championship, in which the contenders for the Continental Cup participated, the meeting in Magnitogorsk was, of course, of the greatest interest. After all, the leader of the Eastern Conference, Metallurg, was opposed by one of the strongest clubs in the West. And although Dynamo was in fourth place in its conference, it was second in terms of lost points.

True, the Muscovites recently suffered a significant loss of personnel in the person of their best line center forward, Cedric Paquette, who was injured. Instead, 19-year-old Yegor Rimashevsky joined Nikita Gusev and Jordan Weal in the trio, but, as they say, did not spoil the mass. In the previous match with Avtomobilist, the first five blue and white played brilliantly – Wil scored a hat-trick, and Rimashevsky both scored and gave an assist.

However, “Metallurg” did not allow Gusev and company to play around like that. Other combinations were much more effective for the guests.

Even the majority that they earned at the end of the first period was spent rather passively by the leading line. At the same time, “Dynamo” by that time was already burning 0:2. Nikita Grebenkin opened the scoring. First, he intercepted the puck in the middle zone, then beat one opponent, got away from the second and threw it into the top corner with an awkward hand. And soon the simple attack of the “steelworkers” with an attack on the goal and subsequent finishing, in which Grebenkin’s partners in the third five distinguished themselves, ended with a goal. Igor Geraskin was assisted by Daniil Vovchenko and Artem Minulin.

In the debut of the second period, the Muscovites’ special strike team again did not use their numerical advantage, and they also lost Wil after the puck flew into his head. But Artem Ilyenko managed to convert this majority, who picked up the rebound after his own shot and, like Grebenkin, scored a goal from the outside of the hook. Having reduced the difference to a minimum, Dynamo increased their pressure and forced the hosts to work hard on defense. Their goalkeeper Nikita Podskrebalin also worked hard, but the guests still won back, thanks to the efforts of the first three, in which the injured Wil was replaced by Ilya Kablukov. It was he who hit the almost empty goal of Magnitogorsk, when Gusev pulled the goalkeeper towards himself and played the puck to his teammate, recording his 79th point according to the “goal plus pass” system.

In the third period, Metallurg also had the opportunity to play extra, but Dynamo confidently defended in the minority, and then took the lead 3:2.

In general, Dmitry Rashevsky made a pass for a nickel from behind the goal and, probably, he himself did not expect that defender Valery Orekhov would score such a beautiful own goal with his skate. Now the Magnitogorsk team had to pull out the game. At the end of regulation time, they brought on a sixth field player and 33 seconds before the siren they equalized when Robin Press made a throw and Pavel Akolzin successfully placed his stick.

The hosts could have won in overtime, which ended in a five-on-three format after Eric O’Dell was sent off and the goalkeeper was removed, but they let the blue and white go. Well, the shootout series turned into Gusev’s master show. The championship’s top scorer, with amazing composure, beat Podskrebalin and his replacement, Ilya Nabokov, three times. Having won 4:3, Dynamo with 84 points rose to third place in the Western Conference.

Metallurg with 87 points still remains first in the East. Meanwhile, his closest pursuer Avangard defeated Siberia at home – 7:2, scoring 86 points. And the Omsk team still has a match in hand. But in the overall KHL table, SKA is already in the lead, which took advantage of the Steelworkers’ misfire and in the first official meeting at their new arena with a capacity of 21.5 thousand spectators easily dealt with Sochi – 8:1. Three hockey players scored a double at once – Sergei Tolchinsky, Alexander Galchenyuk and Marat Khairullin. By the way, the army club immediately set an attendance record in the history of the KHL for indoor venues: 21,481 people were present in the stands. The St. Petersburg team also had 87 points, but they had more victories in regular time than the Magnitogorsk team.

Alexander Ilyin