Ilya Proskuryakov, goaltender for Metallurg Magnitogorsk, today celebrated his third shutout of the current championship, and is already just a step away from matching his personal best: he kept his goal intact four times in each of the two previous campaigns. Proskuryakov’s favorite opponents are Amur, Metallurg Novokuznetsk and CSKA – he has twice kept all three off the scoreboard. Curiously, Ilya seems harder to beat on the road, earning 6 of his 11 shutouts in away games, including three of his four in the first KHL season. A warning for Metallurg’s next opponents, Sibir: already twice in his career Proskuryakov has kept two clean sheets in a row.
Sibir defenseman Georgijs Pujacs struck his fifth game-winner of the season today, and on this score Georgijs now shares first place with Avangard’s Anton Kuryanov and Dinamo Minsk’s Jeff Platt, although the latter also has two game-deciding shots in shootouts to his name. Pujacs’s winning goal also means he has equaled the Novosibirsk club record, set by Andrei Posnov.
Petersburg’s army men have been notoriously slow starters this year: today’s game was the 18th in which their opponents opened the scoring. However, the team has bounced back to win no less than eight of these games – an impressive percentage bettered only by Ak Bars, who have fought back from 0-1 to win on 10 occasions out of 19. As for Lokomotiv, this was the fifth time this season they lost after scoring the first goal.
It is now 14 consecutive outings since Metallurg Magnitogorsk attacker Sergei Fedorov (pictured) was last sent to the penalty box. Impressive as it may seem, it is not the record for this season, as Tomas Rolinek and Stanislav Chistov have both played 16 straight games without being banished from the ice. Nor is it even halfway towards matching the club record for the KHL, set last season by Toni Koivisto, who went 30 games without being sent off.
The club record for all Russian championships is even further out of sight: Sergei Osipov did not receive a single penalty in 71 successive games.
Stefan Liv (Sibir). Saved 29 shots, playing in his 12th victory in the current championship.
Vitaly Atyushov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk). Spent 22 minutes and 25 seconds on the ice, during which time he set up one goal and was the most valuable defenseman in the team, finishing at a +2.
Alexander Kutuzov (Sibir). Scored a goal and made an assist.
Denis Platonov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk). Also added a goal and an assist to his account.
Sergei Brylin (SKA). Scored the winner for the second game running and was the most active player in the team, hitting 6 shots at goal and winning 11 out of 21 face-offs.
Petr Cajanek (SKA). Had four shots at goal, two of which found the target.
“The third goal was an unfortunate fluke. When the puck flies up from a face-off, the defender mustn’t catch it. I think he wanted to stop it, but it just flew into the goal,” Traktor head coach Valeri Belousov.
“We didn’t deserve this defeat. My team played really well but, sadly, Lokomotiv will leave Petersburg with no points. The army guys should thank their goalie, Jakub Stepanek; he rescued them several times,” Lokomotiv head coach Vladimir Vujtek.