Lokomotiv Yaroslavl continued its winning streak Sunday with a 2-0 defeat of Vityaz Chekhov to top the Western Conference after 10 games.
Goals from forwards Sergei Plotnikov and Egor Averin in the third period gave a fifth straight win to Lokomotiv, which rejoined the KHL this season a year after a plane crash killed the team’s entire roster.
Goaltender Vitaly Kolesnik faced 25 shots as he delivered his second shutout in three days as Canadian coach Tom Rowe left Lokomotiv’s lockout signing Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche on the bench.
Vityaz dropped to the bottom of the Western Conference with just three wins in 11 games.
Elsewhere, two goals from right wing Gennady Stolyarov gave Severstal Cherepovets the edge in a 4-2 win over Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
Left wing Denis Kazionov scored the winning goal for Severstal on a Torpedo power-play four minutes from the end, before Vadim Schiapachev rounded off the match with an empty-net goal.
Sevestal rose to eighth in the Western Conference, dropping Torpedo to 10th.
Elsewhere in the West, NHL goaltender Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators made his debut for Dynamo Minsk.
The Finn made 24 saves as Dynamo grabbed a 3-2 home victory over highly-rated Atlant Moscow Region.
Teemu Laine scored the winning goal at the start of the second period, his sixth goal of the season.
Donbass Donetsk and Spartak Moscow played out a 0-0 tie in regular time and overtime as goaltenders ruled, Donbass goalie Erik Ersberg, formerly of the Los Angeles Kings, stopping 36 shots to Spartak goaltender Sergei Borisov’s 24 saves.
Mikhail Zhukov gave Spartak the win on penalty shots after 14 shots led to just three goals in a lengthy shootout.
Spartak remains 12th, while the Ukrainian newcomer managed to escape from the bottom of the conference sitting right behind its opponents on 13.
