NHL No. 1 draft pick Nail Yakupov scored two goals and the winning penalty shot in a match-winning display as Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk grabbed a surprise 3-2 win on the road at SKA St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
In a match where all the goals were scored by NHL lockout signings, Edmonton Oilers forward Yakupov's first KHL goal canceled out St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko’s first-period opener for SKA.
Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils gave SKA a 2-1 lead with 1 minute 30 seconds left of the first period, but Yakupov leveled the score again ten minutes into the third to send the game to scoreless overtime.
After 30 penalty shots, Yakupov beat SKA’s NHL goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to give Neftekhimik the win after a match in which the visitors were outshot 47-28.
Neftekhimik’s eighth win in 12 games puts the team fourth in the Eastern Conference, while SKA is seventh in the West.
Gagarin Cup holder Dynamo Moscow beat former champion Ak Bars Kazan 2-0 in the first KHL match to be broadcast in the United States, with lockout signing Alex Ovechkin providing the assist for Janne Jalasvaara’s second goal, late in the third period.
Dynamo goaltender Alexander Yeryomenko saved 27 shots in the shutout, while the hosts rained 40 efforts down on Ilya Nikulin’s goal, including 19 in the second period alone.
Expansion team Slovan Bratislava took its seventh win in 12 games with a 1-0 win at Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, who remained firmly anchored at the bottom of the KHL overall standings with two wins in 10 games.
A second-period strike from Libor Gudacek was enough for Slovan to win as goaltender Janus Jaroslav faced just 13 shots from Avtomobilist in the shutout win that puts Slovan fifth in the Western Conference.
The second expansion team this season, Donbass Donetsk of Ukraine, moved off the bottom of the Western Conference with a 4-2 win on home ice against Latvia’s Dynamo Riga.
Evgeny Dadonov and Fredrik Pettersson scored in the final 10 minutes to give Donbass the win.
In an all-Eastern Conference match, Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk beat Amur Khabarovsk 6-4 with late goals from Jakub Petruzalek and Alexander Golovin despite being outshot 37-22.
Yugra’s third win in 12 games puts the hosts 11th in the East, one place behind Amur.
