Dynamo Moscow beat Amur Khabarovsk 4-1 in the KHL on Sunday to extend its lead in the Western Conference.
Dynamo is on an eight-game winning streak and goes to five points ahead of second-place Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, which has played one game less. Amur is tenth in the East.
Dynamo broke the deadlock in the fourth minute of the second period as Ilya Gorokhov beat a couple of Amur players to nudge the puck to captain Yuri Babenko at the far post, who made no mistake from just outside the crease.
The second for Dynamo followed the very next minute as goaltender Alexei Murygin blocked, but was unable to retain diminutive forward Mikhail Anisin’s shot in his trapper. In the resulting struggle for the puck, Anisin managed to feed Roman Derlyuk, who scored with a powerful wristshot.
For the third, Alexei Tsvetkov found Denis Tolpeko with a pass from the back of the net on 33 minutes.
Amur pulled one back three minutes later as Jakub Petruzalek made a diagonal pass from the left circle to Juha-Pekka Hytonen, who scored with goaltender Alexander Yeremenko flat on the ice.
Marek Kvapil made it a rout with two minutes left in the second period, firing a wrister from the top of the left circle.
Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin had a quiet game on his 10th appearance for Dynamo since signing a lockout contract last month.
