MOSCOW, December 19 (R-Sport) – Sibir Novosibirsk defeated KHL leader Dynamo Moscow 4-3 on a shootout after an impressive comeback on Wednesday.
Despite having a four-game winning streak snapped, the Gagarin Cup holder stays at the top of the Western Conference with 26 wins after 34 games, while Sibir moved to the sixth spot in the East.
Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin hit the opener for Dynamo, a quickfire shot into the the top corner of Jeff Glass' net for his 15th goal of the season.
Referees disallowed two goals scored by Dynamo in the second period, before Kirill Knyazev finally netted a fair one to double the visitors’ lead.
Sibir’s latest signing Viktor Bobrov and another Dynamo lockout forward Nicklas Backstrom exchanged goals in the third period anticipating the unlikely ending.
In a desperate attempt to save the game, Sibir coach replaced Glass for a sixth field player, and the hosts managed to score twice in the last 63 seconds through Jori Lehtera and Ivan Lekomtsev.
The only converted penalty shot by Arturs Kulda proved enough for Sibir to grab a win, as Glass parried all three shots by Ovechkin, Backstrom and Richard Gynge.
Elsewhere, SKA St. Petersburg drew to within four points of Dynamo after a 4-1 road thrashing of Metallurg Novokuznetsk.
St. Louis Blues starlet Vladimir Tarasenko put the visitors in the lead only 50 seconds in.
In the second period, forwards Viktor Tikhonov and Fedor Fedorov made the score 3-0, all scored in the lightning-fast counterattacks.
Ex-NHL center Randy Robitaille narrowed the lead on 30 minutes, but defenseman Maxim Chudinov buried the hosts’ chances of a comeback with a powerful slapshot off the blue line at the start of the third period.
Ninth-placed Metallurg has undermined its chances of qualifying for the playoffs with three defeats in a row and is now seven points behind Barys Astana, which occupies the last playoff spot in eighth.
