MOSCOW, January 26 (R-Sport) - Donbass Donetsk continued its bid to become the first Ukrainian team in the KHL playoffs with a 4-2 win at Metallurg Novokuznetsk on Saturday.
The win means expansion team Donbass recaptures the eighth and final playoff place in the Western Conference, displacing Lev Prague, although Donbass has played more games than all of the nearby teams and has only five fixtures remaining in the regular season.
Dmitry Kagarlitsky’s strike early in the third period proved the game-winner, while Donbass’ other goals came courtesy of Lukas Kaspar and Sergei Varlamov, one of whose goals was a late empty-netter.
Dmitry Chernykh and Nikita Vyzgalov found the target for Metallurg, which is 10th in the Eastern table but 16 points away from the final playoff spot.
Elsewhere, Jaroslav Obsut’s overtime strike gave Spartak Moscow a 2-1 overtime win on the road at Sibir Novosibirsk.
Alexander Suglobov scored for the visitors early in the second period, before Jonas Enlund equalized for Sibir.
Spartak’s win keeps alive theoretical hopes of making the playoffs, but the Muscovites are a distant last in the Western Conference, while Sibir is a solid sixth in the East with one more game to play than Barys Astana and Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk below.
