Lots of shooting, not many goals

Two changes took place in Traktor lineup compared to Saturday game as Kostromitin and Toluzakov were replaced by Kondratyev and Gubarev respectively.

Last season Traktor came away with two victories in two head-to-head matches – 5:1 at home and 5:4 in shootouts in Zagreb.

The first twenty was rather uneventful as the fans in attendance could use five fingers on one hand to count all the episodes that had some semblance of scoring chances. Popov shot wide of the goal, later on James Wright took a decent shot that was stopped by Garnett. Closer to the end of the period Popov had another chance, but this time Medvescak goaltender Barry Brust was the better man.

Popov got hurt in the first period, so Karri Kivi had to resort to some changes in the attacking lines. Whether this fact discouraged Traktor or not, something inexplicable happened – Medvescak scored three times within the span of four minutes. Matt Anderson’s and Ville Leino’s goals were separated by only twelve seconds. Three minutes later, Brock Trotter won a crease battle and tripled visitors’ lead. Traktor, dismayed and discouraged, was still able to pull one back in power play at the hands of Stas Chistov. The black-and-white were also able to kill off a two-man disadvantage right before the horn to keep themselves alive.

Minute number 48 became a happy one for Martin St. Pierre who reestablished the three-goal margin. Traktor, however, still did not want to give in just yet and came up with a quick response – Artyom Penkovski scored his first ever KHL goal. After that Medvescak pretty much dried the game up and did not allow Traktor to do anything that could shatter a comfortable two-goal lead. Traktor comes up empty for the first time in three games against Medvescak. On Wednesday, Traktor continues the home series with a match against Dinamo Minsk.

Game details

TRAKTOR vs. MEDVESCAK – 2:4 (0:0, 1:3, 1:1)
Goals: Anderson (Leino), 24 (0:1); Leino (Anderson, Thomas), 25 (0:2); Trotter (Wright, Palushaj), 28 (0:3); Chistov (Quint), 35 (1:3 – PP goal); St. Pierre (Segal), 48 (1:4); Penkovski (Glinkin, Ruzicka), 48 (2:4).

TRAKTOR
Garnett;
Quint – Katichev, Bulis (C) – Panov (A) – Chistov;
Borodkin – Piganovich, Penkovski – Wilson – Kokuyov;
Khlystov – Atyushov (A), Glinkin – Popov – Ruzicka;
Kondratyev, Mokin – Sayustov – Gubarev.

MEDVESCAK
Brust;
Martinovic – Flood, Leino – Anderson – Thomas (A);
Morrisonn – Carle (A), St. Pierre – Pelletier – Segal;
Kinrade – Hutchinson, Bjorkstrand – Murray (C) – Glumak;
Trotter – Wright – Palushaj.

PIM: 20 (2+14+4) – 12 (2+4+6).
Shots: 34 (9+8+17) – 21 (6+7+8).
Faceoffs won: 24 (9+4+11) – 26 (2+13+11).
Hits: 27 (9+11+7) – 11 (6+3+2).
Shots blocked: 8 (4+2+2) – 8 (1+4+3).
TOI: Quint (25:17), Panov (21:07), Piganovich (19:24) – Carle (22:20), Flood (22:01), Martinovic (21:16).
PP goals: 1-0.

Referees: Aleksandr Dreyev (Mytishchi), Roman Shchenev (Togliatti).
Linesmen: Andrei Matyusha (Barnaul), Yevgeni Petrov (Omsk).

October 20, 2014. Traktor Arena, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Attendance – 5800.