Barys avenges a home loss, Traktor struggling to score

Traktor third line became the nominal first one in this game. Chistov and Dugin exchanged their spots; Mokin and Abdullin were replaced by Abdullin and Sayustov. D pairs were also shuffled up as Khlystov and Borodkin were paired up with Ryabykin and Artamonov respectively. Oleg Petrov became the substitute goalie.

First period
Barys started off in quite a dynamic fashion, taking a lot of shots. Nonetheless, Garnett dealt with all of them, at least for the time being. Midway through the period Kostitsyn constructed a one-on-one all by himself - Ahonen saved Barys from a sure-fire goal. Shortly thereafter Barys opened the score; Upper was left absolutely alone near Traktor's net and did not even flinch to hammer the puck into the net. Later on Bulis and Kuznetsov had a two-on-one chance; Jan got a little greedy and shot the puck himself instead of passing - Ahonen was ready. The best chance on goal for Traktor came at the hands of Semen Kokuyov who hit a scintillating backhander that, unfortunately for the black-and-white, found the cross bar.

Second period
The second twenty was pretty much the end of things in this contest. First off, Roman Starchenko extended a goal margin after yet another blunder by Traktor's D-men. Traktor had some chances to pull one back, like Ryabykin's slapshot stopped by Ahonen and a botched one-on-one by Kostitsyn. Then, two similar goals came about; first Dawes directed a rebound into the net on the power play, then Panshin converted another counter into somewhat upsetting zip four for the hosts. In the closing moments of the period Kostitsyn had yet another goal-scoring chance, but his shot once again whiffed wide off the target.

Third period
Traktor's first line fought until the very end, trying to get something going and not allow Ahonen to get a shutout. At the top of the period Glinkin fired two straight shots that went wide. The last substantial goal-scoring chance of the match came around when Bondarev caught a rebound and slapped the hell out of the rubber; a prone Ahonen could not help Barys, but hockey gods must have held some kind of a grudge against Traktor's players because nothing seemed bound to come in, including this shot. Zip four, the final score; Traktor continues to float around the last playoff spot with some 20 games left to go in the regular season.

Game details

TRAKTOR vs. BARYS – 0:4 (0:1, 0:3, 0:0)

Goals: Upper (Rudenko), 9 (0:1); Starchenko (Upper), 25 (0:2); Dawes (Barker, Bochensky), 33 (0:3 - PP goal); Panshin (Gavrilin), 37 (0:4)

TRAKTOR (Chelyabinsk)
Garnett;
Kondratyev – Bondarev, Glinkin – Popov – Kokuyov,
Klimontov – Katichev, Chistov – Kontiola – Kostitsyn,
Borodkin – Artamonov, Dugin – Bulis (A) – Kuznetsov (A),
Khlystov – Ryabykin (C), Abdullin – Osnovin – Sayustov.

BARYS (Astana, Kazakhstan)
Ahonen;
Blokhin (A) – Lundin, Dawes – Boyd – Bochensky (A),
Litvinenko – Savchenko, Rudenko – Upper (C) – Starchenko,
Barker – Semenov, Zhailauov – Polishchuk – Romanov,
Panshin – Gavrilin – Rakhmanov.

PIM: 6 (2+2+2) - 4 (0+2+2).
Shots: 24 (7+9+8) - 28 (13+9+6).
Faceoffs won: 25 (8+13+4) - 33 (11+10+12).
TOI: Bondarev (19:58), Kondratyev (19:22), Kuznetsov (19:13) - Lundin (23:40), Litvinenko (20:16), Barker (20:04).
PP goals: 0-1.

Referees: Yury Oskirko (Yaroslavl), Aleksandr Sergeyev (Zhukovsky).
Linesmen: Aleksey Medvedev, Dmitry Sivov (both - Moscow).

December 3, 2013. Traktor Arena, Chelyabinsk, Russia. Attendance - 7000.