Goals from NHL legend Miroslav Satan and New York Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky were not enough for Slovan Bratislava to secure a win against big-spending CSKA Moscow in the KHL.
CSKA emerged the winner in Slovakia, beating Slovan 3-2 to close the gap to Dynamo Moscow at the top of the Western Conference, although CSKA remains eight points adrift.
Early goals from Alexei Marchenko and Igor Radulov left CSKA leading 2-0 at the end of the first period.
Visnovsky scored after four minutes of the second to reduce the deficit, before Jakub Rylov extended the lead to 3-1.
Satan’s strike on 29 minutes left CSKA with the task of holding onto a one-goal lead for the remainder of the game, which the Russians managed to do, eventually outshooting Slovan 37-24, and 9-5 in a tense and defensive third period.
Slovan remains seventh in the West in the Slovakian team’s first KHL season.
Elsewhere, Traktor Chelyabinsk cemented its lead in the Eastern Conference after coming back from behind on the road to beat Dinamo Riga 5-3.
The Latvians outshot their Siberian visitors 29-28 in their attempt to end a four-game losing streak, and led 3-2 with 17 minutes remaining before three goals changed the game for Traktor.
Traktor’s Maxim Karpov scored the first goal of the game in the final minute of the first period after Dinamo defenseman Guntis Galvins lost the puck in front of the goal.
Goals from Oskars Cibulskis and lockout signing Alexandre Giroux put Dinamo ahead by 2-1 at the end of the second period, just minutes after Giroux failed to score a good chance on a breakaway.
Vladimir Antipov leveled the score at 2-2 after 41 second of the third period following another Dinamo defensive error, before Andris Dzerins scored at the other end to restore Dinamo’s lead.
Traktor then scored through Petri Kontiola and Maxim Yakutsenya to 4-3 ahead before Vyacheslav Belov’s empty-net goal in the dying seconds added gloss to the scoreline.
Traktor now leads in the East by five points from Sibir Novosibirsk, while Dinamo is last in the Western Conference standings with six wins in 20 games.
