Avangard Beat Sochi 4-1 for First Season Win
Nail Yakupov, Semyon Chistyakov, Joshua Livo and Vasily Ponomarev scored as Avangard downed Sochi 4-1 in Omsk to claim their first KHL win of the season.
Avangard beat Sochi 4-1 on home ice on 10 September in a KHL regular-season fixture, picking up their first win of the campaign.
Nail Yakupov opened the scoring in the 11th minute. Semyon Chistyakov made it 2:0 in the 38th, Joshua Livo added a third in the 44th and Vasily Ponomarev finished the scoring for the hosts in the 47th. Denis Vengryzhanovsky got Sochi's only goal on the power play in the final minute.
Livo's goal was the 100th of his KHL career and his first in Avangard colours. Chistyakov finished with a goal and three assists, two of them his 100th and 101st in the league. Andrew Poturalski set up two of the goals.
The win came after Avangard had opened the season with a 0:4 defeat to Salavat Yulaev in Ufa, a game in which forward Michael McLeod left the ice injured and is not expected back before late October or November. Avangard have now moved to two points and eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Sochi have lost their opening two matches and sit bottom of the Western Conference.
Avangard host Metallurg Magnitogorsk on 13 September. Sochi have a quicker turnaround, facing SKA at home on 12 September — a fixture that follows SKA's own run of back-to-back games in the KHL's congested early-season schedule.
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