Spartak find no key to Ak Bars

In Ice Hockey’s KHL, Ak Bars have kept up their incredible winning record at Spartak Moscow, grabbing a 3-2 victory in the Russian capital on Monday evening.

The win means they have never lost at Spartak in the KHL’s four-year history. But the latest game was far from straightforward.

Finn Jarkko Immonen opened for the guests after just five minutes. And Ak Bars looked to be cruising when Evgeny Skachkov added another to make it 2-0.

But Spartak fought back. In the second period, Ivan Baranka made it 2-1 on a power play. And two minutes later, Spartak were level thanks to Aleksey Zavarukhin again on a powerplay.

As both teams later admitted, the Muscovites controlled the game at that point and were close to netting another goal. However, a defensive blunder at the end allowed Kirill Petrov to sneak in to secure another Ak Bars win.

So the team from Kazan stay second in the eastern conference behind Amur, while Spartak are struggling to make it to the top eight in the West.

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