Florida Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov (pictured above in Panther garb) logged 17:08 minutes of ice time, had no shots on goals and finished with an even rating during Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s 2-1 road win over Ak Bars Kazan in Wednesday action from the KHL. Kulikov was again paired with former Winnipeg Jets blue liner Mark Flood.
After Curtis Sanford and Ak Bars’ Konstantin Barulin were impenetrable in the first period, Lokomotiv defenseman Vitaly Vishnevsky opened the scoring at the 3:57 mark of the second period. Yegor Averin and Yury Petrov collected the assists.The goal was Vishnevsky’s first of the season.
Ak Bars tied things up just over two minutes later as Janne Pesonen scored with the teams at even strength with assists going to Evgeny Medvedev and Dmitry Obukhov.
In the third period, Ak Bars opened fire at Sanford and the veteran goalie responded by making 16 saves before Columbus Blue Jackets center Artem Anisimov came up with the unassisted game-winning goal for Lokomotiv with exactly one minute left on the clock.
The win moved Lokomotiv Yaroslavl five points ahead of second place CSKA Moscow in the KHL’s Tarasov Divison. The club now trails Western Conference leaders, Dynamo Moscow, by three points.
Note: Marcel Goc was not in the lineup during Adler Mannheim’s 6-1 win over Dusseldorf EG Wednesday.