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Goaltender Vasily Koshechkin improved his record to 13-4-2 for the season today by defeating Nizhnekamsk 3-2 in overtime. Lada's improbable success since the Karjala break salary dump of 3/4 of their payroll has been largely thanks to the Lightning draft pick's goaltending heroics and he has now guided his club into 5th on the Superleague table. Lada's youth hasn't come completely free of cost for Koshechkin though, as he has slipped into a tie with Travis Scott for the league lead in shutouts and his once commanding leads in GAA and save percentage have slowly slipped away. For Koshechkin though, who explicitly chose to stay in Togliatti out of loyalty to the organization, I doubt the loss of any potential personal award will mean much compared to the success of the franchise he elected to stick with despite potential hardships.

The Russian Superleague will now go on hiatus until December 21st for the Rosno Cup.

Stanislav Lascek's Chicoutimi Sagueneens have been named the #1 ranked team in the CHL according to the Bank of Montreal sponsored CHL Top Ten which is selected by a panel of NHL scouts. Chicoutimi is led by QMJHL leading scorer and Lightning prospect Stanislav Lascek who has 22 goals and 72 points in 32 games. Beyond Lascek, the Sags have an impressive array of offensive weapons that include Buffalo first round pick Marek Zagrapan, highly skilled but diminutive David Desharnais and Lightning Traverse City camp invitee Maxime Boisclair. With such a powerful lineup, Chicoutimi is a bona fide Memorial Cup contender this season.

Back from their brief vacation, the Lightning squeak out a win.

STL-4
TB-5

Fedotenko, Prospal and Modin had multi-point nights. Both Ranger and Artyukhin added assists. Ranger also had 15:28 of ice time and was an outstanding +3 on the night. Evgeny Artyukhin had 9:14 of ice time, two shots, one brutal hit, and was part of the key forechecking shift that tied the game on Tim Taylor's third period goal. The Lightning, still only playing to 85% of their capability, are now 9-1-1 over their last 11 games.

Game sheet from NHL.com.

Fredrik Emwall scored an extra attacker goal with 1:57 left today to lift Linkopings to a 2-2 tie with Leksands. Fredrik Norrena stopped 24 of 26 shots faced in the contest. The Finnish born netminder's record moves to 14-5-3 on the year.

Anton But has been included on the initial roster for Russia in the Rosno Cup to be held in Moscow just before Christmas. Unfortunately, netminder Vasily Koshechkin was not named to the team despite sparkling play in the Superleague to this point of the season.