First one out o' the pool

...ends up being CSKA. Red Army loses to MVD Saturday a.m. 5-2. After CSKA took a 1-0 early on, MVD tallied 3 in a less-than-4-minute stretch just past midway of the first to chase starting goalie Konstantin Barulin after just 11 shots on goal. This gives the Balashikha squad a 3-0 series sweep and they move on to round two.
In the meantime, everyone else in the Western Conference lives to fight another day (actually tomorrow). Dynamo Moscow gave up a penalty shot goal to Spartak's Matthias Weihandl and nothing more, as they win 3-1 to get their first win of the series though they trail 2-1. Lokomotiv won in Mystischi 4-3, Maxim Semenov scoring the winner just 2:50 after Atlant had tied it for the third time at 3-3. Yaroslavl now takes a 2-1 lead into tomorrow's match. My boy Josef Vasicek had his first goal and second assist. And Alexi Yashin finally woke up and scored, and his team snapped a 2-2 tie with 2 third-period goals as SKA staved off pesky Dinamo Riga 4-2.