CSKA have improved their position in the KHL stance after beating one of the League's Eastern powerhouses, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, in Moscow.

­CSKA have won just two matches out of eight against Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL, and only once on home ice.

This time the home side produced an electric start in the search for a third win, CSKA striking first as Vyacheslav Kulemin put the Red-and-Blues ahead just two minutes in.

A minute and a half later, CSKA's top scorer Sergey Shirokov doubled the lead, forcing Metallurg to swap goaltenders.

A discouraging start for the visitors and they seemed confused, while the hosts left for the intermission with a comfortable 2-0 lead.

After some probable hairdryer treatment from the steelmakers’ head coach Fedor Kanareykin, Metallurg were trying to get back into the game.

But it was CSKA, who increased their lead with a powerplay goal. Niklas Persson was the first on the rebound after Shirokov's powerful slap-shot to make it a three-goal game with four minutes to go in the second.

However, Metallurg managed to pull one back early in the decisive period as Anton But sent the puck home on a counterattack, to make it 3-1.

But four minutes later CSKA regained their three-goal lead. Vyacheslav Kulemin passed to Vyacheslav Buravchikov and the 24-year -old defender made it 4-1.

Four minutes before the final buzzer, Metallurg's Enver Lisin revived the intrigue, cutting the deficit to two goals on a powerplay.

Then the visitors put everything on the line and pulled the goalie for an extra player, but failed to capitalize on their chances as CSKA's Rastislav Stana was confident between the pipes, 4-2.

“It happened in two games in a row for us,” Stana told RT. “So when we got a 2-0 lead, we knew what had happened in the last game – they’d tied it. We didn’t want this to happen again, and we battled hard. In the second period, we got lucky as they pressured us, but then we scored the third goal on the powerplay. So I think that was the key point of the game.”   

The win helped CSKA climb one line up – they now sit fifth in the Western Conference, while last season's Gagarin Cup semifinalist Metallurg continue their relative poor performance and stay fifth in the East.