Two-time Gagarin Cup winners Ak Bars have handed CSKA Moscow their first defeat in five matches, with Kazan’s captain Alexey Morozov earning two points in his 13th straight game.

­Both sides were on winning streaks before the game, with CSKA notching up four victories and Ak Bars two.

The teams are battling to climb as high as they can in the rankings before the play-offs start.

And the visitors took an early lead. Forty-year-old Oleg Petrov found himself unmarked on the spot after a well-timed assist and wasted no time for his fourth goal of the season.

While 20-year-old Artemy Panarin earned his third point in three matches for his new team, 1-0.

But the home side quickly responded with a powerplay goal early in the second to make it all square.

It took 10 minutes for the two-time Gagarin cup winners to put their noses in front again. Konstantin Korneev fired a rocket from the blue line to make it 2-1.

And Ak Bars captain Alexey Morozov notched up a point for an assist in his 13th consecutive match.  

The third period turned out to be a cracker. The Kazan side added another goal in the 49th minute as Morozov fed Ilya Nikulin with a perfect pass in a three-on-two attack, the Ak Bars defenseman and
Russian captain netting his seventh goal of the campaign, 3-1.

But the Red-and-Blues piled on the pressure and got back into it with their second powerplay goal.

Denis Parshin beat Ak Bars goalie Petri Vekhanen with a hard wrist-shot into the top corner, 3-2.

CSKA threw everything at their opponents for an equalizer and wasted several great opportunities.

The Armymen spent the dying seconds camped in their visitors' zone, but failed to send the game into overtime.

“I feel that I've arrived at a big club,” Artemy Panarin, Ak Bars rookie, said. “The responsibility is much higher. And I'm thinking more about tactics as the level of my teammates is much higher.”   

The result allowed Ak Bars to stretch their winning streak to three games and end CSKA's unbeaten run.

Kazan climb up two places in the rankings to now sit fourth in the Eastern conference, while over west-side, CSKA stay in eighth place.