In need of team spirit

Sibir victorious
Andrei Tarasenko’s team fine form in Finland continued with a 4–1 win over local side LeKi. On target for the Novosibirsk men were Shishkanov, Sentyurin, Pujacs and finally Krivonozhkin with an empty net goal. Yury Klyuchnikov was again the man between the pipes.

Shootouts the key
The Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Cup has resumed after a rest day. In the third round of games we had the first defeat for Dynamo Moscow, who lost 1-3 to the hosts. Metallurg Novokuznetsk suffered yet another defeat, also 1-3 - this time at the hands of Spartak. And it is Spartak who will contest the final with Torpedo. The Red-and-Whites finished higher than Dynamo despite having lost head-to-head, with their victory in the shootout the deciding factor.

Severstal beaten again
The Cherepovets men have played the fourth and final game of their training in Switzerland and lost 1-4 to Fribourg, with their solitary goal coming from Alexei Tsvetkov. Dmitry Kvartalnov’s players now return to Russia having won only one game out of four on their tour. Severstal’s next destination is Odintsovo, Moscow Region, where they will play another friendly on the 24th of August.

Change of defensemen
Amur have cancelled the contract of Belarus national team defenseman Nikolai Stasenko. He spent two seasons at Khabarovsk and took part in 65 games, but did not manage a single goal. Nikolai’s account stands at a mere 7 assists, 93 penalty minutes, and a rating of -12.

At the same time Amur have given a tryout contract to another defenseman, Denis Yezhov. He played at Avangard for the first two seasons of the KHL and spent the last campaign with Traktor. Denis had 31 outings for the Chelyabinsk men and assisted on four of their goals.

On the mend
Atlant defenseman Maxim Semenov is back in training with the rest of the team. Semenov, who plays for the Kazakhstan national team, is recovering from a broken leg which has kept him out of preseason games. The Mytishchi men now have two rest days before getting back together to prepare for a tournament in Riga.

Rumors
Attacker Alexander Stepanov, who was not given a new contract with Ak Bars this summer, may be on his way to Amur. There have been whispers that the powerful forward would join Neftekhimik, but there was no confirmation from the Nizhnekamsk of any interest in the player. The 32-year-old’s account at Ak Bars in the KHL stands at 206 games, 20 goals and 24 assists.

Quote of the day
“Our main target now is to create a good, solid team, so that there’ll be no cliques of players. We’re working on it, and there’s definite progress. But this won’t be done in a couple of days, but over several months,” – CSKA forward Alexei Badyukov, about his team’s mission for the near future.

Alexei Shevchenko, special to khl.ru