Pachkalin at a loss

Friendlies
CSKA beat Ak Bars 3-2 in Odintsovo, with Denis Parshin scoring the deciding goal in the shootout. The Muscovites’ other goals were from Alexei Badyukov and Yury Butsaev, while Danis Zaripov scored a double for the Kazan men.

Dinamo Riga, as part of their preparations for the forthcoming Latvian Railway Cup tournament, staged a friendly against Pelicans of Finland, but it was not the most attacking game – the teams managed just a single goal in 65 minutes of hockey. The sole strike from Martins Karsums sealed victory for the hosts with just one second of regulation time remaining. The post-match shootout, however, was won by the Finns.

Avtomobilist played a second friendly game against Rubin, the lower league champions from Tyumen, and for the second time they were second best. Ilya Byakin’s team lost 1–3, with Kazionov getting the KHL club’s goal. Guarding the Yekaterinburg net was new signing Evgeny Lobanov.

Governor’s cup
The final of the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region Cup was won by the hosts, Torpedo, with a 4-0 victory over Spartak, while Metallurg Novokuznetsk claimed third place with a 4-3 overtime win against Dynamo Moscow. The awards for the tournament’s best players went to Mikhail Varnakov (MVP) and Vitaly Koval (best goaltender) of Torpedo, Denis Bodrov (best defenseman) and Stefan Ruzicka (best forward) of Spartak, Anton Slepyshev (best young player) of Novokuznetsk. The top scorer was Dynamo’s Maxim Velikov.

SKA in the final
The Basel Summer tournament in Switzerland, featuring SKA and Barys, is approaching its climax. In the fifth place playoff the Astana men inflicted a 10-1 massacre on Krefeld. There were two goals each from Lakiza, Kreps and Romanov, and one apiece for Junland, Boyd, Dawes and Starchenko.

Meanwhile, SKA booked a place in the tournament final with a 5-2 victory over Bern, helped by a double from Kirill Koltsov. Weinhandl, Vishnevsky and Rybin scored the Petersburg team’s other goals.

Lev’s first defeat
After a run of victories, KHL new boys Lev Poprad suffered their first loss of the preseason. Radim Rulik’s team lost 3-4 to Vítkovice in a tournament in their native Slovakia. Lev’s goal scorers were Peter Olvecky, with a double, and Tomas Netik, while Jan Laco guarded the net.

Quote of the day
“To be honest, I didn’t recognize our first line. We hope these guys will be leading the team from the front, but today they performed badly. This had a negative effect on the whole team’s play. However hard it is for them, they must show leadership qualities,” – Spartak head coach Viktor Pachkalin

Alexei Shevchenko, special to khl.ru