Sunday was a much quieter day on the friendlies front, and there was a hint of Deja Vu as two of the games were rematches from the day before.
The Vladivostok Men and the 2018 Winter Olympic hosts served up an unforgettable 5-3 on Saturday, and while this sequel did not quite match the drama of the original, the two teams still produced a highly entertaining game.
As they did on Saturday, the Koreans started the livelier and raced into an early lead, thanks to Shin Hyungyun's short-handed strike in the 8th minute. Admiral recovered once again, and by the 37th minute goals from Pavel Makhanovsky, Georgy Sergeyenko, and Maxim Kitsyn had Admiral cruising with a 3-1 lead. Just before we reached the second interval, a powerplay goal by Lee Chong Hyun kept the result in doubt, but the Mariners held onto their advantage and celebrated two wins in two days..
In the day's other rematch, CSKA followed up its 4-0 demolition of Sibir with another convincing win, but there was a silver lining for the Novosibirsk Men in that they twice pierced the Army Men's rearguard and found the back of the net.
The Muscovites found themselves 2-0 up in the first ten minutes, thanks to Konstantin Okulov and Sergei Shumakov, but a little over two minutes before the first interval, 21-year-old defenseman Nikolai Demidov scored Sibir's first goal of the 2017 preseason. Okulov completed a double to make the score 3-1 before a powerplay goal on 28:33 by Ivan Vereshchagin kept Sibir in contention. Hopes of a stirring comeback were dashed within 8 seconds, however, when Anton Burdasov restored the Army Men's two-goal advantage, and he added his second and CSKA's fifth late in the final period.
On Saturday, Lokomotiv won the first ever Minsk Cup, and so, understandably, the Railwaymen fielded a much-changed line-up for this Sunday afternoon encounter against Yunost Minsk. Yesterday, many pundits talked of Lokomotiv's strength in depth, but nothing illustrated this more eloquently than the “weakened” Yaroslavl team nonetheless inflicting a painful 7-1 hammering on the hosts. Kirill Kapustin scored four times, Artyom Ilyenko grabbed a double, and Danil Yurtaikin completed the rout in the dying minutes.
Finally, Kunlun Red Star continued its impressive form with a 3-0 defeat of Severstal.