Army Men and Admiral Victorious – July 30 friendlies
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.
Admiral vs. South Korea: 3-2 (1-1, 2-1, 0-0)
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..
CSKA vs. Sibir: 5-2 (2-1, 2-1, 1-0)
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.
Yunost Minsk vs. Lokomotiv: 1-7 (0-2, 0-2, 1-3)
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.
