No stopping Neftekhimik; Vityaz again victorious. August 10 preseason

Neftekhimik and Vityaz have been the in-form teams of the 2017 preseason and both teams continued their winning streaks on Thursday, albeit on different continents. The Nizhnekamsk team is in Asia, crushing all President's Cup opposition in Astana, Kazakhstan, while the men from Moscow Region are dominating the Wingas Cup in Kassel, Germany.

President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Cup

Avangard (Omsk) – Neftekhimik (Nizhnekamsk) - 2-3 (1-1, 1-1, 0-1)

The men from Nizhnekamsk needed to draw on all their reserves of strength to overcome spirited resistance from Andrei Skabelka's Avangard.

The teams went into both intervals with the score tied, but victory for Neftekhimik was sealed by a 58th-minute strike from much-traveled defenseman Oleg Piganovich – his first goal for his new employers, and his first goal after a year without hockey.

Neftekhimik head coach Andrei Nazarov:

“I'm glad the guys found the energy for this, as it was our fourth game in five days, which is tough mentally and physically. All the guys are tired and want to go home. I asked the team to just keep it simple today, and I think that worked. Once again, we had a bit of luck in certain episodes toward the end of the game, but I hope we can keep playing like this. Avangard is a good team, and I'm glad this tournament is providing us with such worthy sparring partners.”

Goals: 0-1 Sharipzyanov (Shiksatdarov, 04.24), 1-1 Sundstrom (10.57), 2-1 Koshelev (Semyonov, 22.09), 2-2 Sexton (Rau, 38.43), 2-3 Piganovich (Sexton, Hanzl, 57.21)

Goaltenders: Kostin – Yezhov.

HC Davos (Davos) – Traktor (Chelyabinsk) - 1-3 (0-3, 1-0, 0-0).

Traktor moved up into second place in the tournament standings with this confident win over Swiss side HC Davos. The Chelyabinsk men began this match in ruthless mood and went into the first interval with a 3-0 lead, thanks to a double from Szczechura and a goal from 17-year-old Vitaly Kravtsov. The Swiss scored a consolation goal in the 35th minute, but failed to threaten Traktor's lead.

Traktor head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin:

”Davos is a team with impressive movement and this turned out to be a tough game. The rest day before the game helped us a lot, as before it we had played three games in as many days. Our guys had a good rest yesterday, and as a result, they were skating much faster. We managed to create chances and make use of them, and that is why we achieved this impressive result. The guys showed commitment and had a good understanding, plus we were very disciplined in defense ”

Goals: 0-1 Szczechura (Videll, 08.40), 0-2 Kravtsov (Chernikov, 16.03), 0-3 Szczechura (Bailen, 19.06, PPG), 1-3 Kousal (34.07, PPG)

Goaltenders: Senn - Demchenko

Wingas Cup

Slovan (Bratislava) – Vityaz (Moscow Region): 2-4 (0-1, 2-2, 0-1)

Another defeat for Slovan, as Vityaz's excellent run of form continues.

Goals: 0-1 Denezhkin (Yatsenko, Lukin, 5.48), 1-1 Smolenak (Ramstedt, Buchtele, 22-10, PPG), 1-2 Kopeikin (Rissanen, 28-36), 2-2 Skalicky (Kozak, Mikus, 29.35), 2-3 Afinogenov (Voroshilo, 38.03), 2-4 Nikulin (Shvets-Rogovoi, Yepishin, 57.43).

Goaltenders: Stepanek (Janus) – Biryukov.