Severstal off to a flyer. July 29

Admiral Vladivostok 3 Severstal Cherepovets 5 (1-3, 0-1, 2-1)

Severstal made a winning start to its pre-season campaign with a comfortable victory over Admiral in Minsk.

Andrei Razin’s team made a fast start against the Sailors, jumping to a 3-0 lead in barely five minutes. David Dumbadze scored in the first minute and Maxim Kazakov added two more to give the Steelmen a commanding lead.

Admiral had already played once this summer, defeating Dinamo Minsk in a shoot-out with the Ushenin brothers leading the way. And they were the key performers for their team again here, sharing five points in a losing cause.

At the other end, Nikita Guslistov was on target to round out Severstal’s win. The 19-year-old was chosen by Carolina in the NHL draft at the weekend and celebrated with a goal in regulation time plus another in the overtime period that the teams played out.

Winning start for Sibir

Yunost Minsk 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (0-1, 1-1, 0-0)

Sibir’s first game under Andrei Martemyanov ended in a narrow win at Yunost Minsk. Martemyanov put four newcomers into his team: Vadim Kudako, Valentin Pyanov, Alexei Kruchinin and Vyacheslav Litovchenko. The visitor went ahead with a power play goal from Nikita Shashkov, only to be pegged back in the second period. However, Alexander Sharov quickly restored Sibir’s lead and a strong performance from goalie Anton Krasotkin preserved that advantage in the third frame. After the game, the teams had a shoot-out, with Sibir again coming out on top.

Friday sees four pre-season games, with Avangard facing Vityaz, Neftekhimik entertaining Salavat Yulaev, Dinamo Minsk playing Sibir and Spartak up against Khimik.