Traktor, Avtomobilist lead the way. August 5
Day three of the Sochi Hockey Open brought wins for Traktor and Avtomobilist. Both teams have two victories from two games, and go head-to-head tomorrow at the top of the tournament table.
PariMatch Sochi Hockey Open
Traktor too strong for Russia’s juniors
Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 Russia U20 0 (1-0, 1-0, 2-0)
For the second game running, Traktor’s second line of Vitaly Abramov, Lukas Sedlak and Nikita Tertyshny led the way as Chelyabinsk recorded another impressive victory. They combined for three of the team’s four goals to send the youngsters spinning to another loss.
Photo: 05.08.21. Sochi Hockey Open. Traktor (Chelyabinsk) - Russia Olympic team U20
Abramov opened the scoring late in the first period off a great pass from Tertyshny, then Sedlak extended the lead midway through the second with a power play goal. In the third, Vladimir Tkachyov potted his second goal of the tournament before another power play goal saw Tertyshny wrap it up. Nikita Podskrebalin, as 23-year-old looking for his KHL debut this season, produced a shut-out.
Traktor head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin
We’re still preparing for the season, this is only our second game and there are things we need to work on. We don’t have the right rapport on all of our lines yet. But there are things that made me happy as well.
Russia U20 head coach Igor Larionov
I’d like to thank Traktor for a good game. We gained a huge amount of experience in how to break down a tough defense. We’ll keep going and make adjustments. I’m grateful to the guys for their effort, they battled to the end and didn’t give up. It was a good lesson and we need to learn from it. The lack of goals is a worry, but we are up against strong opposition here. This team doesn’t have much experience playing at this level, we need to find ways of getting shots on the net. We’re getting chances but not taking them. The tournament is giving us a lot of information, plenty of food for thought.
Shoot-out win keeps Avto on form
SKA St. Petersburg 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 SO (0-0, 3-2, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Like Traktor, Avtomobilist posted a second victory in Sochi. And, like Traktor, there were similarities between today’s win and the opening game. On Tuesday, the Motormen needed overtime to get past the host; today it was a shoot-out victory over SKA that maintained Avto’s momentum.
Photo: 05.08.21. Sochi Hockey Open. SKA (St.Petersburg) - Avtomobilist (Yekaterinburg)
After a goalless first period, things livened up in the second as the teams traded five goals. After just 26 seconds, Avto had a 5-on-3 power play — but almost immediately allowed a goal as Joonas Kemppainen, on target in yesterday’s win over Sochi, put SKA ahead. Still with a two-man advantage, Yefim Gurkin tied the game and within three minutes Ryan Spooner had the Motormen in front. But there was another quickfire double to come, with Igor Ozhiganov scoring in the 36th minute and turning provider in the 39th as Anton Burdasov put the Army Men back in front.
However, SKA was unable to keep that lead until the end. For the second time in three days, Stepan Khripunov popped up with a third-period tying goal for Avtomobilist and Bill Peters saw his team go into overtime. This time, the extras could not separate the teams and it went to a shoot-out before Georgy Belousov gave the Motormen a second victory in the tournament. After three days of action, every team has played twice and the leaders, Traktor and Avto are undefeated to set up a table-topping showdown in the early game on Friday.
Avtomobilist head coach Bill Peters
We worked on our special teams, it was a good game and we learned a lot of things that we can work on. Stephane da Costa is close to a return, tomorrow we’re looking forward to an interesting game. We’re still looking for our best partnerships at the moment, on the import line we’re still looking at whether Ryan Spooner will play as a center or on the wing.
SKA head coach Valery Bragin
For the second game in a row the opposition were fresher. I’m happy with my team’s work but we need to cut out those unnecessary penalties. We played short handed a lot and they scored on their power play. It was a good game.
Warm-up games
Amur’s power play sinks Spartak
Spartak Moscow 2 Amur Khabarovsk 3 (0-0, 1-3, 1-0)
Amur picked up a win in its first pre-season game, helped by some impressive work on the power play. All three Tigers’ goals came with a man advantage, and the visitor was quick to cash in when Spartak fouled. In the first period, the Red-and-Whites twice had a man in the sin bin, and in the third Amur began to punish them. The first power play of the frame was converted after 19 seconds, the next needed 29 seconds to bring a goal and a third goal followed 43 seconds into a third penalty in the middle frame.
Summer signing Radan Lenc scored twice, assisted on both occasions by compatriots Michal Jordan and David Tomasek. The third goal, scored by ex-Spartak man Ilya Zubov, saw Tomasek collect a third point for his new club.
Spartak was not outclassed: Jori Lehtera came up with a swift response to the opening goal and Tim Heed thought he’d repeated that trick after the second goal. However, the officials whistled that one off as Sergei Shirokov pressured goalie Patrik Bartosak. In an official game, there would likely have been a bench challenge on that call, but in pre-season the option was not available and play continued with Amur in front. It wasn’t until midway through the third that Semyon Ruchkin got a second for the home team; by that time, the Tigers were well placed to close out the win in Vladimir Vorobyov’s first game as head coach.
