Traktor wins Sochi Hockey Open. August 8
The final day of the Parimatch Sochi Hockey Open saw Traktor finish in top spot. Closest challenger Avtomobilist failed to beat Russia U20 and came second, before Avangard’s win against SKA secured third place for the Hawks.
Avtomobilist misses out on top spot
Russia U20 2 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 OT (1-0, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Russia’s juniors got their first victory of the tournament and, in doing so, cost Avtomobilist the trophy at the Sochi Hockey Open. An overtime loss – all four of Avto’s games went beyond 60 minutes – put the Motormen level with Traktor on seven points. However, Bill Peters’ team missed out on the tie-break, which was victories in regulation time.
Facing junior opposition, Peters took the opportunity to try out many of his own youngsters. Only four players – Stanislav Bocharov, Stepan Khripunov, Danil Romantsev and Zakhar Arzamastsev – were over 24. Team Russia’s coaching staff opted to move Fyodor Svechkov to the third line and that decision paid off when he opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the first period. Avtomobilist responded midway through the second through Semyon Kizimov and the teams were deadlocked for the rest of the game. In overtime, though, Svechkov’s solo rush created a winning goal for Vladimir Grudinin to give the youngsters their first points and hand Traktor the title.
Avtomobilist head coach Bill Peters
Both goalies did well today, we had a look at a plenty of young guys. Overall, this was an excellent tournament for us from the point of view of understanding the roster that we have.
Russia U20 coach Oleg Bratash
This was a good try-out for candidates for the juniors. The game gave us some good food for thought.
Second shut-out gives Avangard the edge
SKA St. Petersburg 0 Avangard Omsk 1 (0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
The final game of the tournament proved to be a battle for third place as Avangard faced SKA. Both teams went with their strongest available rosters, with Simon Hrubec replacing Georgy Dubrovsky in the Avangard net. In the first period, he was as busy as his opposite number, Lars Johansson, but as the game went on the Hawks began to take control. The middle frame saw Avangard dominate without finding the breakthrough.
It wasn’t until midway through the third that we saw the game’s only goal. Nail Yakupov won the puck behind the net and slipped out in front, where Dmitry Shevchenko was on hand to score. Late in the game, a penalty on Alexei Emelin enabled SKA to finish with a 6-on-4 line-up. But there was to be no late drama as Avangard secured a second successive shut-out win.
Avangard head coach Bob Hartley
It was another good game for our team. Two shut-outs in a row is a good sign. This was our best game of pre-season. I like the way this team is growing and developing, it’s important that our players understand that we have to be a family and do our best for the whole group.
SKA head coach Valery Bragin
It was a good game from both team, competitive and high-quality. There’s still serious work ahead; the young guys who were away at a tournament with Team Russia are coming back to us. Andrei Kuzmenko has a slight injury, so he only played one game. Today we had a few good chances, we’re putting in the hard work that will pay dividends at the start of the season.
Tournament standings
|
|
Teams |
P |
W |
OTW |
SOW |
SOL |
OTL |
L |
F-A |
Pts |
|
1 |
Traktor |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
14-7 |
7 |
|
2 |
Avtomobilist |
4 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
12-10 |
7 |
|
3 |
Avangard |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
11-7 |
6 |
|
4 |
SKA |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
6-6 |
3 |
|
5 |
Sochi |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
5-10 |
3 |
|
6 |
Russia U20 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5-13 |
2 |
Top goalie – Alexander Samonov (SKA);
Top defenseman – Igor Ozhiganov (SKA);
Top forward – Nikita Tertyshny (Traktor);
Tournament MVP – Vitaly Abramov (Traktor).
