Avangard enjoys winning homecoming
The first pre-season game of summer 2022 sees fans in Omsk enjoy their home team for the first time in four years.
Avangard Omsk 3 Omskiye Krylya 2 (0-1, 3-1, 0-0)
Avangard played its first game in Omsk for four years to get the pre-season action underway. The Siberian club returns home this season after a period in exile in Balashikha and is looking forward to moving into its newly-built G-Drive Arena on October 1.
Before that, though, fans in Omsk had a sneak preview of the team built by new head coach Dmitry Ryabykin when the KHL side took on the organisation’s farm club at the academy rink. Ryabykin, a legendary Omsk player starting his first season as head coach of the Hawks, showed off several summer signings, with Vladimir Tkachyov and Christian Jaros on the first line, Fyodor Malykhin, Reid Boucher and Anton Belov on the second and Fyodor Belyakov on the third. Nikita Mikhailov, signed on a two-way contract this summer after playing the bulk of the past two seasons in the VHL, started for the senior team rather than the reserves.
Avangard also welcomed new import Alex Broadhurst to Omsk. He flew in on the day of the game and had a watching brief for Wednesday’s action. Similarly, Corban Knight, who extended his contract over the summer, was another absentee.
If the big story was Avangard’s return, Krylya was not going to be content with a supporting role. It took barely 30 seconds for the VHL outfit to open the scoring through Mikhail Gulyayev with the first shot of the game. The Hawks, though, looked stronger and had the puck in the net midway through the opening frame, only for an offside call to rob Sergei Tolchinsky of the tying goal.
For much of the opening stanza, Avangard enjoyed good puck possession but struggled to really hurt Krylya. That changed in the middle frame, with Vladimir Bryukvin tying it up on the backhand. A goaltending error handed Krylya the lead once more, but just 19 seconds later Arseny Gritsyuk made it 2-2. Avangard got in front for the first time in the 37th minute when Tkachyov crowned his return to his hometown team with the winning goal, redirecting a Timofei Davydov point shot.
The third period was goalless, but the teams agreed to play on into overtime and a shoot-out. Avangard won both of those as well, with Alexei Bereglazov scoring in the extras and Nail Yakupov, Tkachyov and Boucher all on target in the shoot-out.
