Barys wins home tournament for third year running

The final game day of the President of Kazakhstan Cup was a de facto finals day. Neftekhimik faced Avtomobilist for third place, then Barys and Metallurg faced off for top spot.

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 4 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 3 SO (1-0, 2-1, 0-2, 0-0, 1-0)

This game got off to a fast start when Avtomobilist had the puck in the net in the first minute, but that effort was whistled off. Soon after that, Curtis Valk and Danil Romantsev followed each other to the sin bin and Neftekhimik’s Ansel Galimov converted the 5-on-3 advantage. That was only his team’s second goal of the tournament, and the first also came on the PP.

In the second period, the Neftekhimik power play clicked once again as the teams exchanged goals. Vyacheslav Leshchenko was the scorer to restore the lead. Late in the frame, Eduard Gimatov got a first goal at even strength to make it 3-1 going into the final stanza.

Avtomobilist has previous when it comes to salvaging games here and once again the Motormen rallied to force overtime. Anatoly Golyshev reduced the deficit before Romantsev tied it up with four minutes to play.

The tie in regulation was enough to give Neftekhimik third place, but there was still a game to decide. Galimov took a penalty in overtime, but Avtomobilist could not take advantage. Then, in the shoot-out, Pavel Poryadin potted the decisive marker to give Nizhnekamsk the verdict.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Barys Nur-Sultan 3 (0-0, 1-3, 1-0)

The destiny of this year’s trophy was settled in the final game, just as the tournament organizers would have hoped. And for most in attendance, it ended with the right result as host team Barys beat Metallurg to take top spot.

However, the Kazakhs had to do it the hard way. Metallurg enjoyed slightly the better of the goalled first period and took the lead midway through the second when Philippe Maillet opened the scoring.

However, it took just 10 minutes for Barys to turn that deficit into a 3-1 lead. Dinmukhamed Kaiyrzhan tied the scores, Jeremy Bracco converted a penalty shot with an elegant finish on one-time Barys favorite Eddie Pasquale, then Anthony Louis cemented the home advantage. Encouragingly for Andrei Skabelka, all three scorers are new to the team. Kaiyrzhan is a rising star, while Bracco and Louis joined the club this summer.

Valery Orekhov, another former Barys player, was guilty of the foul that set up Bracco’s penalty shot. However, he made some amends midway through the third period when he reduced the deficit. That gave Magnitka a platform for one last surge, but there was no way to save the game this time and Barys took the win and the title.

Barys goalie Nikita Boyarkin was named the best netminder of the tournament, Metallurg’s Yegor Yakovlev and Philippe Maillet were chosen as best defenseman and forward respectively.