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Traktor triumphs in summer tourney, Ak Bars beaten by Tatar rival
Saturday brought the conclusion of Governor of Chelyabinsk Cup, and Traktor sealed victory on home ice with a 3-1 win over Avtomobilist. There were losses for the tournament hosts in Petersburg and Kazan. SKA lost 2-3 to Avangard, while Ak Bars was surprised by Neftekhimik in overtime. The Mayor of Moscow Cup will go to either CSKA or Kunlun Red Star; the two meet in Sunday’s final.
Governor of Chelyabinsk Cup: Traktor wins home tournament
Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 (3-0, 0-0, 0-1)
A year ago, these teams met in the final of this competition and Avtomobilist took a 3-1 win to lift the trophy. This time, the organizers had a round robin contest. However, the final game on the schedule saw Traktor face the Motormen once again with the winner taking the prize.
Again, it finished 3-1 – but this time in Traktor’s favor. That might be something of a relief for the Motormen: last season’s success did not continue into the regular season, which saw head coach Bill Peters dismissed as the team failed to make the playoffs. Anvar Gatiyatullin does not believe in bad omens, though. He seems to have a clear idea of his strongest line-up and deployed it today, while Avto looks to be making a final check of its options.
It didn’t take long for Traktor to establish an edge. Anton Burdasov opened the scoring after 69 seconds, Pyotr Khokhryakov doubled the lead in the fourth minute. An impressive first period continued with Vladimir Tkachyov producing a fine pass to release Maxim Shabanov for 3-0.
From that point on, it was all about game management. There was no further scoring until midway through the third period when Stephane Da Costa, Avtomobilist’s captain, got a consolation goal on the power play.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5 Barys Nur-Sultan 2 (0-0, 3-2, 2-0)
Prior to the tournament’s decisive game, Metallurg enjoyed a convincing victory over Barys and secured second place in the standings.
And there was more encouragement for Ilya Vorobyov, with several young players making a contribution. Nikita Grebyonkin, 19, was one of them, assisting on Josh Currie’s game-winning goal. Danila Yurov, 18, had an even greater impact, scoring twice in the closing stages to seal the win.
Earlier, Denis Zernov’s line produced some spectacular passing plays and delivered Magnitka’s first two goals. Zernov potted the first himself, assisted by Maxim Karpov and Nikolai Goldobin. Then the trio combined once more, with Karpov applying the finish. In the first half of the game, Barys remained competitive, cancelling out both of those first two Metallurg goals. However, the Kazakhs were unable to respond in the third period as the Steelmen took complete control.
Mayor of Moscow Cup: Dragons advance to final after thriller
Kunlun Red Star 6 Vityaz Moscow Region 5 (3-1, 0-0, 3-4)
Kunlun captain Brandon Yip scored with two seconds remaining to give the Dragons a memorable victory. The win also puts the Chinese franchise into the final of the Mayor of Moscow Cup after back-to-back wins in the group stage.
Yip’s last-gasp winner converted a 5-on-3 power play, and also completed a dramatic fightback. Little over a minute earlier, Luke Lockhart tied the game at 5-5 on yet another PP.
Earlier, Vityaz showed great character to rally from 0-3 and then 3-4. Lockhart opened the scoring early on and Red Star jumped into a three-goal lead in the first 15 minutes. Vitaly Popov pulled one back in the first period, but a scoreless middle frame suggested that Kunlun was well in control.
However, when Tyler Graovac pulled one back at the start of the third, he triggered a goal rush. Young Alexander Yaremchuk tied it up in the 48th minute, but there was an instant response when Cliff Pu restored the Dragons’ lead off a great assist from summer signing Vincent LoVerde. That might have finished off other opponents, but Vityaz battled back. Kirill Rasskazov scored on a delayed penalty, then Stepan Starkov gave his team the lead for the first time in the 55th minute. But the closing stages brought penalty trouble and the Vityaz PK could not hold on.
Dynamo Moscow 0 Amur Khabarovsk 4 (0-0, 0-1, 0-3)
Dynamo missed its chance of reaching the tournament final after suffering a defeat against Amur. The Tigers, heavily beaten by CSKA, bounced back to beat the Blue-and-Whites emphatically. The end result is that CSKA advances to Sunday’s gold-medal game against Kunlun Red Star, Amur faces Spartak for bronze, and Dynamo takes on Vityaz in the 5/6th place classification game.
Vladislav Barulin was the star for Amur. He scored twice, including the opener midway through the second period. Alexander Protapovich was also on target and, late on, Michal Jordan converted a 5-on-3 power play to wrap up a convincing win. Goalie Dmitry Lozebnikov, who is hoping to force his way into the first team this season, put his case strongly with Amur’s shut-out.
Puchkov Tournament: first defeat for SKA
Severstal Cherepovets 2 Sibir Novosibirsk 3 (0-2, 0-0, 2-1)
After a quick-fire four-goal blitz beat Avangard yesterday, Severstal went for an experimental roster on Saturday against Sibir. The Siberians, similarly, made extensive changes following their own win over the Hawks. The Sharov-Pyanov-Shenfeld strikeforce was rested for this game.
Sibir had the better of the first period, opening a 2-0 lead on goals from Nikita Setdikov and Nikita Korotkov. And, for a long time, that seemed to be all the action. However, in the 55th minute Severstal brought the game back to life when Nikolai Demidov converted a power play. However, the Steelmen soon found themselves a man down and Sergei Dubakin took advantage to restore Sibir’s two goal lead.
That proved to be significant, with Maxim Kolmykov’s late goal keeping Severstal’s hopes alive until the final hooter.
SKA St. Petersburg 2 Avangard Omsk 3 (1-1, 1-1, 0-1)
Avangard bounced back from those two losses to upset SKA. The tournament host won its first three games, but full behind in the opening seconds here and ultimately suffered a 2-3 defeat.
It took just 23 second for Kristian Jaros to put Avangard in front. The Slovak international, a summer arrival in Omsk, got his first goal for his new club to stun SKA.
Roman Rotenberg’s team needed time to recover, but goals either side of the first intermission turned things around. Artyom Fyodorov tied it up late in the first, then Dmitrij Jaskin made it 2-1 seconds after the break.
However, the lead was short lived. Five minutes later, Alex Broadhurst, another summer signing, tied it up. The game winner came late. Avangard moved back in front in the 55th minute when Jaros assisted on a power play goal for Reid Boucher.
TANECO Cup: Neftekhimik upsets Ak Bars
Ak Bars Kazan 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 4 OT (0-1, 0-0, 3-2, 0-1)
Much of the talk this summer suggests that Ak Bars is locked down to win the Gagarin Cup. However, Neftekhimik showed that Oleg Znarok’s All-Stars are beatable and recorded a second successive victory in the extras.
Yohann Auvito was the hero once again, adding an overtime market to yesterday’s shoot-out decider, but this Tatarstan derby win was no fluke. Neftekhimik led three times in the game before getting the verdict when the Frenchmen fired into an empty net two minutes into OT.
Ak Bars played without several of its big summer signings. There was no Radulov, no Shipachyov, no Voynov. And, in the absence of those big names, the home team struggled to assert itself in the game. Sergei Kuptsov’s 15th-minute goal put Neftekhimik up and it separated the teams until early in the third period. The Daniil Tarasov tied it up, only for Mikhail Sidorov to restore the lead almost immediately on a power play.
That pattern repeated midway through the third, with Kirill Petrov tying it at 2-2, only for Kuptsov to grab his second. Kirill Panyukov offered salvation to Ak Bars with 11 seconds remaining, but Auvito’s OT goal gave Neftekhimik the verdict.
