Last day of summer: Ak Bars enjoys rivalry win

The final day of pre-season action saw Ak Bars win the Green Derby against Salavat Yulaev, while Torpedo lost to Metallurg Novokuznetsk in a shoot-out.

TANECO Cup: Ak Bars victorious in Green Derby

Ak Bars Kazan 5 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 3 (0-2, 0-0, 5-1)

A stunning third-period fightback handed Ak Bars victory over long-standing rival Salavat Yulaev in the final game of the TANECO Cup. Monday’s match-up had no bearing on the tournament standings but produced another lively encounter between two of the KHL’s fiercest foes.

With plenty of local pride at stake, both Oleg Znarok and Viktor Kozlov named strong line-ups for this one. The only big name to miss out was Danis Zaripov; Kazan’s veteran wisely conserving his energies for the start of the regular season.

The opening stages were dominated by Ufa. Three times, the visitor enjoyed unopposed breakaways on the Ak Bars net, and two them produced goals. Vladislav Kartayev got the first, following up Evgeny Timkin’s shot, then Josh Ho-Sang finished off his own rush without further assistance. At the other end, Alexander Radulov had a great chance to reduce the deficit in similar circumstances only to lose control of the puck at the crucial moment. It took a great save from Timur Bilyalov to deny Salavat a third goal: Alexander Chmelevski seemed to have an open goal on the power play, but Bilyalov’s glove arrived from nowhere to make a sensational stop.

Down 0-2, Ak Bars looked to get back into the game. For a long time, though, Ufa’s defense kept the home team at bay. However, an error from Ho-Sang early in the third changed the course of the game. He coughed up the puck for Dmitry Voronkov, who immediately cashed in on the opportunity. Within a couple of minutes, Daniil Tarasov tied it up on the wraparound to set up an intriguing finale. Salavat Yulaev regained the lead in the 52^nd minute thanks to Alexander Kadeikin’s power play goal, but that was the end of the scoring for the visitor.

In the closing stages, Ak Bars turned the game around. Two goals inside two minutes put the host in front for the first time, with Vadim Shipachyov setting up an equalizer for Dmitry Kagarlitsky before Kirill Semyonov made it 4-3 to Kazan. Just 14 seconds later, Radulov’s empty-netter put the game out of Ufa’s reach as the pre-season program finished on a lively note.

Warm-up game

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 3 Metallurg Novokuznetsk 4 SO (2-3, 1-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)

Torpedo’s final game of the summer saw the team take on the VHL’s Metallurg. And it turned into an entertaining affair, with the outsider claiming a shoot-out win.

The home team continued to play its now traditional attacking hockey and opened the scoring in the third minute following good work from Nikolai Kovalenko. His assist recalled the rumbunctious style of his father, once dubbed the ‘Russian tank’, as he barrelled through center ice before setting up Sergei Goncharuk for the opener.

However, Metallurg hit back with two goals in 38 seconds to lead the game. The teams traded further goals in the first period, with Kovalenko assisting once again as Alexei Kruchinin tied the scores, only for Kirill Shumilov to send Metallurg into the break with the lead.

After a high-scoring start, things calmed down a little. There was only one more goal in regulation, a short-handed effort from Kirill Urakov to tie the game midway through the second period. Although the goalmouth action rarely abated, there was no more scoring and Metallurg ultimately took the verdict in the shoot-out thanks to a decisive goal from 2011 World Junior champion Maxim Kitsyn.