Team Bobrov wins All-Star Game in free-scoring finals
A second action-packed day of All-Star action in Chelyabinsk saw Team Bobrov come out on top in the Fonbet 2022 All-Star Final, edging Team Kharlamov 7-6 in the decider. Before that, the third-placed playoff between Team Chernyshev and Team Tarasov finished in a 10-10 tie before the Western Conference team took the verdict in a shoot-out. Earlier, Nikolai Goldobin illuminated the second round of the Skill Show, helping Team Kharlamov to victory in that contest.
Team Kharlamov dominates the Skill Show
The skill show started with a test for the goalies. Each team nominated a netminder to face six penalty shots. The goalie with the most saves would win the contest. Salavat Yulaev’s Andrei Kareyev went first, and stopped five out of six. He was followed by two Western Conference representatives, Alexei Kolosov (Dinamo Minsk) and Maxim Dorozhko (Vityaz), who had four saves each. However, the win went to Traktor’s Ilya Proskuryakov who stopped everything that came his way on home ice.
Next came the sharp-shooting contest, with the team’s leading forwards invited to shoot down five targets suspended in the net. This time, Metallurg’s Nikolai Goldobin got the verdict for Team Kharlamov. He needed just 10 attempts to hit all five marks, taking 12.5 seconds to finish the challenge. Runner-up Alexander Sharov (Sibir) also got all five, but needed 15 attempts and 20 seconds.
Going into the captains’ challenge, the West had yet to win a single contest. SKA’s Alexander Nikishin put that right on behalf of Team Bobrov. However, it wasn’t enough to stop Team Kharlamov taking top spot with four wins in seven events.
3x3 equals goals
In the All-Star action, the third-placed playoff turned into a thriller. Two periods of 10 minutes, played in a 3x3 format, produced 20 goals and a big comeback. Sergei Tolchinsky set the tone when he opened the scoring for Team Chernyshev after 16 seconds, and the scoring continued without a break from then on. Maxim Shalunov and Vitaly Pinchuk quickly had Team Tarasov in front, but Chernyshev then rattled in five unanswered goals to build a commanding 6-2 advantage.
The fightback started even before the intermission and by 13:55 Team Tarasov led 8-7. It was that kind of game: incisive offense, deadly finishing and, to be honest, a bit of a nightmare for some overstretched goaltenders. That’s how a hockey carnival goes sometimes. In the last six minutes, the lead changed hands twice more and the teams traded goals in the final minute to produce a 10-10 scoreline after a breathless 20 minutes. Ivan Demidov’s late strike tied the game for Tarasov, and he went on to pot the shoot-out winner.
That was some appetizer ahead of the main course. Team Kharlamov, featuring several Traktor players on their home ice in Chelyabinsk, took on Team Bobrov for this year’s title.
Perhaps surprisingly, the breakout star for Kharlamov was Roman Kantserov, the teenage prospect from Metallurg who was called up for the All-Star Game after impressing in the VHL showcase last weekend. He potted a hat-trick to get his team back into the game after Bobrov jumped to a 4-0 lead. Goldobin, a potential future team-mate for Kantserov at Metallurg, added two more goals to his tally for the weekend to ensure a tense finale. However, Team Bobrov’s contingent from SKA did enough to see their team over the line: two goals each from Nikishin, Damir Zhafyarov and Dmitrij Jaskin sealed a 7-6 verdict.
