Big win for Russia at Channel 1 Cup

Russia enjoyed a convincing victory in its first international game of the season, overcoming Kazakhstan in the Red Machine’s first game at the Channel 1 Cup.

Team Russia 6 Team Kazakhstan 2 (2-1, 3-0, 1-1)

This year’s tournament is taking place outside of the Euro Hockey Tour. The traditional match-ups against Finland, Sweden and Czechia are replaced with local rivalry games against Kazakhstan and Belarus. The action in Moscow began on Thursday with the Belarusians defeating the Kazakhs 4-1. Today, Kazakhstan suffered another heavy loss.

Alexei Zhamnov’s Russian roster went without many leading players. In previous years, this December tournament was something of a New Year gift to local hockey fans, a chance to see the top KHL players representing their country. This time, though, Zhamnov ran the rule over some of the rising stars of the current season. With Russia and Belarus currently suspended from IIHF World Championship action, it makes sense to take a longer view and give future prospects a valuable taste of international play in anticipation of a return to action.

The new-look Russian team suffered an early jolt. Kazakhstan got the first power play of the game when the experienced Nikita Nesterov sat for tripping. The visitor duly converted that into the opening goal thanks to Kirill Savitsky.

However, Russia turned it around within the first period. First, Nesterov assisted on a tying goal for Konstantin Okulov. Then, Dynamo’s Maxim Dzhioshvili, one of those new faces at international level, marked his debut with the go-ahead goal.

Any questions about the outcome of the game were resolved in the second period as Russia potted three unanswered goals. Alexander Kadeikin, Dmitry Voronkov and Kirill Semyonov were on target to take the game away from Kazakhstan.

The visitor got a consolation effort early in the third thanks to veteran forward Roman Starchenko. However, the last word went to Russia with Voronkov getting his second of the game off a Dzhioshvili assist.

Tomorrow, Russia takes on Belarus in the tournament decider.