Serebryakov denies Tigers. December 27 round-up
Amur missed the chance to return to the top eight as it suffered a derby defeat against Admiral in the fourth edition of this season’s Far East rivalry. A stellar performance from visiting goalie Nikita Serebryakov made the difference as the Sailors tightened their grip on sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Amur Khabarovsk 1 Admiral Vladivostok 3 (0-1, 0-1, 1-1)
However, Admiral was more concerned about stopping the rot after dropping a couple of games. Losses against Metallurg (2-3) and Salavat Yulaev (3-5) slowed the visitor’s progress. Part of the response to that saw defenseman Valery Orekhov make his debut after he arrived on loan from Metallurg.
Orekhov featured in one of the more memorable incidents of the first period, crunching Nikita Grebyonkin into the boards. The two have previous: both are on loan from Magnitka at the moment. It took longer for the teams to get settled into their attacking games, but eventually Admiral managed to earn a power play and Libor Sulak’s wrist shot opened the scoring in the 15th minute.
After the intermission, the home team emerged in better shape. The Tigers’ youngsters, in particular, played with real fire and created good chances for a tying goal. The best chance fell to Ivan Nikolishin, who denied by a supersave from Serebryakov. At the other end, Evgeny Alikin also made some big stops but was powerless to deny Dmitry Sidlyarov late in the middle frame.
Late in the game, Amur raised hopes of a fightback when Nikolishin finally found a way past Serebryakov. However, that was as good as it got. Alexander Gorshkov’s empty net goal sealed the deal for Admiral, Serebryakov finished with 39 saves.
