Minsk’s youngsters impress, Loko wins in four periods

Monday’s warm-up action saw two new head coaches in action for the first time. Dmitry Kvartalnov’s Dinamo Minsk got a 3-1 win over Admiral, but Andrei Kozyrev’s Severstal lost at Lokomotiv.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 4 Severstal Cherepovets 2 (0-1, 2-0, 2-0, 0-1)

Lokomotiv came out on top in its first pre-season game, while Severstal’s first action under new head coach Andrei Kozyrev ended in defeat.

The game was played in an unusual format, with the teams contesting four 20-minute period for a total of 80 minutes. Although both clubs set up two separate rosters, there were players on both sides who featured throughout the full game.

It didn’t take long for Severstal to open the scoring: after 34 seconds, Daniil Vovchenko beat Ivan Bocharov with the first shot of the game. That was the only marker of the opening frame, but in the second session Lokomotiv turned the scores around. Artur Kayumov tied it up after pouncing on a Severstal error; skating through one-on-one he beat Konstantin Shostak at the second attempt. Then Alexander Polunin deflected Rushan Rafikov’s effort into the net to put the Railwaymen up at “half-time.”

In the second half, Lokomotiv gave ice time to summer signing Martin Gernat, the team’s first import in over a year. The Slovak had an assist as Daniil Tesanov potted Loko’s fourth goal, finding the net seconds after Stepan Nikulin made it 3-1. In the fourth period, Severstal got one goal back thanks to Alexander Petunin but could not complete the fightback.

Dinamo Minsk 3 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (2-1, 0-0, 1-0)

Like Severstal, Dinamo Minsk played its first game under a new head coach. Dmitry Kvartalnov took over behind the Belarusian bench and made a winning start with a team dominated by youngsters.

The first goal of the Kvartalnov era went to Nikita Smirnov after five minutes. The second was scored by another of those prospects, Stepan Zvyagin, off an assist from another junior, Yegor Ignatenko.

Admiral got one back late in the first period thanks to Ivan Yemets on the power play, but Dinamo secured the win in the third period when 21-year-old Valentin Demchenko added a goal to his first-period assist.