Avangard clinches silver, SKA loses to young Russians in a thriller

Avangard defeated Admiral to take second place at the Sochi Hockey Open. SKA finished the tournament with a high-scoring loss to Russia U23s. In the day’s only warm-up game, Dinamo Minsk beat a youthful Metallurg team.

Sochi Hockey Open

Avangard Omsk 5 Admiral Vladivostok 2 (1-1, 1-1, 3-0)

A day after Admiral won the first trophy in its history, the Sailors suffered a first loss of pre-season. It made little difference to the outcome of the tournament, save for confirming a second-place finish for Avangard.

Having won the cup, Admiral tried out a new top line with Alexander Shevchenko, Denis Golubev and Pavel Makanovsky starting the game up front. Avangard also made changes, resting Libor Sulak and Valentin Pyanov.

The first period got off to a slow start, and it took 17 minutes for the teams to open the scoring. Pavel Varfolomeyev put Admiral in front after Colby Williams broke up an Avangard attack. But the Hawks responded immediately, Igor Geraskin on the power play.

The teams shared two goals in the middle frame as well. This time, Avangard went in front on a tally from Gleb Trikozov before Ivan Yemets made it 2-2. However, the final frame saw the Hawks take control. Kirill Panyukov made it 3-2 in the 44^th minute, then a power play marker for Dmitry Solovyov extended the advantage. Trikozov finished the job in the final second with an empty netter.

Russia U23 6 SKA St. Petersburg 5 SO (1-3, 1-2, 3-0, 0-0, 1-0)

Russia U23s produced a big fightback to snatch a win in its final game of the tournament. Despite trailing 2-5 to SKA, the youngsters scored three in the third period before sealing a shoot-out verdict. Ruslan Abrosimov was on target twice in that shoot-out to give the national team the edge.

SKA took control of proceedings in the first period. The teams traded goals midway through the session, with Ilya Fedotov putting SKA in front before Semyon Demidov tied it up within a minute. Then Brendan Leipsic scored his first for his new club and Emil Galimov added a third to chase Dmitry Nikolayev from the Russian net. Early in the second session, Ivan Demidov’s power play goal had SKA in cruise control.

Fedotov got his second goal of the game as SKA remained on top through 40 minutes, but Russia U23 hit back with a couple of power play goals at the start of the third. Dmitry Katelevsky scored them both as SKA’s frequent visits to the box took their toll. With five minutes to play, Maxim Velikov tied the scores. Then Abrosimov settled the outcome in the shoot-out.

Warm-up game

Dinamo Minsk 6 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (3-0, 1-2, 2-1)

Metallurg played its second warm-up game of its summer camp in Minsk, and once again suffered defeat. Andrei Razin continued to try out his youngsters in a game that was close to a repeat of the overtime loss to Team Belarus. This time, though, the opposition lined up as Dinamo Minsk rather than the national team.

This game was settled in the opening minutes. Dinamo was hot from the start, and led 3-0 after 14 minutes. Roman Gorbunov led the way with a goal and an assist. Magnitka hit back in the second period, with Mikhail Grass continuing his impressive summer form. It seemed that the recovery might be on when Arkhip Nekolenko made it 3-4 early in the third, but Dinamo would not be denied. Sergei Kuznetsov quickly restored a two-goal advantage and Timofei Kovgorenya finished it off with an empty-netter.