Barys triumphs in Omsk
With two game days left, Barys is already assured of lifting the Blinov Cup. Today’s win over host club Avangard makes it three out of three for the Kazakhs, although one of those results came after Salavat Yulaev forfeited its first game following the death of Rodion Amirov.
Elsewhere, Traktor opened the Chelyabinsk Governor’s Cup with a derby win over Metallurg. In Petersburg, Severstal remained perfect after edging Sibir 1-0 while Sochi gave SKA plenty to think about in the teams’ Puchkov Tournament meeting.
Blinov Cup
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 1 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 (0-2, 1-1, 0-2)
Loko steamed to a second 5-1 victory in Omsk, with Salavat Yulaev the victim in Wednesday’s game. Ufa began with a win over Neftekhimik yesterday, but found itself overpowered by the Railwaymen.
It was a relatively young Salavat Yulaev team that came into this game, although Grigory Panin, Alexander Chmelevski and goalie Ilya Ezhov provided solid experience. Loko, meanwhile, went with a full-strength line-up.
After a slow start, the first power play went to Ufa. However, Loko killed the penalty and went on to take the lead through Stepan Nikulin. Right on the hooter, Georgy Ivanov doubled the lead. A concern for Salavat: both goals came after the opposition took control of the slot.
The middle frame started with Lokomotiv continuing to control the play. Maxim Beryozkin turned that into a third goal, and things looked bleak for Ufa. However, Chmelevski’s wrister brought a power play goal – and made it three in two games for him – to keep the contest alive.
In the final stanza, though, Igor Niktin’s men finished the job with few alarms. Late in the game, Ivan Chekhovich scored, having seen a goal whistled off in the second period. Then Beryozkin got his second of the game to complete the scoring.
Avangard Omsk 3 Barys Astana 4 (1-2, 1-0, 1-2)
Before this tournament, Barys was struggling for form this summer. Today’s win, a third in succession for Andrei Skabelka’s team, gives the Kazakhs the cup with a game to spare. Only Lokomotiv can match the six points Barys has already secured, and the Railwaymen would miss out due to a loss when the teams went head-to-head.
For tournament host Avangard, this was another frustrating evening. Mikhail Kravets saw his team grab an early lead before falling behind. Then, in the closing moments, Vladimir Tkachyov missed a penalty shot with the score at 2-3. Barys went to the other end and scored a fourth, which rendered Ivan Nikolishin’s last-minute market largely academic.
While Tkachyov’s biggest contribution to the game was arguably that penalty miss, the home forward also had a hat-trick of assists. The first came after 17 seconds as Reid Boucher opened the scoring. However, Barys responded quickly through Kirill Savitsky (summer signing Joey Labate got his first assist for the team on the play) and took an intermission lead when Samat Daniyar struck just before the break.
Early in the second, Tkachyov’s next assist saw Libor Sulak tie the scores. However, the third period was all about Riley Barber. The American forward scored twice, an early effort on the PP and a late one into an empty net, giving Barys a 4-2 lead. In between, Avangard piled on the pressure and goalie Eddie Pasquale was penalized for throwing his stick. However, he recovered to outwit Tkachyov and preserve his team’s lead.
Chelyabinsk Governor’s Cup
Ak Bars Kazan 3 Lada Togliatti 2 (1-1, 2-1, 0-0)
The opening game of the Chelyabinsk tournament saw Ak Bars take on Lada for the second time this summer. In the previous encounter, the Motormen won 3-2 on Aug. 5. Today that scoreline was reversed.
In the early exchanges, Lada was the architect of its own downfall. Careless play in its own zone put pressure on Alexander Trushkov’s net, and the first penalty of the game saw Dmitrij Jaskin open the scoring on the power play. However, Lada has its own Czech forward with Russian roots and Ostap Safin tied the game almost immediately.
Ak Bars saw Evgeny Svechnikov in action for the first time. The Ak Bars academy graduate is back in the KHL for the first time in decade, but on his first appearance of the summer he looked a little way off the pace. His role on the team is still a work in progress. Jaskin, though, is already well settled. He restored his team’s lead at the start of the second period and looks ready to rekindle his productive partnership with Vadim Shipachyov, who assisted on that second tally.
Later the teams traded further goals: Nikita Dynyak extended the Ak Bars lead midway through the game, and Artyom Ivanyuzhenkov pulled one back for Lada before the second intermission. It stayed 3-2 until the end, a result that will give Lada some confidence, given the absence of key players like Andrei Altybarmakyan, three imports and newly-signed goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky.
Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 OT (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)
These two old foes from the Chelyabinsk Region met once again in this tournament. And it was host club Traktor that edged the verdict in overtime thanks to a goal from Semyon Der-Arguchintsev.
Neither team was at full strength for today’s game. Andrei Razin’s Metallurg was as strong as possible, but still awaits the arrival of two Canadian forwards. Traktor, meanwhile, rested captain Sergei Kalinin, as well as Vitaly Kravtsov, Rob Hamilton and Vladimir Tkachyov. Meanwhile, Canadian goalie Zach Fucale appeared on the roster for the first time, albeit as back-up to Sergei Mylnikov.
The first period was goalless, with Traktor’s play at times hindered by Der-Arguchintsev’s adaptation into the role of playmaker. However, the same forward unveiled a hitherto unsuspected physical edge early in the second. By no means the biggest of forwards, he nonetheless managed to install himself on the slot and bang in a rebound to open the scoring. The lead did not last long. Maxim Karpov responded against his boyhood club with a similar goal for Magnitka.
Metallurg’s new head coach is noted for his bold decisions. When Traktor found itself down to three skaters for a full two minutes, Andrei Razin responded by calling a time-out and withdrawing goalie Artyom Zagidulin. That set up a thrilling passage of play, with Mylnikov’s fine goaltending the only thing that denied the visitor the lead. Metallurg did get the puck in the net in the third period, but adopted football tactics to do so and saw the play pulled back. As a result, the game went all the way to overtime before Der-Arguchintsev’s second of the night proved decisive.
Puchkov Tournament
Severstal Cherepovets 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 0 (0-0, 1-0, 0-0)
These teams’ opening games in Petersburg were very different. While Severstal scored seven on Sochi, Sibir edged past Avtomobilist with a single goal. Today’s game was closer to the latter; this time, though, the solitary marker went to Severstal to keep Andrei Kozyrev’s team perfect in the tournament.
The most notable team news saw Sibir’s Taylor Beck make his first appearance of the summer, stepping straight into the first line. David Nemirovsky also reshuffled each defensive pairing for this game.
That new defensive look did not wholly convince in the first period, as Sibir netminder Anton Krasotkin had to make 17 saves to keep the game goalless. That general pattern continued into the middle frame, but it still took until the 39th minute to see Krasotkin beaten at last. The opening, and only, goal came from a penalty shot after Yegor Stepanov picked himself to convert his second opportunity following a foul by Fyodor Gordeyev.
That proved to be the only goal of the game. Sibir’s hopes of a fightback were hampered when leading defenseman Trevor Murphy took a 2+10 early in the third. Left without a key player for much of the final stanza, Nemirovsky’s team struggled to find a way back into the game and Konstantin Shostak sealed the win with a shut-out.
SKA St. Petersburg 4 HC Sochi 3 (0-2, 2-0, 2-1)
Sochi lost its first game 7-1 here, while SKA looked impressive for much of its victory over Avtomobilist last night. So this, on paper, was a foregone conclusion.
On the ice, though, the host club found life tougher than expected. After Tuesday’s win, SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg insisted that there could be no repeat of the sluggish second period that saw Avto, down 0-4 at the intermission, score two unanswered goals. The message did not reach the players: the opening frame here saw Sochi score twice without reply. Artyom Alyayev got the first, then Borna Rendulic doubled the advantage.
However, SKA remains a powerful force. Rotenberg’s roster today was not the strongest available to him, but it proved good enough to turn the game around. Ivan Zinchenko pulled one back, then summer signing Vladimir Alistrov tied the scores at the end of the second period.
The former Dinamo Minsk man was involved once more in the third, collecting an assist as Dmitry Buchelnikov made it 3-2. The 19-year-old winger is one of many exciting prospects in the SKA system and made his KHL debut last term. When he scored midway through the third, many assumed it would be the game winner.
Sochi, though, had other ideas. Artyom Nikolayev tied it up barely three minutes later and the game was in the balance until the very end. However, Alexander Nikishin, who also scored on Avtomobilist yesterday, grabbed the 4-3 goal in the 59th minute to maintain his team’s perfect start to the competition.
Main photo: HC Barys
