CSKA, Spartak reach Moscow final

The Mayor of Moscow Cup final is set, with CSKA and Spartak recording their second wins of the tournament. That means the capital city rivals will top groups A and B respectively and play off for gold on Sunday. In Petersburg, the Puchkov Tournament is also set for a gold medal showdown after SKA recovered from 0-2 to beat Sibir. The host club is perfect after three games, and faces a similarly flawless Severstal team in tomorrow’s decider. The Blinov Cup ended in Omsk with Barys underlining its trophy win by defeating Neftekhimik 3-1 to finish with a 100% record.

Mayor of Moscow Cup

CSKA Moscow 4 Amur Khabarovsk 3 SO (2-2, 0-1, 1-0, 0-0, 1-0)

CSKA booked its place in the final of this year’s tournament after making it two wins in two days. Despite a gruelling schedule, Sergei Fedorov’s team had the strength to see off Amur in a shoot-out following a 3-3 tie in Moscow.

Despite the tight turnaround, CSKA made just two changes to Thursday’s roster: Ivan Fedotov returned in goal and Yaroslav Dyblenko replaced Nikolai Makarov in the second defensive pair.

Amur, which had a 10-day rest after its previous game, scored first. A power play midway through the first period saw Yakov Rylov on target. However, the Tigers then found themselves defending a 3-on-5 situation and CSKA took full advantage for two goals. Vladislav Kamenev added to his two goals in yesterday’s win over Dynamo, then 29 seconds later Darren Dietz made it 2-1. However, once back at full strength, Amur responded with a goal from Alex Broadhurst to tie it up a minute before the intermission.

That double penalty call went against Alexander Bryntsev and Pyotr Khokhryakov. At the start of the second period, they rehabilitated themselves by combining to set up Ivan Mishchenko to make it 3-2.

After that high-scoring start, there was a long wait for the next goal. However, at the start of the third, CSKA tied the game through Sergei Plotnikov. Subsequently, both teams had power play chances but could not find a winner in regulation nor overtime. The shoot-out saw the two goalies on top. Dmitry Gamzin, who replace Fedotov after 40 minutes, won all of his duels; opposite number Dmitry Lozebnikov came out on top four times, but Vitaly Abramov beat him on the final attempt to give CSKA the verdict.

Spartak Moscow 4 Kunlun Red Star 1 (0-1, 2-0, 2-0)

Spartak followed cross-town rival CSKA into the cup final after coming from behind to defeat Kunlun Red Star.

The Dragons survived a first-minute penalty on Kyle Wood and went in front through Spencer Foo in the sixth minute. Foo kept up his record of getting at least a point in every pre-season game so far and his goal was the difference between the teams at the first intermission.

Spartak had further power play chances in the opening frame, but ironically tied the game after taking its first penalty of the evening. Yegor Chezganov sat for slashing, and Alexander Burmistrov potted a shorty in the 24^th minute. Then Burmistrov turned provider as Shane Prince got a power play goal to put the Red-and-Whites in front after 27 minutes.

Red Star has looked good so far this pre-season, winning the Lada Cup in Togliatti a couple of weeks ago. However, its hopes of repeating last year’s run to the Mayor’s Cup final were sunk at the start of the third. The action started with a fight between Devin Brosseau – another player in good summer form for the Dragons – and Yegor Zaitsev. While they served their major penalties, Maxim Tsyplakov extended Spartak’s lead.

Then Tsyplakov went to the box, soon to be followed by German Rubtsov, but KRS could not cash in a two-man advantage. Instead, an empty-net goal from Tsyplakov completed the win for Spartak.

Puchkov Tournament

Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 8 HC Sochi 2 (6-1, 1-0, 1-1)

Stephane Da Costa put Sochi to the sword with a hat-trick as Avtomobilist finished its Puchkov Tournament with a convincing win. For the Leopards, beaten 7-1 in the opening game against Severstal, this was a second heavy loss in three outings.

All the Frenchman’s goals came in the first period as the Motormen took complete control of the game. Da Costa’s first came after just 11 seconds, setting the tone for an Avto goal rush. There was a brief hiatus when Sochi got on the power play and pulled a goal back through Amir Garayev, but it wasn’t long before the game got away from the Black Sea boys.

Da Costa had an assist as Maxim Osipov restored the lead, then two goals in 12 seconds left Sochi reeling. Anatoly Golyshev made it 3-1, with Da Costa again providing a helper, then Pavel Voronkov grabbed the fourth.

That saw Nikita Tulinov replace Mikhail Berdin in the Sochi net, but Da Costa soon solved the new goalie. He scored twice more in the first period as Avtomobilist led 6-1 inside 16 minutes.

With the outcome decided, the rest of the game was quieter. Alexei Byvaltsev and Alexei Makeyev extended the lead, one on the power play, the other shorthanded. With 10 minutes left, Sochi’s Michal Kristof pulled a goal back, but it was little consolation.

SKA St. Petersburg 6 Sibir Novosibirsk 3 (0-2, 3-0, 3-1)

For the second game in a row, SKA had to rally from 0-2 to get a win that maintains its 100% record in its home tournament.

Sibir was hoping to move ahead of the Petersburg team into second place in the standings, and looked well placed to do just that after two quick goals in the first period. Taylor Beck’s power play marker was his first of the summer, and just 21 seconds later Artyom Zhukov doubled the lead.

It remained 2-0 until the first intermission, but in the middle frame it was SKA’s turn to produce some quickfire scoring. In a session full of penalties, all three came on the power play. First, Ivan Demidov pulled one back. Then, during a spell of 4-on-3 action, Ilya Fedotov tied the scores. Midway through the session, a fight between Sibir’s Trevor Murphy and SKA’s Pavel Dedunov saw both players pick up majors, with Murphy getting an additional cross-checking penalty. That power play enabled Demidov to set up Sergei Sapego for SKA’s go-ahead goal.

The officials had more work to do before the intermission: both teams continued to pile up the penalties and in the 37^th minute, Ilya Morozov was ejected from the game for a hit to the head. That drew an angry response from the SKA bench, resulted in a game misconduct bench penalty against the home team. In total, the teams shared 73 penalty minutes in the period – and this in pre-season exhibition play!

The penalties kept coming. Beck tied it up on a power play early in the third, then a 5-on-3 advantage set up SKA’s Sergei Tolchinsky for 4-3. That’s Tolchinsky’s second in this tournament, his first action in Petersburg as a SKA player following his move from Avangard this summer. It was also the game winner, although there was more scoring to come in the final minutes as the home team added two empty net goals. Ivan Zinchenko and Marat Khairullin snuffed out Sibir’s attempts at a fightback to send SKA into tomorrow’s decider against Severstal on a high.

Blinov Cup

Barys Astana 3 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 (1-0, 1-0, 1-1)

A hat-trick from Roman Starchenko saw Barys complete its victorious Blinov Cup campaign with four wins from four games. Neftekhimik was looking for its first win in Omsk, but iced a weakened line-up and fell to another loss.

The Wolves’ absentees included several leading players: Lukas Klok, Nail Yakupov, Alexander Dergachyov, Antony Camara and Vladimir Bryukvin were all rested. Barys also went without several key players, which led to goalie Andrei Shutov making his first appearance at this tournament.

Although it’s one week from the opening game of the regular season, this encounter had an end-of-season feel to it. There was little evidence of high tempo hockey and relatively few dangerous moments in front of either goal. However, that did not stop veteran forward Starchenko dominating proceedings. He opened the scoring in the first with a goal from nothing, robbing a defenseman of the puck and scoring off his own play.

In the second period, Joey LaBate’s fight with Ruslan Petrishchev saw the Canadian ejected from the game. However, a weakened Neftekhimik power play could make little of a five-minute numerical advantage. It was a similar story when David Sklenicka took a major for boarding. Once the teams were back to equal strength, Starchenko potted his second.

The third period brought a third major penalty, with Neftekhimik’s Sergei Kuptsov the latest player to incur the wrath of the officials. This time, the power play produced a goal as Starchenko got his third of the game. And before Neftekhimik returned to full strength, Ilya Khokhlov scored a short-handed tally to make the final score 3-1.