SKA, Traktor win home tournaments
Two tournaments were settled on Saturday – and it was the host clubs on top. Traktor won the Governor of Chelyabinsk Cup with a 3-0 win over Lada, while in Petersburg SKA won the deciding encounter of the Puchkov Tournament with a 4-2 verdict over Severstal. Vityaz and Dynamo Moscow will contest Sunday’s bronze medal game at the Mayor of Moscow Cup after wins over Kunlun Red Star and Amur respectively. In Saturday’s only warm-up game, Dinamo Minsk downed Admiral 4-1.
Puchkov Tournament
HC Sochi 3 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 (2-2, 0-1, 1-1)
Sibir’s imports had a big day to help their team finish the Puchkov tournament with a win. Andy Andreoff scored two, while Taylor Beck and Trevor Murphy had two assists apiece against Sochi.
The Leopards, meanwhile, had two goals from Gleb Koryagin as they produced perhaps their best performance of the tournament to date. However, they could not avoid a fourth loss in four games here.
There was a flurry of early scoring. Andreoff put Sibir ahead on the power play in the fifth minute, but Nikolayev quickly had Sochi level. However, Ivan Klimovich restored Sibir’s lead, making it 2-1 on 6:26.
Koryagin’s first of the day tied the scores midway through the opening frame and it stayed level until the intermission. Now the character of the game changed, and goals were harder to come by. Midway through the middle frame, Ilya Mikheyev restored Sibir’s lead and this time David Nemirovsky’s men were able to consolidate. Andreoff got his second, again on the PP, in the 44th minute to give Sibir some breathing space. Koryagin kept Sochi’s hopes alive with a 52nd-minute tally, but there was no way back.
SKA St. Petersburg 4 Severstal Cherepovets 2 (0-1, 1-0, 3-1)
A goal and two assists from Alexander Nikishin helped SKA to come from behind and secured victory in its home tournament. It was the third game in a row that the Petersburg club fell behind in the first period, but once again Roman Rotenberg’s players found a way back.
For Severstal, defeat on Saturday cost it a 100% record and the chance to claim the trophy for itself. However, Andrei Kozyrev’s team takes plenty of positives from the event after wins against Sochi, Avtomobilist and Sibir.
Today, the Steelmen took an early lead thanks to Alexander Zhabreyev. He struck after two minutes, adding to his marker in the previous game against Avto. SKA did not find an easy path back into the game, and trailed for more than 30 minutes. However, a penalty on Daniil Vovchenko midway through the second period led to a power play goal for Sergei Tolchinsky, assisted by Nikishin and Marat Khairullin.
The teams went into the final frame locked at 1-1. Once again, though, a power play broke Severstal’s resistance. Mark Barberio sat for tripping, and Nikishin made the most of the chance. The defenseman needed just 11 seconds to score on Konstantin Shostak and put SKA ahead for the first time. Brendan Leipsic assisted on that one, collecting his first point of the tournament.
Severstal wasn’t done, and a short-handed goal from Nikita Rozhkov midway through the third period tied it up at 2-2. But SKA was not about to relinquish its grip. Two goals in the 55th minute ensured the home team came out on top. Vasily Glotov restored the lead, then 18 seconds later Nikishin and Khairullin combined for Mikhail Vorobyov to make it 4-2.
Chelyabinsk Governor’s Cup
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Ak Bars Kazan 5 (0-2, 1-1, 1-2)
Ak Bars rested Dmitrij Jaskin after he scored three goals in his first two games. But the absence of the free-scoring new signing had little impact on the Kazan offense, which rattled in five more goals against Metallurg.
Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s men made a good start, with Kirill Semyonov opening the scoring inside five minutes. Daniil Zhuravlyov doubled the lead in the first period and Ak Bars was already on its way to victoy.
Metallurg has not always looked at its most fluent this summer, with the team taking time to get used to a new era under head coach Andrei Razin. Here, once again, we saw some moments of promise but not enough to make a game of this. Grigory Dronov pulled a goal back at the start of the second period, but Ak Bars was unruffled. Ilya Safonov restored a two-goal cushion in the middle frame.
There was a similar story in the third. Maxim Karpov made it 2-3 in the 41st minute, but there would be no fightback. Alexander Radulov made it 4-2 before Stanislav Galiyev added an empty netter.
Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Lada Togliatti 0 (1-0, 0-0, 2-0)
The host club blanked Lada to successfully defend the title it won last year. After OT wins against Metallurg and Ak Bars, this was Traktor’s first regulation win of the tournament and it was enough to keep the home team a point clear of the Tatars.
Lada, meanwhile, handed a debut to new signing Vladislav Podyapolsky. The former SKA goalie only linked up with his new club on Wednesday but was pitched into action today. Zach Fucale started at the other end for Traktor, and he had the more anxious opening to the game. Lada hit Fucale’s post on its first shift with the Canadian goalie beaten. Later, he pulled off a big save to rob Dmitry Kugryshev of a goal, only to pick up a minor for throwing his stick while making the stop.
By then, Traktor had the lead after Alexander Sharov redirected an Albert Yarullin slap shot late in the first period. But the game remained in the balance until the final minutes. Only then did Traktor get some comfort as Vitaly Kravtsov made it 2-0 in the 53rd minute. Maxim Shabanov finished the job in the last minute, sealing victory in both the game and the tournament.
Mayor of Moscow Cup
Vityaz Moscow Region 4 Kunlun Red Star 3 SO (2-0, 1-2, 0-1, 0-0, 1-0)
Austin Wong celebrated his 23rd birthday with a hat-trick of helpers for KRS, but still finished on the losing side. The youngster was named on a line with his older brother Tyler and the two forged a productive partnership with Devin Brosseau to help the Dragons fight back and tie this game.
Austin assisted on Tyler’s goal early in the second period after Vityaz opened up a 2-0 lead in the opening stanza. He also played a part as Zac Leslie tied the game midway through the session. However, it was Austin’s error in his own zone that enabledVladislav Kara to restore Vityaz’ lead.
That wasn’t the end: the Wong brothers combined in the third period for Brosseau’s late equalizer. In the shoot-out, though, Vityaz came out on top thanks to Vitaly Popov. That ensured that the Balashikha-based team will play for third place against Dynamo in Sunday’s classification games.
Dynamo Moscow 6 Amur Khabarovsk 0 (3-0, 3-0, 0-0)
Two of Dynamo’s summer signings, Nikita Gusev and Cedric Paquette, contribute to a convincing win over Amur. Gusev opened the scoring, and had two assists, Paquette scored twice and Eric O’Dell, who agreed a contract extension during the summer, also had a couple of helpers.
It all added up to a lopsided victory for the Blue-and-Whites, who took control of the game early. Gusev converted the first power paly of the evening in the fifth minute and Andrei Pribylsky doubled the lead barely a minute later. That was the end for starting goalie Janis Kalnins, but Dmitry Lozebnikov fared little better. Paquette’s first, also on the PP, made it 3-0 midway through the opening frame.
Dynamo added three more in the second. Andrei Nikonov and Yegor Morozov found the net, the latter on another power play. In between, Paquette got another as the Muscovites dominated. A goalless third period completed the formalities.
Amur’s defeat means it will face Kunlun in the 5/6 place classification game on Sunday before Dynamo face Vityaz. The gold medal game wraps up the tournament when CSKA plays Spartak.
Warm-up game
Dinamo Minsk 4 Admiral Vladivostok 1 (2-0, 1-1, 1-0)
Two goals from summer signing Sam Anas scored twice as Dinamo sank Admiral in Saturday’s exhibition game. The 30-year-old, who helped Hershey Bears win last season’s Calder Cup and also led the AHL in scoring in 2019-2020, took the game away from the Sailors with goals in the second and third periods.
Early in the game, Dinamo goalie Alexei Kolosov made a big save to deny Anton Berlyov, while Anas was close to giving the home team the lead. Late in the frame, though, Minsk took control. Sergei Kuznetsov opened the scoring and another summer import, Canadian Gemel Smith, added a second. Smith, 29, played the last of his 91 NHL games for Detroit in 2021-2022.
In the middle frame Anas extended Dinamo’s lead before Alexander Shevchenko got Admiral on the scoreboard. But there was no way back for Vladivostok and Anas completed the scoring in the final stanza.
