Glotov’s goal gives Russia a narrow win in Astana. May 2 international
The first game of the Kazakhstan Hockey Open ended with Artemy Pleshkov backstopping Russia-25 to a 1-0 win over the Kazakhs.
Kazakhstan 0 Russia-25 1 (0-1, 0-0, 0-0)
The KHL season is over, and May is time for international hockey. Thursday saw the start of the Kazakhstan Hockey Open in Astana. The host nation, which is preparing for the IIHF World Championship in the Czech Republic, welcomes Belarus and Russia-25 for a round-robin tournament.
The opening game saw Roman Rotenberg’s Russia-25 in action against Team Kazakhstan. Like last year’s roster, the Russian line-up is intended to have an average age of 25. It’s an opportunity to introduce young players to the international arena, while assessing older candidates who may not have had many opportunities to represent their country in the past.
Although 10 teams were represented on the Russian roster – nine from the KHL, plus Ugra of the VHL – there was a strong Petersburg accent. Seventeen of Rotenberg’s SKA players were part of the party confirmed on April 22. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, drew heavily on Barys Astana players as well as prospects from Astana’s farm club, Nomad. Nikita Mikhailis, who recently lifted the Gagarin Cup with Metallurg, did not feature in today’s game.
The tournament’s curtain-raiser turned out to be a low-scoring affair. The SKA collection generated the only goal in the 17th minute: Arseny Koromyslov’s clearance enabled Vasily Glotov to get clear and wire a wrister beyond Kazakh goalie Andrei Shutov.
Late in the opening frame, the Russians were close to a second goal when Mikhail Vorobyov released Sergei Tolchinsky down the right only for the post to prevent the visitor from taking a 2-0 lead.
Russia continued to have more of the play throughout the game. Kazakhstan relied on a counterattacking approach to test Artemy Pleshkov, and occasionally caused some alarm. However, there was no way through: the best chance fell to Kirill Savitsky in the closing moments, but Pleshkov secured his shut-out and gave Russia-25 the verdict in the opening game.
Tomorrow, Kazakhstan takes on Belarus before the concluding game of the tournament on Saturday sees Russia and Belarus go head-to-head. Next there will be further games between those two neighboring countries as part of a three-game tour. They will meet in Omsk on May 6, Tula on May 9 and Minsk on May 11.
