Russia-25 rolls over Belarus
Thursday brought another convincing win for Russia-25 over Belarus. The visitor had some consolation after it ended Artemy Pleshkov’s record-breaking shut-out streak, but rarely looked capable of inflicting a first loss of the spring on Roman Rotenberg’s team.
Russia-25 6 Belarus 2 (1-2, 2-0, 3-0)
Game two of Team Russia’s grand tour took place in Tula. Russia-25 was defending an unbeaten record so far this spring. There were changes to the line-up, with Maxim Fedotov replacing Danila Galenyuk on defense and Denis Pochivalov, a Torpedo forward who played most of last season in Tula with the city’s VHL team, making his international debut up front.
While Russia-25 looked to prolong its winning streak, Belarus faced a different problem: how to score on Artemy Pleshkov. The young goalie enjoyed shut-outs in his first three international games, and the Russian Hockey Federation confirmed that the SKA prospect now holds the record for the longest shut-out streak in his first international appearances.
Today Pleshkov stretched that record to 188:25 before Vadim Moroz got the puck behind him. The Dinamo Minsk man collected a cross-ice pass from Vitaly Pinchuk and fired a wrister to the top corner. The effort cancelled out Maxim Dzhioshvili’s opener for the Russians a minute earlier and, having solved Pleshkov, the visitor struck again in the 12th minute. This time, Pinchuk was the scorer with a redirect to make it 2-1.
It stayed that way until the intermission, but Russia tied the scores early in the second period. Vasily Glotov fired home a one-timer off Vladimir Grudinin’s feed in the 25th minute. The host almost got in front a couple of minutes later with a shorthanded goal: a quick counter stretched the Belarusian D, but after Zakhar Bardakov’s shot was saved, Nikolai Polyakov fired the rebound against the bar.
The go-ahead goal eventually arrived in the 37th minute thanks to defenseman Ivan Vydrenkov. The 19-year-old, who made his KHL debut with SKA earlier this season, scored off assists from Andrei Chivilyov and Artemy Knyazev to make it 3-2 at the end of the second period.
Early in the third period, a double minor for Timofei Kovgorenya enabled Russia to put the game out of reach. The power play brought two goals, with Maxim Sorkin striking first off a Vydrenkov assist before Sergei Tolchinsky extended the lead to 5-2.
That put the outcome beyond doubt, but there was still time for more. Prokhor Poltapov made it six in the 51st minute and in the closing moments Arseny Gritsyuk found the net once more. However, that seventh goal was called back for offside.
Mikhailis’ treble leads Kazakhstan to win
Metallurg’s Kazakh forward Nikita Mikhailis potted a hat-trick in his country’s final warm-up game before the IIHF World Championship starts tomorrow. Kazakhstan played Great Britain in the Czech town of Slany on Tuesday and enjoyed a morale-boosting 5-2 win. Despite falling behind to an early Liam Kirk goal, the Kazakhs turned it around in the second period on two markers from Mikhailis. Arkady Shestakov’s power play goal extended the lead early in the third, then Mikhailis assisted as Roman Starchenko made it 4-2. The hat-trick goal went into an empty net to complete the job. Kazakhstan’s first game at the Worlds is on Saturday against France.
