Petan’s debut goal helps Ak Bars to warm-up win

Wednesday saw Ak Bars play its first pre-season game under new head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin. A sparring session against VHL team Neftyanik saw summer signing Nic Petan on target.

Neftyanik 2 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (1-1, 0-2, 1-1)

For the first time this summer, we saw a KHL team ice something approaching a first-choice line-up as Ak Bars made its traditional visit to its farm club in Almetevsk. The top line saw newcomers Alexander Barabanov and Nic Petan line up alongside captain for the day Dmitrij Jaskin.

A tweak to the usual rules meant no penalties. Instead, all infractions would be punished with a penalty shot. In the first period, the teams traded successful penalty shots: Ilya Safonov put Ak Bars ahead before Maxim Lazarev tied it up. Early in the second, another foul gave Petan the chance to convert a shot of his own before Barabanov set up Jaskin for the first goal from open play.

That proved to be the winner. In the third period, Lazarev potted his second of the night but any hope of a fightback was ended when Dmitry Katelevsky made it 4-2.

On Aug. 17 the teams are due to meet again in Kazan.