Puchkov Tournament gets underway
The latest summer competition began in St. Petersburg with the Nikolai Puchkov kicking off. Russia U23s started with a 4-2 win over HC Sochi before Ak Bars edged Kunlun Red Star 1-0. In Omsk, the Blinov Cup continued and Lokomotiv moved clear at the top of the table after defeating Traktor for a second win. Earlier, Sibir comfortably beat Barys 4-0.
Puchkov Tournament
Russia U23 4 HC Sochi 2 (1-2, 3-0, 0-0)
The opening game in St. Petersburg saw a Russian junior roster – which drew heavily on players from SKA’s junior teams – defeat HC Sochi.
Before the youngsters got on top of the game, though, the Leopards opened a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from players with Petersburg connections. Maxim Fedotov, who moved from the Neva to the Black Sea this summer, opened the scoring. Then he assisted on Dmitry Timashev’s goal to make it 2-0. Timashev, who joined Sochi from Ajoie in Switzerland, briefly had SKA holding his KHL rights before they were included in the trade that sent the Fedotov brothers to the south.
Just as Timashev was briefly connected with SKA, Sochi’s lead here was brief. Ivan Demidov, one of the highest-rated prospects in the Russian game, pulled one back in the 10th minute. Then three unanswered goals in the middle frame put Russia U23s in control. Gleb Petrov tied it up on the power play, Demidov’s second put his team in front and Artur Brovkin sealed the win when his goal completed a blast of three markers in 62 seconds.
Ak Bars Kazan 1 Kunlun Red Star 0 (0-0, 0-0, 1-0)
This was the second meeting between these teams this summer. The first saw a Red Star fightback fall short as Ak Bars edged a 4-3 verdict. Today it was another one-goal game settled by Semyon Terekhov’s goal early in the third period.
That was enough to maintain Ak Bars’ unbeaten record this summer under new head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin. However, the result owed much to goalie Amir Miftakhov, who had 37 saves to claim a shut-out win.
Key moments included twice denying Spencer Foo in one-on-one breakaways and spreading himself to stop Brandon Yip converting a deft feed from big summer signing Rourke Chartier. At the other end, Konstantin Volkov also made a big stop to deny Kirill Semyonov.
The other major incident occurred in the 34th minute. A big hit left Red Star’s Ryan Merkley on the ice, and Austin Wong sought vengeance against Yegor Babenko. Wong won the bout, but his team was unable to win the game.
Blinov Cup
Barys Astana 0 Sibir Novosibirsk 4 (0-1, 0-3, 0-0)
Returning to the ice less than 24 hours after an OT loss to Avangard, Barys went for an experimental roster against Sibir in game two of its Blinov Cup campaign. For Sibir, Vadim Yepanchintsev also shuffled his pack, replacing Andy Andreoff with Taylor Beck and giving Anton Krasotkin the start in goal.
The opening exchanges were competitive, and Barys created the first big opportunity. However, Vsevolod Logvin was unable to add to his goal yesterday. At the other end, Vladimir Nikitin made some big saves to thwart Fyodor Gordeyev, Maxim Sushko and Georgy Belousov. Eventually he was beaten by Pavel Gogolev’s power play goal.
Gogolev followed that with a second goal early in the middle frame. This was a great individual effort and it seemed to deflate Barys. Alexei Yakovlev further increased the lead – Maxim Karpov collecting his second helper of the day on that play – before Trevor Murphy’s wrister put the game out of reach.
In the final frame, Sibir helped Krasotkin secure his shut-out as the team claimed its first victory here in Omsk.
Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 SO (1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Both these teams won their opening game in Omsk, and today’s winner would assume overall leadership of the tournament standings.
With plenty to play for, they produced an entertaining encounter, with both having the lead before Loko edged a shoot-out verdict.
Loko opened the scoring in the 15th minute with Yaroslav Likhachyov on target again. This goal came from a face-off, and Daniil Tesanov’s feed from the boards presented Likhachyov with a golden chance in front of the net.
However, Traktor responded with two goals either side of the intermission. Nikita Tertyshny got both of them. That raises hopes that the forward is heading back to his best form after an inconsistent campaign last term.
However, Tertyshny was not the only forward to have a big impact on proceedings. Daniil But also had the puck in the net twice: first he tied the scores after halting Alexander Kadeikin and heading off on a successful counterattack. Then, right at the start of the third period he beat Alexei Melnichuk for a second time, only to see the play whistled off for interference on the netminder. Nonetheless, Loko already had a lead, Maxim Beryozkin having put the Railwaymen up 3-2 late in the middle frame.
Lokomotiv’s frustration didn’t last long. Almost immediately Tesanov claimed a legit marker to secure that 4-2 lead. But that wasn’t the en. Late in the game, Likhachyov took a double minor and Traktor, playing six-on-our, capitalized. Vitaly Kravtsov and Dylan Sikura scored in the 59th minute to force overtime. There was no winner, and Likhachyov redeemed himself by deciding the shoot-out in Loko’s favor.
