Ak Bars wins first pre-season game

Neftyanik Almetyevsk 3 Ak Bars Kazan 4 SO (0-0, 2-2, 1-1, 0-0, 0-1)

The first pre-season friendly to involve full-time KHL players saw Ak Bars make its traditional summer trip to Almetyevsk to face VHL opposition from Neftyanik.
Although Anvar Gatiyatulin was free to pick from any of his players, this was far from a full-strength Ak Bars roster.
  Many of Thursday’s team were fringe players, although the likes of defensemen Albert Yarullin and Nikita Yevseyev, plus forwards Alexei Byvaltsev, Alexei Pustozyorov, Vladimir Alistrov and Dmitry Katelevsky offered a spine of senior experience.
  After a goalless first period, Ak Bars jumped to a 2-0 lead at the start of the second. Malik Saberzyanov, a 19-year-old forward who spent most of last season playing in the VHL with Bars, opened the scoring. Then 24-year-old Semyon Terekhov, who scored 31 goals in 43 games for Neftyanik last term, doubled the lead. Terekhov also featured in the KHL, scoring four in 18 games for Ak Bars in the regular season.After allowing two goals in a minute, Neftyanik hit back to tie the game. Matvei Govorkov converted his team’s first power play of the night, then Igor Myasishchev sent it to the intermission at 2-2.
The third period saw Ak Bars get back in front on a 43rd-minute marker from Maxim Bykov, only for Neftyanik to save the game late on thanks to Adel Bulatov.
Bulatov was also on target in the shoot-out, but finished on the losing side after Saberzyanov and Ravil Yakupov found the net for Ak Bars.