At the last gasp

CSKA Sofia and Tilburg Trappers opens the last day of Continental Cup in Bremerhaven looking for the three points needed for leaving Germany without the “wooden spoon”. Well, CSKA has also to justify the investment to sign former superstars for these three games. CSKA coach Kirill Hodulov has to pull out defender Mikhail Lyubushin, injured, and formed a fourth line almost-all-native with Stanislav Muhachev – Georgi Iskrenov and Martin Boyadjev , completed by Slovak Marek Mendel. Roster completed for Tilburg coach Paul Gardiner. After 06 minutes CSKA opens the score with Alexei Yotov, easy tap-in on Kvasha pass. Same Yotov doubles the score at 10 with a shot on which the goalie Meierdres is not perfect. As in previous games, Tilburg don’t play bad but has a great problem in finalizing. Klimentyev deflected a couple of shot before surrendering not securing a shot by Bastings that Kris Hoog gets in the net. Russian goalie redeems itself shortly after, well blocking shots from Loginov and Van der Heuvel. At 15 bad reaction by Bastings: Dutch forward suffered a tough check by Boyko and punches him gaining a penalty. From this episode the game becomes nervous with several consecutive penalties. Smid hits the post after a nice pass by Loginov and Kvasha imitates him in following power play. A deflection by Meierdres on Boyko and a nice save by Klimentyev on Willemse close the first period.

The central period has a dominance of Tilburg and again CSKA gives the impression that team ran out of gas. Klimentyev is skillful and brave facing Kriss Hoog launched to goal. The 2+2 (slashing+roughing) taken by Steve Mason gives CSKA a breather and the decisive third goal: Meierdres rebounds on Dusicka but cannot do anything on Ivan Boyko tap-in. When Tilburg returns at full strength Klimentyev is decisive on Mason and then Smid misses the decisive deflection in front of Klimentyev net.  At 39:00 Kris Hogg received a 12 minutes for checking to the Kristian Simo’s head, another signal of Dutch frustration. Dmitri Bykov closes the period urging Meierdres to a difficult save with a long-range shot.

a usual scene: Kvasha arguing with referees

Paul Gardner decides to replace goalie in Tilburg net, but back-up Deniz Mollen has no time to heat up his team scores: Kristian Simo slips and lost the puck for a three vs one easily finalized by Bob Teunissen. Tilburg bench celebrates and CSKA scores fourth goal with Dmitri Vlasenkov skilled in placing the puck between the post and Mollen’s leg. This goal is a blow to Tilburg and one minute after Mollen blockes a point-blank shot by Muchachev. The game is now pleasant and after surviving a power play Tilburg scores the third goal with Nick de Rujter; Mollen is superb on Iskrenov and his colleague Klimentyev on Steps and Mason. Now really Sofia seems without stamina, as in all third periods in this competition, and Tilburg now dominates and ties game at 50 with Hagemeier. Klimentyev blocks on Mason while Mollen is superb in winning a one-to-one with Yotov. It’s impressive is the lack of energy of CSKA in last minutes and Klimentyev gets by as he can against the Dutch forwards, but with 30 seconds to final siren, Tilburg finally finds the net in a somewhat lucky way: the shot of Alexei Loginov finds the deflection of Bastings and bounce off Van den Heuvel stick beating Klimentyev for a well-deserved victory after all. Tilburg closes its campaign probably with the best result possible, CSKA has much food for thought to ponder

MVP: Bob Teunissen – Alexei Yotov

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