CSKA wins one of the great derbies in Russian hockey history

Yugra – Traktor

The captain of the Russian junior national team Yevgeny Kuznetsov played his first game after winning a silver medal at the recent U20 World Championship. He assisted in the first goal by getting the puck to the net with a backhand pass to Stanislav Chistov who lifted the puck past Edgars Masalkis at 09:06. Yugra tied the game at the end of the first when Igor Yemeleyev received a pass from Alexei Pepelyayev and lifted the puck under the bar. Another mistake by Traktor goalie Ilya Proskuryakov lead to the second Yugra goal. Igor Skorokhodov made it 2-1 at 32:48. Two minutes later Kuznetsov scored with a nice sole move. In all three periods together Yugra players only had 10 shots on goal while Traktor had 33. Yugra won in the shootout series due to goals by Alexei Simakov and Igor Skorokhodov.

SKA – Severstal

SKA dominated all first period but with 1:21 remaining conceded a locker-room goal. Mikko Lehtonen opened the scoring with a one-timer. Severstal made only two shots in the first and scored once. In the second they shot 5 times and scored twice. First Gennady Stolyarov was first on the rebound after Alexei Tsvetkov’s shot. In the end of the period Severstal used a breakaway to extend the lead. Josef Straka scored with assists by Dmitry Vlasenkov and Bogdan Kiselevich. Vadim Shipachyov increased Severstal's lead in the third with a powerful wrister. Vasily Koshechkin stopped 36 shots and made perfect his 3rd shutout this season.

Spartak – CSKA

One of the classic Soviet derbies was played tonight in Sokoliniki where Spartak faced CSKA. It was not only a derby, it was a battle for a playoff spot. CSKA had a 7 points lead over Spartak. Before this game CSKA had only 2 wins in the last 14 games. CSKA had a real scoring chance in the middle of the first when the puck from Filatov’s skate could get to the net. A fast Spartak breakaway ended with misfiring by Stefan Ruzicka who wasn't able to send the puck into the wide open net. Nikolai Prokhorkin opened the scoring with an empty-net goal after a being first on the rebound at 12:27. In this play Nikita Filatov earned his first point after returning from North America. Minutes later Kasutin stopped a dangerous shot from the goalie zone with his glove. A strange fact: In the first period CSKA had three penalties for delaying the game.

In the second period Spartak gifted power-play chances to CSKA, but as it was in the first the team which
defended more scored a goal. Yegor Mikhailov found a pass from Mikhail Yunkov in front of the net and
tied the game at 28:24. CSKA grabbed a one-goal lead in the middle of the third with a beautiful wrist shot by Sergei
Shirokov. A mistake by Roman Lyuduchin in the neutral zone lead to Mikhail Pashnin's empty-net
goal from CSKA’s half of the rink with 30 seconds remaining in the third. CSKA won the game of life but can
they save their place in the end of the year?

“It was an interesting game. The win came because all player including the reserve goalie wanted it” CSKA
head coach Julius Supler said. Then he discussed with former CSKA player and analyst on Russian TV
Sergei Gimayev about Nikita Gusev and Nikita Kucherov who didn’t play that night. Gimayev told that if
they won’t play they will go to North America and Russian specialists, coaches will again complain why
our players leave our country.

“We played the worst game since I became the head coach; especially we played bad in the power-play”
Spartak head coach Andrei Sidorenko said after the game.

 

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