Red Army with impressive comeback, but Slovan laughs last

CSKA, missing their two biggest offensive weapons Stephane Da Costa and Alexander Radulov, knew they would not have it easy in Bratislava. Especially one man on the Eagles' roster was motivated, as newly acquired Lubomir Visnovsky played his first game. The 39-year-old all-star defenceman, after wearing an NHL sweater in 883 games, decided to sign with his hometown club. He will be crucial in the team’s fight for a playoff spot.

It did also not take long for him to prove his extraordinary class, as he was the centerpiece of the home team’s play all over the ice. However, no team was able to create lots of danger in the initial frame and so the game was scoreless after twenty minutes of play.

In the second period, the teams opened up a bit and the goalies became more and more the focus of attention. Barry Brust had to be ready on Geoff Platt’s attempt on the man advantage. On the other side Slovan responded with Visnovsky, whose wrist shot was though not precise enough to beat Viktor Fasth.

In the 28^th minute, the 10,055 fans in the sold out ‘Ondrej Nepela Arena’ could finally celebrate. Cam Barker brought the puck on net and Andrej Stastny was right there to convert the rebound for the 1-0 lead.

The Slovaks wanted to use the momentum to extend the lead and Ladislav Nagy had a golden opportunity in the 32^nd minute, as the puck bounced off the boards. The 34 year old superstar, former member of the Phoenix Coyotes, though could not beat Fastsh.

The 20 year old Russian phenome Maxim Mamin had one more opportunity for the tying goal in the final minutes of the second period. Barry Brust though continued his strong performance in net. The Canadian excelled not only through his saves, but also though to his ability to play the puck.

For large parts of the final period, it seemed as CSKA was not able to find a response to the hard working Slovakian team. In the 54^th minute Slovan increased the lead to two. Lubomir Visnovsky gave the puck over to Ladislav Nagy, who hit the post, but Rok Ticar was there to put the puck into the wide open net.

Game over? Not yet. You should never write the Red Army off, not even when you are up 2-0 with two minutes to go. Slovan was able to kill off a 5 on 3 disadvantage, but with 100 seconds left on the clock Dmitry Kugryshev beat Brust with a wrister to make it a one goal hockey game. 59 minutes and 52 seconds of hockey had been played when Jan Mursak put the puck on net and Kugryshev again trickled the puck though Brust for the late tying goal. This meant that some extra hockey had to be played in order to determine the winner of the contest.

Bodgan Kiselevic had the best opportunity during five minutes of 4 on 4 overtime, but the game had to be decided by a series of shootouts. Brust gave its team a chance for the extra point stopping both shootout attempts. His teammates Lukas Kaspar and Ziga Jeglic delivered, handing the KHL leader its only eight loss in 29 regular season games thus far.

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