65 year jubilee without classic games

On this day, the first games were played in the first season of the USSR championship in four cities: Moscow, Leningrad, Arkhangelsk and Kaunas. Only four of the original 12 teams have saved their original names: CSKA, Dynamo Moscow, Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Riga. Also, there were two teams from St. Petersburg, which eventually became known as SKA. I thought that KHL last summer should set only classic teams on this day, but today were played three games CSKA-Atlant, Dinamo Minsk-Dinamo Riga, Lev-SKA, where only three teams have played for 65 years. I hope that when Russian hockey will have another jubilee we'll see classic games, and maybe one in Arkhangelsk with open-ice.

22 Dec 2011 | Regular season | CSKA Ice Palace, Vsevolod Bobrov
CSKA Moskva	2-4	Atlant Moscow Oblast
Periods: Shots: 0-2 (3-14) 1-1 (8-6) 1-1 (12-5)
Referees: Vyacheslav Bulanov, Alexei Anisimov | Spectators: 3173

The first classic team played at home against Atlant Mytishchi, which history began in 2005 after moving from Voskresensk. Atlant started the game more aggressive and after first period had a 2-goal lead. At 8:20 Dmitry Upper after a CSKA d-man mistake opened the scoring with a high shot. With 18 seconds remaining in the first Nikolai Zherdev was first on the rebound and lifted the puck past the CSKA goalie Sergei Gaiduchenko. In the end of the second Zherdev made it a double with a high shot from a sharp angle, but soon Branko Radivojevic got a 2-minute penalty for roughing. At 39:44 Vyacheslav Buravchikov found the space between Konstantin Barulin's legs and made it 1-3 in power-play. Eduard Lewandowski returned Atlant a three-goal lead early in the third. The last goal of the night was scored with 3 seconds left in the third when Denis Parshin used a power-play chance with a high wrist shot. CSKA lost a 7th straight game and Atlant are going to make another huge winning streak, now they won a third game in a row. Alexey Kovalev played the first game since September 23 and played 12:11.

"I knew that I wouldn't played so much tonight. In first period I tested my knee and then in the second I felt myself good in the game," Alexey Kovalev said to Sport-Express.

"Atlant should say "Thank you" to Konstantin Barulin, because he stopped a lot of good CSKA chances. We can't be satisfied with our performance this night," Atlant head coach Janne Karlsson said after the game.

- Roman Solovyev

22 Dec 2011 | Regular season | Minsk Arena
Dinamo Minsk	3-2 SO	Dinamo Riga
Periods: Shots: 0-0 (11-10) 1-0 (11-4) 1-2 (6-11) 0-0 (3-1) 1-0 ( - )
Referees: Sergei Semenov, Alexander Sergeev | Spectators: 14893

This evening Dinamo Riga played its last game, before heading for the 2011 Spengler Cup which will begin already on December 26. Riga faced Minsk, the winner of the tournament in 2009.

This was the first game this season, when Riga's top scoring line M.Rēdlihs-Sprukts-Karsums didn't play together, as Sprukts missed the game because of strained muscle.

During the first period both teams had many great opportunities to open the score, however, the period ended scoreless. In the middle of the second period Chris Holt attempted to make a long pass during a power-play, but it was intercepted by Slovakian defender Peter Podhradsky who managed to beat Holt.

Early in the third period Minsk managed to score another shorthanded goal, when Chris Holt let Andrei Stas' shot under his shoulder. With five minutes to go in regulation, Krisjanis Redlihs managed to cut Minsk's lead to a single goal, but during the last minute it was his brother Jekabs Redlihs who reached a tie.

The winner of the game was decided only in the shootout, when it was Dmitry Meleshko who managed to score the decisive goal.

- Didzis Rudmanis

22 Dec 2011 | Regular season | Zimný štadión Poprad
HC LEV Poprad	2-3	SKA St. Petersburg
Periods: Shots: 0-2 (6-13) 1-1 (13-9) 1-0 (17-13)
Referees: Viktor Gashilov, Anatoly Zakharov | Spectators: 4500

HC Lev goalie Tomas Duba got a third consecutive start after a month without playing. Lev rallied to erase a three-goal deficit to 3-2, but couldn't do any more. SKA began the game well, at 9:00 they needed only 12 seconds to convert on a power play; Gleb Klimenko scored on a Tony Mårtensson's pass. Sergei Monakhov scored his first KHL goal in his second game at 12:20. Igor Makarov also took part in this play. Early in the second, Klimenko scored again and made it 3-0. At 26:26, Johnatan Sigalet had a chance to score from a penalty shot after Mårtensson tripped him on a breakaway, but Jakub Stepanek stopped Sigalet's shot. Ladislav Nagy gave a nice pass to Jaroslav Kristek, who took advantage of this chance at 34:42. Vladimir Mihalik gave a game some intrigue with his nice shot from the blue line and Stanislav Balan as the screen behind Stepanek at 43:36. But Lev couldn't do more this night and SKA won against the Slovaks for the fourth time this season by a total score of 16-5.

- Roman Solovyev

 

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