Romazan Memorial Tournament. Traktor begins and loses

Artem Penkovski played his first ever match as part of Traktor. Penkovski was put in third line alongside Andrey Kostitsyn and Martin Ruzicka.

Metallurg got to work early on and tested Traktor defense and personallyMichael Garnett time after time. This assault resulted in a scoring effort byDanis Zaripov. Closer to the mid-period mark Traktor evened the match out a little; Mokin and Kokuyov both had scoring chances, but all to no avail. Later on Osala was sent to the penalty box; Traktor utilized the power play chance with some impressive efficiency as Bulis and Borodkin could tie the game. Unfortunately for the black-and-white, Koshechkin nullified their efforts. Sometime later it was Garnett who had to juke and jive to keep the score intact. To Michael’s credit, he did just that, and the one nothing score was what the fans saw on the board after 20 minutes.

Second twenty saw penalties come one after another. Not even two minutes into the period Chris Lee doubled hosts’ lead during the power play. Traktor quickly regained themselves as Quint pulled one back with a blast of a one-timer. A litany of penalties followed, and if it weren’t for both goaltenders, the match could have turned into scoring extravaganza. And then the lightning struck for Traktor – Michael Garnett got injured and could not continue the match. Vasili Demchenko replaced Misha and did not allow anything in his net up until the final buzzer.

Demchenko opened the period with two scintillating saves. Especially eye-catching was the glove save he made after an Antipin slapshot. As the match was approaching its conclusion, the amount of hits and checks increased too. This resulted in another penalty by the hosts, thus giving Traktor the final chance to save the match. Ruzicka could not outdo Koshechkin, Panov and Khlystov were not in luck. After a while Sergey Mozyakin tallied an empty net goal to set the final score of the match. Three one, Traktor suffers defeat.

Game details

METALLURG vs. TRAKTOR – 3:1 (1:0, 1:1, 1:0)

Goals: Zaripov (Biryukov), 5 (1:0); Lee (Zaripov, Kovar), 22 (2:0 – PP goal); Quint (Kondratyev), 25 (2:1 – PP goal); Mozyakin (Kovar, Tereshchenko) 59 (3:1 – en).

Shootouts: Pare (0:0 – denied by goaltender); Osnovin (0:0 – denied by goaltender); Zaripov (1:0); Penkovski (1:0 – denied by goaltender); Mozyakin (1:0 – denied by goaltender); Glinkin (1:1).

METALLURG
Koshechkin;
Antipin – Biryukov (A), Mozyakin (C) – Kovar – Zaripov (A);
Bereglazov – Lee, Osala – Pare – Yunkov;
Tereshchenko – Khabarov, Kosov – Brent – Platonov;
Ibragimov, Timkin – Shafigulin – Yakutsenya,
Kamenev.

TRAKTOR
Garnett (Demchenko 29:24 – 58:42, 58:51 – 60:00);
Borodkin – Atyushov (A), Glinkin – Bulis (C) – Panov (A);
Quint – Kondratyev, Kostitsyn – Penkovski – Ruzicka;
Khlystov – Katichev, Mokin – Osnovin – Abdullin;
Vasilchenko – Kostromitin, Velichkin – Zavarukhin – Kokuyov.

PIM: 14 (4+6+4) - 12 (2+8+2).
Shots: 36 (18+10+8) - 15 (4+6+5).
Faceoffs won: 29 (11+7+11) - 31 (9+15+7).
PP goals: 1-1. 

Referees: Sergey Karabanov, Yevgeni Romasko.
Linesmen: Anton Ponomarenko, Dmitri Smorodin.

Metallurg Arena, Magnitogorsk, Russia. August 27, 2014.