2015 Governor Cup. Demolition derby

Both teams started this bout with a bang; 29 seconds in, Avangard’s Jonas Ahnelöv made a terrible defensive lapse, and Alexei Simakov opened the score. Omsk team could not get off the blocks while Avtomobilist dominated. Yekaterinburg team organized one attack after another; Nikolai Timashov had a great chance on goal, but Avangard’s goalie Oleg Shilin denied the threat. The first scoring opportunity for Avangard came when Michal Kempny tried to outdo his compatriot Jakub Kovar, but the latter was the better man on that exchange.

The game took a complete turnaround in the second period. First off, Denis Kulyash took a weak shot from the blue line, and the puck somehow found its way in. One minute later, Avangard capitalized on their first power play opportunity, constructing a fine combination spearheaded by Denis Parshin. The Hawks did not stop at that and completely demolished Avtomobilist, scoring five more times. At some point in the game, Kovar had to be replaced by Avto’s substitute goalie Ilya Zozulya. All in all, Avangard repeated their best result in history in terms of goals scored within one period, a record that was set back in 1985.

Jakub Kovar returned to the net in the third period so as to not ruin the young Zozulya’s mindset. Kovar did his best not to aggravate this disaster, but even he failed to save his team when Nikolai Lemtyugov scored his second goal of the game in the middle of the period. That was basically it. Avangard claimed the second straight win and, as it would later turn out, guaranteed themselves a spot in the gold medal game.

Game details

AVTOMOBILIST Yekaterinburg vs. AVANGARD Omsk Oblast – 1:8 (1:0, 0:7, 0:1)

Goals: Simakov (Kivistö), 1 (1:0); Kulyash (Popov), 21 (1:1 – PP goal); Parshin (Shirokov, Kuryanov), 23 (1:2 – PP goal); Shirokov (Parshin), 25 (1:3); Parshin (Shirokov), 26 (1:4); Lemtyugov (A. Glukhov, Alexandrov), 28 (1:5); Sobotka (Kulyash), 37 (1:6 – PP goal); Kuryanov (Pyanov), 39 (1:7 – PP goal); Lemtyugov (Fishchenko, A. Glukhov), 49 (1:8).
Postgame shootouts: Popov – 0:0 (denied by goaltender), Perezhogin – 0:0 (denied by goaltender), Megalinsky – 0:0 (wide), Zubov – 0:0 (wide), Roman – 1:0, Kuryanov – 1:0 (denied by goaltender).

AVTOMOBILIST
Kovar (Zozulya 27:47-40:00);
Kivistö – Tryamkin, Golyshev – Roman – Simakov;
Megalinsky – Loginov, Chernikov – Alexeyev – Lebedev;
Vasilevsky – Timashov, Gareyev – Yemelin – Popov;
Zhuravlyov – Turbin, Mityakin – Tochitsky – Velichkin;
Pankov – Torchenyuk – Shchemerov.

AVANGARD
Shilin;
Kulyash – Ahnelöv, Popov – Sobotka – Perezhogin;
Kempny – Alexandrov, Shirokov – Zubov – Parshin;
Valentenko – N. Glukhov, Fishchenko – A. Glukhov – Lemtyugov;
Kulik – Goncharov, Rasskazov – Kuryanov – Pyanov.

SOG: 22 (10+5+7) – 29 (6+14+9).
Faceoffs won: 22 (5+11+6) – 32 (12+12+9).
PIM: 39 (4+31+4) – 12 (2+4+6).

Referees: Alexei Zakirov, Vladislav Kiselev.
Linesmen: Alexander Sysuyev, Maxim Bersenev.

August 7, 2015. Traktor Arena, Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Tournament schedule and results*

August 6
Avangard vs. Metallurg Magnitogorsk – 4:3
Traktor vs. Avtomobilist – 5:6 SO

August 7
Avtomobilist vs. Avangard – 1:8
19.00 Traktor vs. Metallurg Magnitogorsk

August 9
13.00 Metallurg Magnitogorsk vs. Avtomobilist
17.00 Traktor vs. Avangard

August 10
15.00 3rd place game
19.00 Gold medal game

* Chelyabinsk time