2015 Romazan Memorial Tournament. Magnitka curse dispelled

Traktor’s lineup was shaken up quite a bit for this game. Andrei Nikolishin kept his promise and gave young guns an opportunity to prove that they belong. Birthday boy Nikita Zhuldikov replaced Nikita Khlystov in third D pair while Semyon Afonasyevsky became the 13th forward. After a decent performance from last night, Alexei Kruchinin got his chance to play in the top line. Thus, Dmitri Pestunov played third line’s center while Artyom Penkovsky became the center of the fourth one. Vasili Demchenko was the starting goalie.

Jan Kovar and Konstantin Klimontov provided a decent warm-up for both goalies, and both were ready for it. Then, Timkin and Osala got two consecutive penalties, and quickly Andrei Popov found the back of the net, prompting one of two perpetrators to leave the penalty box prematurely. Not even one minute after, Artyom Borodkin slapped the taste out of the puck to increase visitors’ lead. Soon, Martin Ruzicka did everything to further augment the goal margin, but somehow some way Ilya Samsonov was able to prevent this from happening. For the time being, at least, as later on, Osnovin played a fine combination with Glinkin, outsmarted Chris Lee and scored Traktor’s third goal. To Magnitka’s credit, they managed to immediately pull one back; during a power play Potekhin deflected a Mozyakin pass into the net.

Forty seconds into the second, Jan Kovar cut the goal margin to one. This fact obviously made the black-and-white somewhat nervous, but Demchenko quickly made several solid saves and brought back confidence that Traktor skaters so desperately needed. After that, Semyon Kokuyov reestablished the two goal differential when he was left alone in front of Samsonov’s net. However, it was not the last goal of the period; nine minutes before the buzzer Tomas Filippi found the twine with a scintillating shot.

Predictably enough, Metallurg started pushing the envelope right from the starting faceoff of the third period. However, Vasili Demchenko was very solid and confident in between the pipes. Seven minutes into the period, Andrei Popov had to leave the ice prematurely for the second time in two days; this time, however, it was due to a minor injury. Semyon Afonasyevsky replaced him and played a decent shift, earning a faceoff for his team. Later, the black-and-white killed off a penalty and subsequently had a chance to capitalize on the PP chance of their own. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Some 150 seconds before the final horn, Metallurg got an unnecessary penalty that made a possible comeback rather distant. Nonetheless, as Mozyakin left the penalty box, Magnitka had 30 seconds to try to accomplish this feat, and boy, were they ever close. Three shots could very well do that, but Demchenko was a wall and kept the victory for the black-and-white. Traktor now leads the way with six points and is set to face Sibir tomorrow night.

Game details

METALLURG Magnitogorsk vs. TRAKTOR Chelyabinsk – 3:4 (1:3, 2:1, 0:0)

Goals: Popov (Osnovin), 7 (0:1 – PP goal); Borodkin (Quint, Pare), 9 (0:2); Osnovin (Glinkin), 12 (0:3); Potekhin (Mozyakin, Filippi), 14 (1:3 – PP goal); Kovar (Antipin, Platonov), 21 (2:3); Kokuyov (Gubarev), 28 (2:4); Filippi (Osala), 31 (3:4 – PP goal).
Postgame shootouts: Glinkin (0:0 – denied by goaltender), Kosov (0:0 - denied by goaltender), Kruchinin (0:0 – denied by goaltender), Tereshchenko (0:0 – denied by goaltender), Zhuldikov (0:0 – post), Kaletnik (0:0 – missed).

METALLURG
Samsonov;
Biryukov (A) – Antipin, Mozyakin (C) – Kovar – Wolski;
Lee – Bereglazov, Kosov – Filippi – Osala;
Tereshchenko – Khabarov, Timkin – Kaletnik – Potekhin;
Medvedev – Zhloba, Platonov – Zhelezkov – Zakharov.

TRAKTOR
Demchenko;
Quint – Borodkin, Chistov (C) – Kruchinin – Ruzicka;
Martynov – Davydov, Glinkin – Osnovin (A) – Popov;
Petrov – Zhuldikov, Pare – Pestunov – Yakutsenya;
Shinin – Klimontov, Gubarev – Penkovsky – Kokuyov;
Afonasyevsky, Mokin.

Shots: 44 (13+17+14) – 17 (9+3+5).
Faceoffs won: 34 (10+13+11) – 24 (7+8+9).
PIM: 10 (4+0+6) – 14 (2+6+6).
Shots blocked: 5 (4+1+0) – 0 (0+0+0).
Hits: 9 (3+3+3) – 6 (1+4+1).
PP goals: 2-1.

August 16, 2015. Metallurg Arena, Magnitogorsk, Russia. Attendance – 5000.