Riding the wave

In the first frame of this hockey game, both teams looked pretty good on the offense and delivered a decent amount of body checks. Traktor, by the way, was completely on par with Medvescak’s power game. At the same time, the black-and-white managed to put together several scoring chances, but not a single one of them resulted in the opening goal. Jiri Novotny had the sure-firest chance of them all, but he could not beat Medvescak goalie Drew MacIntyre on a breakaway. Hosts were biding their time, and it finally paid off when Tomas Mertl transformed a weak shot by Mark Katic into one nothing on the scoreboard.

After the break, visitors got much better in the faceoff circle, seizing the advantage more and more with every passing minute. The black-and-white had two good power play chances and added half a dozen scoring opportunities in full strength. Denisov, Koltsov, Novotny, Zinovyev, Sharov – none of them was able to upset MacIntyre and tie this hockey game. Even though Medvescak attempted to increase the lead, momentum was finally on Traktor’s side, and it paid off big time after the second intermission.

A quick double by Derek Roy and Alexei Petrov turned this game upside down. Then, an egregious mistake of Medvescak players during their power play resulted in a shorthanded goal scored by Alexander Sharov. To hosts’ credit, they managed to get back into the game thanks to a PP goal by Alexandre Giroux, but that was pretty much that for this bout. Traktor withstood the pressure of the final minutes and continued the incredible roll the team has been on for the last ten games or so. Suffice to say, the black-and-white got 23 points out of possible 27 over the previous nine games. This spurt finally allowed Traktor to climb as high as the fourth place in the Eastern Conference rankings.

Game details

MEDVESCAK vs. TRAKTOR – 2:3 (1:0, 0:0, 1:3)
Goals: Mertl (Katic), 9 (1:0); Roy (Novotny, Yakutsenya), 42 (1:1); Alexei Petrov (Yakutsenya, Kruchinin), 43 (1:2); Sharov (Roy), 50 (1:3 – shorthanded); Giroux (Pare, Butler), 53 (2:3 – PP goal).

MEDVESCAK
MacIntyre (58:12-59:07, 59:15-60:00 – empty net);
Katic – Parlett, Galiardi – Pare – Butler;
Bezina – Krejcik, Hedberg – Mertl – Glumac;
Smith – Larkin, Giroux – Genoway – Lessio;
Zanoski – Perkovich – Mahbod.

TRAKTOR
Demchenko;
Belov – Borodkin, Kruchinin – Szczechura – Yakutsenya;
Koltsov – Denisov (A), Sharov – Pestunov (A) – Roy;
Shinin (C) – Klimontov, Chernikov – Novotny – Zinovyev;
Alexei Petrov, Sentyurin – Penkovsky – Afonasyevsky.

Shots on goal: 43 (17+8+18) – 30 (10+12+8).
Faceoffs won: 37 (17+9+11) – 28 (3+11+14).
Shots blocked: 7 (0+7+0) – 19 (5+7+7).
Hits: 12 (6+6+0) – 13 (6+6+1).
PIM: 12 (4+4+4) – 14 (4+2+8).
PP goals: 1-0.
TOI: Bezina (20:21), Pare (17:47), Parlett (17:47) – Denisov (20:27), Yakutsenya (19:00), Koltsov (17:38).

Referees: Alexei Belov, Sergei Gusev.
Linesmen: Alexei Medvedev, Ivan Sazonov.

December 19, 2016. Dom Sportova, Zagreb, Croatia. Attendance – 3567.