The Wall of Brust
Yuri Petrov returned from his
injury, taking a spot in the third line alongside Jiri Novotny and Alexander Chernikov. This prompted Ilya Zinovyev’s "demotion” to the
fourth line, where he replaced Sergei Sentyurin. Plus, Pavel Francouz was the starting goalie.
The early portion of the first period went on in a rather cautious manner, despite a Traktor penalty. Then, the roles were reversed as Slovan received a penalty, and the black-and-white created a couple of good scoring opportunities. Slovan responded with a merry-go-round of attacks, during one of which Jonathan Cheechoo hit the bar. After a while, Pavel Francouz had to showcase his goaltending skills, saving his team on several exchanges. To close out the period, Alexei Kruchinin could not beat Barry Brust just as the horn sounded for both teams to hit their respective locker rooms.
The second twenty was the only one when the lamp was lit. First off, however, Traktor failed to capitalize on the power play opportunity, and then Slovan put together a counterattack that ended in the opening – and only, as we would find out – goal of the game scored by Michal Hlinka. After that, both teams had several scoring opportunities; one of them came after another negligent play by Barry Brust. Fortunately for the hosting team, nothing came out of it.
Predictably, Slovan deliberately gave away the reins of the game to Traktor since the Slovak team played their second game in two days. Traktor, on the other hand, switched to three line mode and started attacking feverishly. The black-and-white had a litany of chances on goal, including during the power play. Closer to the end of the game, Anvar Gatiyatulin pulled Francouz for sixth skater, but it was all to no avail.
Thanks to this loss, two streaks of the black-and-white were snapped – the winning streak consisting of four games and nine game long streak with points.
Game details
SLOVAN vs. TRAKTOR – 1:0 (0:0, 1:0, 0:0)
Goal: Hlinka (Vopelka), 24 (1:0).
SLOVAN
Brust;
Sersen – Kundratek, Cheechoo – Taffe – Nedorost;
Svarny – Plastino, Jeglic – Lusnak – Chipchura;
Daloga – Starosta, Musatov – Zigo – Petras;
Bacik, Siska – Hlinka – Vopelka.
TRAKTOR
Francouz (58:34-60:00 – empty net);
Belov – Borodkin, Kruchinin – Szczechura – Yakutsenya;
Koltsov – Denisov (A), Sharov – Pestunov (A) – Roy;
Shinin (C) – Klimontov, Chernikov – Yuri Petrov – Novotny;
Alexei Petrov, Afonasyevsky – Penkovsky – Zinovyev.
Shots on goal: 27 (13+9+5) – 31 (9+6+16).
Faceoffs won: 22 (9+7+6) – 26 (7+11+8).
Shots blocked: 8 (3+5+0) – 14 (9+2+3).
Hits: 4 (0+1+3) – 4 (1+0+3).
PIM: 6 (4+0+2) – 2 (2+0+0).
TOI: Sersen (22:13), Svarny (22:12), Plastino (21:51) – Koltsov (22:46), Pestunov (22:32), Yakutsenya (21:21).
Referees: Peter Gebei (Hungary), Alexei Ravodin.
Linesmen: Gleb Lazarev, Alexander Otmakhov.
December 21, 2016. Slovnaft Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia. Attendance – 6844.
The early portion of the first period went on in a rather cautious manner, despite a Traktor penalty. Then, the roles were reversed as Slovan received a penalty, and the black-and-white created a couple of good scoring opportunities. Slovan responded with a merry-go-round of attacks, during one of which Jonathan Cheechoo hit the bar. After a while, Pavel Francouz had to showcase his goaltending skills, saving his team on several exchanges. To close out the period, Alexei Kruchinin could not beat Barry Brust just as the horn sounded for both teams to hit their respective locker rooms.
The second twenty was the only one when the lamp was lit. First off, however, Traktor failed to capitalize on the power play opportunity, and then Slovan put together a counterattack that ended in the opening – and only, as we would find out – goal of the game scored by Michal Hlinka. After that, both teams had several scoring opportunities; one of them came after another negligent play by Barry Brust. Fortunately for the hosting team, nothing came out of it.
Predictably, Slovan deliberately gave away the reins of the game to Traktor since the Slovak team played their second game in two days. Traktor, on the other hand, switched to three line mode and started attacking feverishly. The black-and-white had a litany of chances on goal, including during the power play. Closer to the end of the game, Anvar Gatiyatulin pulled Francouz for sixth skater, but it was all to no avail.
Thanks to this loss, two streaks of the black-and-white were snapped – the winning streak consisting of four games and nine game long streak with points.
Game details
SLOVAN vs. TRAKTOR – 1:0 (0:0, 1:0, 0:0)
Goal: Hlinka (Vopelka), 24 (1:0).
SLOVAN
Brust;
Sersen – Kundratek, Cheechoo – Taffe – Nedorost;
Svarny – Plastino, Jeglic – Lusnak – Chipchura;
Daloga – Starosta, Musatov – Zigo – Petras;
Bacik, Siska – Hlinka – Vopelka.
TRAKTOR
Francouz (58:34-60:00 – empty net);
Belov – Borodkin, Kruchinin – Szczechura – Yakutsenya;
Koltsov – Denisov (A), Sharov – Pestunov (A) – Roy;
Shinin (C) – Klimontov, Chernikov – Yuri Petrov – Novotny;
Alexei Petrov, Afonasyevsky – Penkovsky – Zinovyev.
Shots on goal: 27 (13+9+5) – 31 (9+6+16).
Faceoffs won: 22 (9+7+6) – 26 (7+11+8).
Shots blocked: 8 (3+5+0) – 14 (9+2+3).
Hits: 4 (0+1+3) – 4 (1+0+3).
PIM: 6 (4+0+2) – 2 (2+0+0).
TOI: Sersen (22:13), Svarny (22:12), Plastino (21:51) – Koltsov (22:46), Pestunov (22:32), Yakutsenya (21:21).
Referees: Peter Gebei (Hungary), Alexei Ravodin.
Linesmen: Gleb Lazarev, Alexander Otmakhov.
December 21, 2016. Slovnaft Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia. Attendance – 6844.
