In the military derby, which was bad for the strong moments, a lot was decided by the elimination of the guest goalkeeper Vladislav Podyapolsky for expelling the puck. The hosts did not notice the majority, but scored, numerical equality hardly reigned on the site. The main rivals traded two back-and-forth victories.
The author of these lines did not expect to see the leader Podyapolsky at the gate today, who practically got into the derby on December 21. Then, in Saint Petersburg, the champions, after struggling in the first period, leveled the game and won 2:1.
For some reason, the request did not include goalkeeper Nikolaev, whom CSKA had not yet lost. It is almost impossible to make serious claims against Podyapolsky. Save for some inaccurate work with a stick—in the third half, with the score 1:1, he lobbed the puck high into the stands, leaving the team in the minority for the first time. The hosts’ Bolsheviks played too much without frills, but when Zykov jumped from the penalty area onto the ice, Okulov unexpectedly shot from the left side into the gate, and the puck from Pedan’s chest fluttered into the net. The hosts stepped up.
And the first two periods were closer to the victory of St. Petersburg. They drove the Muscovites to their area for a long time, forced them to spend their forces and move forward. After another cherry on top, the scoring was opened: Yashkin hit the “point”, Kamalov shot it into the goal, and the tireless Khusnutdinov corrected the puck into the Reideborn goal.
And the third and last goal was scored after someone else’s shot on the blue line from the same Kamalov, Sorkin and Bryukvin ran away together against a defender, newcomer CSKA shot, and the hero of the 2022 playoffs shot from the summer.
After the final siren, SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg called the army derby a Super Series, bemoaned the overcrowded infirmary and the false effort to score a beautiful goal:
– The opponent realized the start “2 on 1”, and instead of a throw, we make a pass to an empty corner,
Rotenberg also praised Okulov for the sudden shot that led to the decisive goal. Somehow forgetting that Zykov’s brother-in-law scored even more coldly a week ago on Ice (1: 2), and in the first match of the Army Super Series (2: 3 OT) he scored with a score of 2: 0 in favor from the hosts Pylenkov, who is now continuing the battle for the playoffs in Cherepovets (the puck flew into the goal from Kiselevich’s foot).
The Commander-in-Chief of the SKA anticipated the imminent return of the wounded and sick: Falkovsky, Bardakov, Galimov and even Prokhorkin. This list did not include Moiseev, who retired almost until the end of the season.
CSKA coach Sergei Fedorov paid tribute to SKA, noting that the guests created a lot of problems for his team. And even he secretly said that the player who had pneumonia had returned. I wonder who?
This is not a young Poltapov, who went out today for several shifts. Having fallen under the “tank” in the face of Nikishin, the young man withered. And before the second collision with this defending grenadier, he fell, clinging to the … ice.
Before the New Year, CSKA will face its main competitor in the fight for the second place in the Western Conference – Lokomotiv. On December 23, in Yaroslavl, the railway workers took control 3:1, which allowed the champions to attack little.
STATISTICS
CSKA – SKA – 3:1 (0:0, 0:1, 3:0). Goals: Okulov (2), Sorkin-Khusnutdinov
