Impressive comeback from Salavat in the green derby! The fate of the match was decided by a masterpiece goal
Dmitry Storozhev September 14, 2023, 19:33 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Ivan Drozdov skillfully managed the Ak Bars defense and conveyed a lot of emotions to the home fans.
Salavat Yulaev and Ak Bars fans are probably hungry for an emotional and eventful “green” derby. The last three meetings of the bitter rivals in the KHL ended with the same score of 2:1. In all three cases, the hosts turned out to be stronger: the Kazan team won twice, and the last meeting, which took place at the end of January, was won by the Ufa club.
The teams approached the first derby of the new season, being at different poles of the Eastern Conference playoff zone: after five games, Ak Bars took second place almost without losses, losing only once on their ice to Sochi , but Salavat was last in the top eight. Viktor Kozlov’s team is still in full storm: Yulaev’s team alternates victories with defeats. However, on the eve of the initial confrontation, his defense was the most reliable: in four meetings, Ufa conceded only eight goals; “Avtomobilist” allowed them to score the same amount, but in five games, against their opponents.
Today Salavat faces the most powerful attack in the East. Before the start of the match, Ak Bars scored 18 goals, and this figure did not last long. Less than four minutes after the start, the visitors were able to open Alexander Samonov’s goal. Dmitry Yashkin gathered five Salavat players and gave them a penny, where the forgotten Dmitry Kagarlitsky had a lot of free time. The 34-year-old forward’s throw was not the most powerful, but the puck, colliding with Samonov’s helmet, fell like a parachute behind the goalkeeper’s back and flew towards the goal from its platform.
One of the co-scorers of the goal was Vadim Shipachev – this point was the 756th in the regular KHL championships. Thus, Vadim repeated Sergei Mozyakin’s goal record in the regular season.
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The Kazan team had a game advantage and soon doubled the point difference. Most of them failed to score, but in an even game everything went as it should: Stanislav Galiev hit Samonov with a strong shot from the slot, who, apparently, did not see how the puck flew out from under the visiting forward’s stick. .
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. You can see the video on the league’s official website.
A few minutes later, the hosts received the right to play with an extra player (even two): with an interval of half a minute, Yashkin and Semyonov went to the penalty area. The Yulaevites could not forgive this: Alexander Khmelevski found Vyacheslav Leshchenko with a pass near Timur Bilyalov’s goal and quickly sent the puck into the net.
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Towards the end of the period, the grade of the game increased: there were more collisions and roughness on the ice (in one of the episodes, Artyom Pimenov hit Kirill Petrov with a stick in the eye, for which he served five penalty minutes), but the danger to the goal decreased.
In the second period, shooting activity decreased significantly: the teams shot much less often and “licked” the goal frame several times. The spectators saw a goal in the second twenty minutes. To the delight of the Ufa fans, his favorite team scored: Leshchenko converted another power play, irresistibly firing into the far top corner from the left throw-in circle. And again with Chmielewski’s pass.
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. You can see the video on the league’s official website.
In the third period the balance could swing in any direction. The teams often locked themselves into their zones, but in the end the home team turned out to be more persistent. Or rather, Ivan Drozdov, who managed to create a small masterpiece six minutes before the end of regulation time.
Salavat’s pressure worked: the Ufa team covered Ak Bars in their goal, and the Belarusian forward demonstrated excellent individual skill, skillfully dealing with Dmitry Yudin and Timur Bilyalov in a small area of the ice and sending the puck into an almost goal. empty.
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. You can see the video on the league’s official website.
This goal decided the fate of the match: Ak Bars could never come back and Salavat achieved an impressive comeback. 3:2 – the first “green” derby of the season remains in the hands of the Ufa Club. The second is just around the corner: on September 24, the teams will meet in Kazan.
