Defending a championship title is not an easy task. Metalworkers Andrei Razin probably already understood this, having started the season with a home defeat in the opening match of the Cup against Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. Although, despite the absence of several team leaders, Magnitogorsk looked decent and almost pulled it back in the end: the Steelworkers were one goal short of sending the game into overtime.
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Lokomotiv took home the first trophy of the KHL season! And repeated a powerful club record.
Two days later, the South Urals had to pass another serious test: SKA St. Petersburg came to visit them and opened the new regular season with a match in Magnitogorsk. There were several debutants in the army team, including, of course, Evgeny Kuznetsov, who came to the first official match in the St. Petersburg shirt as captain. The experienced forward appeared in combination with Borna Rendulic and Ivan Demidov, whose appearance in the lineup was announced by Roman Rotenberg at the end of Puchkov’s tournament. Kazakh players Nikita Mikhailis and Valery Orekhov, who missed the match with Lokomotiv, returned to the Metallurg squad: the performance of the hosts today came a little closer to optimal.
The match started with pressure from SKA: Andrei Razin’s team, like two days ago, played second and mostly defended their possessions. So far everything went well, although Ilya Nabokov often had to enter the game. The characteristic shooting ability of the army team was also evident today: in the first 20 minutes, the St. Petersburg team scored 20 times. Once the MVP of the last Gagarin Cup was saved by a bar, he himself saved his team 19 times, but in one case he still failed to lift it.
The first goal of the match came at the end of SKA’s majority: three seconds before Makar Khabarov left the penalty area, Stepan Falkovsky hit Nabokov with a shot from the right-hand circle. Nabokov didn’t even have a chance to deflect the flying puck: Valentin Zykov, who was in front of him, completely blocked the young goalkeeper’s view.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
The assist was credited to Demidov, for whom it was the first effective action in the KHL. The 18-year-old super talent was one of the guests’ most outstanding players in the first 20 minutes: together with Kuznetsov and Rendulic, he could have scored at least one more goal, but Nabokov did not allow himself to be outplayed in the opening period.
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But Nikita Serebryakov, who was a bit bored in the first half, failed before the break: Metallurg managed a quick counterattack, which was successfully completed by Alexander Petunin. The 27-year-old striker quickly rushed into the attacking zone and accurately fired a shot from under Ivan Vydrenkov, restoring the balance in the score.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
If the first third seemed eventful, then the second can only be called crazy. It all started with SKA’s failure in defence: Robin Press found Mikhailis in the attacking zone with a pass from his own goal and rolled the puck to Igor Geraskin, who was nearby. Falkovsky and Serebryakov, who found themselves abandoned by their teammates, played the role of spectators in this episode: the attackers of the home team did everything quickly and clearly.
The army team had 17 seconds to recover. Starring Evgeny Kuznetsov. The newly appointed captain of the St. Petersburg team intercepted the puck in the opponent’s zone and reacted in time to the rebound after Borna Rendulic’s shot, hitting from an acute angle into the empty corner of the goal. The bonus for the first goal after returning to the KHL was followed by a “birdie” – Kuznetsov celebrated an accurate shot in his characteristic style.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
Between these two goals, the substitution of Artemy Pleshkov for Serebryakov went completely unnoticed: Geraskin almost personally put the best goalkeeper of the penultimate season on the bench. The world record holder for the number of shots reflected in one match did not remain “dry” for long: celebrating the first puck in a SKA shirt, Kuznetsov went to serve a minor penalty for tripping, and was brought back onto the ice early a minute later by Robin Press.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
A minute later, the red light behind the goal came on again: after Nikita Zaitsev’s shot, the puck strangely passed under Nabokov’s equipment and slowly crawled behind the tape. The guests managed to celebrate the goal, but prematurely: Andrei Razin accepted the call for goalkeeper intervention and won. The judges determined that Arseniy Gritsyuk illegally influenced the Magnitogorsk goalkeeper and disallowed the goal.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
However, SKA equalized quickly enough: the “guilty” Gritsyuk, together with Bardakov, supplied Rendulic, who, to correspond to the nickname Borya-gol attributed to him in the Northern capital, threw Nabokov’s “pancake”.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
But the teams did not stop there either: by the second break, Metallurg was already in the lead. The first goal in the KHL was scored by 19-year-old Andrei Kozlov: the forward broke free after a cross from Vladislav Eremenko and fired it right into the top right corner of Pleshkov’s goal.
The video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be viewed on the league’s official website.
Gritsyuk did not leave without the puck today: at the beginning of the third period, the forward broke into the attacking zone, gathered several opponents and made a pass in the direction of Bardakov. On the way to Zakhar, the puck hit Luke Johnson’s stick and bounced into the goal (4:4).
Surprisingly, the teams did not score a single goal until the end of regular time. And at the final siren we almost saw a fight between the captains: Kuznetsov did not take advantage of the opportunity to snatch victory from SKA and then confronted Yegor Yakovlev. But there was no fistfight. And after the throw-in, Bardakov could have scored, but from close range he hit the post. The result is extra time.
In overtime, everything was decided in half a minute: the St. Petersburg team played too hard at the opponent’s goal and missed the home team’s quick counterattack. The decisive shot was scored by Steelworkers’ newcomer Scott Wilson, who put an end to this crazy match and gave Metallurg its first two points of the new season.
