KHL - August Friendlies

KHL Friendlies

August

Saturday 01
* Amur Khabarovsk played host to Japan’s national team for the second day running and celebrated a second victory. The visitors’ defensemen were not as generous as in Friday’s encounter, when the fans were treated to a 5-1 triumph by the home side, but Daniil Stalnov scored twice and Vyacheslav Litovchenko added another to give Amur a 3-0 win.

* There was another rematch of a Friday fixture in the Russian capital, with CSKA hoping for a repeat of the previous night’s 5-1 demolition of HC Sochi. The Army Men once again emerged victorious, but spirited resistance from Sochi forced the Muscovites to settle for a modest 2-1 win. Semyon Koshelev and Jan Mursak scored for the home side with Andre Petersson replying for the visitors. 

* In the Czech Republic, Avtomobilist of Yekaterinburg recorded the day’s most convincing victory, inflicting a 5-0 defeat on their hosts, HC Plzen. Alexander Pankov recorded a double, and there was a goal each from Alexei Dostoynov, Igor Velichkin and Anatoly Golyshev.

Monday 03
* Seven KHL teams featured in four friendly games in four different nations on Monday, giving fans in Russia, Latvia, Finland and the Czech Republic a taste of what to expect in the forthcoming season.

* Amur played their third game in a series of friendlies at home to the Japanese national side, and recorded their third victory. Two goals from Ruslan Bashkirov and one from Mikhail Zheleznov gave the Khabarovsk men a 3-1 win. 

* Dinamo Riga hosted a friendly with Vityaz Moscow Region in the Latvian capital. The Riga men won 2-0, thanks to a goal apiece from Felix Schutz and US forward Tim Sestito. 

* SKA Saint Petersburg and Severstal Cherepovets played out a closely-fought affair in Pajulahti, Finland. The Gagarin Cup holder twice took the lead, first through Evgeny Dadonov and then Dinar Khafizullin, but the Steel City men hit back with strikes from Pavel Buchnevich and Vadim Berdnikov. It needed a shootout to determine the winner, and Anton Burdasov’s clinical finish clinched a 3-2 victory for the Petersburg side. 

* Fans in Liberec, Czech Republic, were also treated to an all-KHL clash, Metallurg Novokuznetsk versus Ugra, and as in Finland, this encounter had to be settled by a shootout. At one stage, the Khanty-Mansiysk men were 2-0 ahead, thanks to Igor Volkov and Artyom Bulyansky, but then a double strike from Robert Kousal and a goal by Victor Postnikov seemed to have given Metallurg a stunning comeback victory. A further twist to the plot came in the final minute, when Konstantin Panov leveled to take the game to a shootout. In the post-game duel, however, fortune favored the “blacksmiths,” and Kirill Kaprizov put away the decisive shot to seal a thrilling 4-3 win.

Tuesday 04
* In Bratislava, Slovan hosted HC Kometa from Brno, just across the Czech border, and the two near-neighbors produced a pulsating clash which the KHL team eventually won via a shootout. Regulation time finished with the scoreboard showing 4-4, after Vaclav Nedorost, Tomas Starosta, Andrej Stastny and Ladislav Nagy had scored for the Slovaks, and then Ziga Jeglic won the decisive duel in the shootout to give Milos Riha’s team its fourth win in four preseason friendlies.

* Jokerit of Helsinki began their preseason campaign by inflicting a brutal 6-1 defeat on Sibir. Philip Larsen opened the account for Erkka Westerlund’s team as early as the first minute, and Oskari Korpikari, Petteri Wirtanen, Pekka Jormakka, Juhamatti Aaltonen and Canadian forward Brandon Kozun added a goal each. Vitaly Menshikov struck the sole reply from Andrei Skabelka’s Siberians, whose preseason record now stands at one win in three games.

Wednesday 05
* In Switzerland, CSKA Moscow emerged victorious from a thrilling encounter against Davos, with the Army Men eventually clinching a 5-4 win via a shootout. Bogdan Kiselevich, Nikita Zaitsev, Alexander Radulov and Roman Lyubimov scored for Dmitry Kvartalnov’s boys in regulation, while Lyubimov and Dmitry Kugryshev were on target in the post-game duels with the Davos goalie.

* In the Czech Republic, HC Benatky nad Jizerou welcomed Ugra Khanty-Mansiysk for a friendly. The game ended in a comfortable 4-1 win for Pavel Yezovskikh’s team, thanks to goals from Igor Volkov, Igor Bortnikov, Nikita Gusev and Alexander Ugolnikov.

Thursday 06
* Six KHL teams featured in four friendly games on Thursday, in locations as diverse as Russia, Finland and Slovakia, and all four games turned out to be closely fought affairs.

* Vityaz welcomed Novokuznetsk Metallurg to a friendly in Podolsk, Moscow Region, and edged a close contest to record a 3-2 win. Roman Horak, Teemu Eronen and Igor Musatov scored for the home team with US forward Ryan Stoa and Alexander Komaristy replying for the visitors. 

* Fans in Helsinki certainly received value for money as Jokerit and SKA served up an eight-goal thriller, although the result, a 5-3 triumph for the guests, may have slightly dented the Finns’ patriotic pride. Anton Burdasov and Joakim Lindstrom, with a double each, and Finnish forward Jarno Koskiranta were on target for the Gagarin Cup holders, while for the hosts Pekka Jormakka, Philip Larsen and Jere Sallinen punished the Petersburg defense. 

* Sibir have also set up camp in Finland, and Andrei Skabelka’s men were given a very stern test in Turku against the local team, TuTo. Maxim Shalunov hit a double and Sergei Shumakov added another in regulation time but the Finns matched them goal for goal, and it needed a cool finish from Vladimir Rot in the shootout to give the Novosibirsk men a 4-3 victory. 

* Slovan’s game in Bratislava against Zlin of the Czech Republic also needed a shootout to determine the winner. Twice Vaclav Nedorost gave the Slovaks the lead but both times the Czechs bounced back to level the score. Slovan’s Marek Viedensky came to the rescue in the post-match duels against the goalies, and his successful shot sealed a 3-2 win for Milos Riha’s men.

Friday 07
* In addition to tournaments on Russian ice, there were four preseason friendlies on Friday at various venues in Russia, Slovakia and Finland, and five KHL clubs were in action.

* Severstal Cherepovets is one of several teams to choose Finland for a preseason training camp, and is currently taking part in a tournament alongside three clubs from the host nation. The men from the City of Steel began in emphatic mood yesterday, inflicting a 4-0 defeat on Finnish Elite League side Jyvaskyla, thanks to goals from Pavel Buchnevich, Dmitry Kagarlitsky, Pavel Dedunov and Mattias Karlsson. To win the tournament, Vaclav Sykora’s men must now overcome SaiPa, who coasted to a 6-0 victory against second-tier outfit KooKoo in the other semi-final. 

* Sibir has also set up camp in Finland, and yesterday the Novosibirsk men encountered fierce resistance in their friendly against Ilves of Tampere. At one stage the KHL side trailed 0-2, but Damir Zhafyarov, Calle Ridderwall and Dmitry Monya struck to give Andrei Skabelka’s team a battling 3-2 win. The Siberians’ preseason stint in Finland ends on Monday with a game against Jokerit of Helsinki, and the contest was broadcast live online via the website fanseat.com. 

* The men of Medvescak are in Slovakia for two games against local opposition. The first game was, against Banska Bystrica, and the Zagreb club proved far too strong for the Slovaks. The result was a 7-2 thrashing, and coach Gordie Dwyer was no doubt pleased by the ruthless finishing from his foreign legion of forwards. Czech sniper Radek Smolenak scored a hat-trick, and there was a goal apiece for Italy’s Stefano Giliati, Croatia’s Nathan Perkovich, Dwyer’s fellow Canadian Gilbert Brule and Sweden’s Andreas Jamtin. Today Medvescak face more formidable opposition, Slovan in Bratislava. 

* Vityaz and Novokuznetsk Metallurg met for the second successive day in Podolsk, Moscow Region, and again it was a home win for Oleg Orekhovsky’s team. The final score was 4-1, with a double from Dmitry Kostromitin and one each from Teemu Eronen and Anton Krysanov. The sole reply from Nikolai Solovyov’s men came from Kirill Kaprizov.

Saturday 08
* Severstal of Cherepovets featured in a spectacular final to the Go Saimaa tournament in Finland against SaiPa of Lappeenranta. The fans in the lakeside city of Imatra were treated to 12 goals in a game with enough twists and turns to make a seasoned sailor feel seasick. A relatively quiet first period ended with the Steel City men enjoying a 2-0 lead, but the Finns hit back in ferocious fashion in the middle stanza to take a 5-3 advantage into the final third. Vaclav Sykora’s men showed commendable fighting spirit to claw their way back to parity by the 46th minute, but then allowed two late goals to give SaiPa a stunning 7-5 victory. Evgeny Mons, Eduard Gimatov, Pavel Dedunov, Pavel Buchnevich and Denis Dyuryagin were the men on target for Severstal.

* Meanwhile, in Bratislava, Milos Riha’s Slovan hosted Gordie Dwyer’s Medvescak, and it was the Croatians, buoyant from Friday’s 7-2 triumph over another Slovakian club, Banska Bystrica, who celebrated a second straight victory. Czech forward Tomas Mertl opened the scoring for the Zagreb boys and then set up his compatriot, Radek Smolenak, to score the second. A goal four minutes from the end from Canadian defenseman Cam Barker sparked the home fans’ hopes of a turnaround, but with just over a minute remaining Smolenak struck again to clinch an impressive 3-1 win for the visitors.

Sunday 09
* CSKA was in action in Switzerland against Davos, whom the Army Men had beaten 5-4 via a shootout in a tense encounter last Wednesday. The re-match was a much more one-sided affair, with the Army Men securing a 6-2 win. Jan Mursak, Gennady Stolyarov, Grigory Panin, Vadim Khlopotov, Dmitry Kugryshev and Maxim Mamin hit the target for the Muscovites.

* Vityaz Moscow Region hosted a game against THK of Tver. The result was a 3-1 victory for Oleg Orekhovsky’s team, thanks to a double from Yury Koksharov and a goal from Maxim Afinogenov. 

Monday 10
* Jokerit of Helsinki enjoyed a second home victory over Sibir in the space of six days. The Novosibirsk men were attempting to avenge last week’s crushing 6-1 loss, and this encounter turned out to be a much closer contest. Dmitry Monya and David Ullstrom hit the target for Andrei Skabelka’s men, but two goals from Jere Sallinen and one each from Tommi Huhtala and Canada’s Brandon Kozun gave the Finns a 4-2 win on home ice.

* Also in Finland, SKA Saint Petersburg finished their preseason training camp by suffering a surprise 4-5 defeat at the hands of Espoo. A double from Ilya Kovalchuk and a goal apiece for Alexander Barabanov and Evgeny Artyukhin no doubt brought some brief cheer to Andrei Nazarov while he pondered possible defensive frailties. 

* CSKA were the guests of Fribourg-Gottéron in Switzerland. Goals from Grigory Panin, Artyom Blazhiyevsky and Nikita Kvartalnov gave the Moscow Army men a 3-1 triumph.

Tuesday 11
* Three KHL teams were in action at three different venues in the Czech Republic.

* Torpedo were in Trinec to take part in with the Steel Cup tournament, and Peteris Skudra’s men got off to a winning start with a 4-2 victory over the host city’s team, HC Ocelari. Swedish forward Carl Klingberg inflicted half the damage, hitting a double, with Alexei Pepelyayev and Vyacheslav Kulyomin scoring the other two. The next test for the Nizhny Novgorod men comes on Thursday against another Czech side, HC Vitkovice.     

* Slovan made the short trip over the border for a game against Brno, exactly one week after enjoying a thrilling 5-4 shootout win over the “Comets” in Bratislava. In this encounter the only echo of that triumph was another goal by Tomas Starosta, the sole bright spot in a stinging 1-5 loss. Milos Riha’s men certainly contributed to their own downfall. They were a man down on three occasions and twice found themselves trying to kill a 5-on-3 penalty. 

* Amur fared little better in Litvínov against the local side, HC Verva. The Khabarovsk men played in assured fashion for most of the game and led 2-0 by the second interval, thanks to goals from two of their Czech legion, Michel Miklik and Tomas Zohorna, but a final-period collapse saw them lose 2-4 and left coach Sergei Shepelev with plenty to think about.

Wednesday 12
* Salavat Yulaev staged a friendly at home in Ufa against their SHL affiliate, Toros of Neftekamsk, and were unexpectedly upstaged. Despite a double from Denis Bodrov and a goal from Anton Lazarev, the visitors hit back to seal a thrilling 4-3 win.

* Alexei Kudashov’s Lokomotiv welcomed Vaclav Sykora’s Severstal to Yaroslavl for a preseason warm-up, and this encounter also ended in defeat for the home side. Goals from Sergei Monakhov and Evgeny Kovyrshin gave the men from Cherepovets a 2-0 victory.