Russian ice hockey championship

The next victories in the Super League championship were won yesterday by the leader, Dynamo Moscow, as well as the most “star” teams of the championship, Omsk Avangard and Kazan Ak Bars. Taking into account the European Cup, Avangard wins the sixth match in a row.

Omsk already feel quite confident in the top eight, although recently they were only on the outskirts of it. CSKA, on the contrary, lost its place in the top eight after losing to Dynamo in the previous round, and therefore resisted desperately yesterday.

Avangard, playing the first match on home ice as the best team in Europe, opened the scoring in the third minute. The game had just begun when one of the most experienced army players, Andrei Nikolishin, broke the rules, and soon Jaromir Jagr and Maxim Sushinsky brought out Dmitry Zatonsky to throw. Jiri Trevai was unable to help his partners out.

CSKA equalized the score in the 8th minute, when they also had a player more (Alexander Perezhogin earned two minutes). The guests also played the odd man out in an exemplary manner: Oleg Kvasha shot into an empty goal. Nikolishin assisted him.

Throughout the rest of the first period and the beginning of the second, the army team dictated their terms to the eminent opponent, but in the 23rd minute Jiri Trvay blundered Andrei Kovalenko's shot. And he no longer had a quiet life. Having taken the lead, the hosts played relaxed. Even before the break, Alexey Zatonsky and Alexey Kalyuzhny missed real chances to score, and Perezhogin scored the third goal - immediately after CSKA survived, playing in the minority. And it is unlikely that any tension would have arisen in the match if Denis Kulyash had not been in the CSKA lineup. There is no defender in the entire Super League now who can so willingly, so powerfully and so successfully snap from the blue line at the opponent’s goal as he does. Last Thursday, Kulyash hit Dynamo goalkeeper Alexander Eremenko twice, and yesterday, after his powerful shot from the blue line, Norm Maracle could not resist - 2:3. After this, the initiative again passed to the guests. The army team launched their final assault after home defenseman Yuri Panov played dangerously high with his stick three minutes before the end of the third period. Three times they brought Kulyash to the shot, but all three times he “shot” wide. Once again Jan Geida missed from the spot. “Avangard”, although with difficulty, retained the winning score.

Ak Bars won an important victory, beating Metallurg in Magnitogorsk. The best match in the Russian Championship was played by Vincent Lecavalier. The Urals opened the scoring in the second minute, playing in the minority. For a long time after this, the guests sharpened the stone of the hosts' defense, and the last straw of their efforts was the Canadian's shot five seconds before the end of the second period. At the beginning of the third, Alexey Kovalev converted the majority, and in the 54th minute Lecavalier removed all questions regarding the outcome of the meeting - 1:3.

The leader, Dynamo, took three points at home from Neftekhimik, who have noticeably lost confidence in themselves lately. The main stars of the blue and white, Maxim Afinogenov and Pavel Datsyuk, scored a goal each.

Predictably, having defeated the outsider Molot-Prikamye on their ice, Khimik continued to fight for eighth place. He has already beaten CSKA. The Voskresensk team scored a goal each from the evergreen Valery Kamensky and Vyacheslav Kozlov. Khimik's main rival, Novokuznetsk Metallurg, became the author of the main sensation of the tour: in Togliatti, it got the better of Lada.

ALEXEY J-ZHUK

Avangard returned to win