Omsk "hawks" lost to the capital's CSKA

Yesterday Avangard failed to pass the exam for the leader of the KHL regular championship. CSKA Moscow decided the outcome of the match by the 29th minute, securing a comfortable lead of three goals, and retained the advantage.

The Hawks were looking forward to the match with the best club in the league. Due to the calendar break, Avangard coach Raimo Summanen had a whole week to prepare his team. “This is a great gift for us, simply magnificent!” the Finn did not hide his emotions. On the wave of general interest, for the first time in recent months, the chairman of the board of directors of Avangard, Alexander Dybal, arrived in Omsk. Support was also provided by the fans, who almost completely filled the stands.

In this match, the best player of the starting half of the season, Sergei Shirokov, took to the ice for the first time after injury. It’s worth reminding that number 21 of Avangard is a graduate of CSKA and probably wouldn’t mind reminding his former teammates about himself. Summanen, however, made an unexpected decision and did not team up the sniper with his usual partners - Vladimir Sobotka and Denis Parshin. Instead, Shirokov went to the top three with Alexander Popov and Sergei Kalinin. The coaching staff sent young Denis Kostin to the key goalkeeper position.

The Omsk team started the match quite cheerfully, but fatally failed in defense. In the seventh minute, CSKA forward Andreas Engqvist easily shot into the goal from mid-range, and towards the end of the starting period, the army team literally pushed the puck into the net through the efforts of Andrei Stas. Between these goals was an accurate shot from the young “hawk” Kirill Semenov, which, however, did not change the situation.

The key episode of the match occurred in the 27th minute. Siberian striker Igor Musatov out of the blue earned himself a suspension before the end of the match. However, the “hawks” did not give up. Soon, defender Nikita Pivtsakin, to the roar of the fans, dissatisfied with the fact that many episodes of the meeting, in the opinion of the stands, were interpreted by the referees not in favor of Avangard, reduced the advantage - 2:4.

In the third period, the Omsk team continued to attack; Denis Kulyash had the real chance to get closer to CSKA in the score, but the defender’s shot was caught by the post. The KHL flagship survived and again took three points from Omsk.

“The army team has confirmed its reputation, they have a good coach and a clear model of play. It’s good that Shirokov returned in this game. But we need to understand how to use its strengths. Together with Parshin, they try to have more possession of the puck, which is fraught with injuries,” Raimo Summanen said after the match.

The loss noticeably worsened the tournament position of the Hawks. They are gradually losing the competition to Novosibirsk Sibir in the fight for second place in the KHL Eastern Conference. The Omsk team has 93 points, they are two points behind and have already played one game more than their opponents.

Konstantin Antonov

They didn't take the army