The Arkhangelsk team lost to the Khabarovsk team with the score of “football” 0:1
To be honest, after the disastrous game in Kemerovo, Khabarovsk fans were anxiously awaiting the upcoming game against the regular season leader. If at the start of the championship the victory in the Russian Cup against Yenisei and in the Super Cup against Dynamo Moscow put Russian hockey fans in an optimistic mood, two defeats made them doubt the invincibility of the current team. SKA-Neftyanik.
Moreover, the Khabarovsk team, in addition to Viktor Kamenev, who fell ill, instead of young Lev Shishkin and even younger Matvey Sokolnikov stood at the gate, also lost Alan Dzhusoev in Kemerovo, who , after a collision with the defender Kuzbass, suffered a concussion and was forced to go to the hospital for examinations.
However, already before the game in Murmansk it turned out that not everything was so scary – Alan, who continued to leave with the team, managed to recover and received the green light from the doctors to go on the ice, where he even scored a goal. Sokolnikov played as part of this game – it was his first full-fledged game in the Super League and he played it with dignity, conceding just two goals, which the army mentor really liked.
But “Murman” is not “Vodnik”. The Arkhangelsk team played 18 games in the regular season, managing not to lose a single game and confidently taking first place in the standings. The previous meeting with SKA-Neftyanik ended in a draw, now the northerners counted on victory, not without reason, but the plans, as always, turned out to be far from reality.
The weather in Arkhangelsk rather prevented the opponents from showing the hockey that was expected of them. Heavy snowfall, especially in the first forty-five minutes, the wind and the temperature made the ground slower, which helped to defend, but prevented us from attacking. In the first half, the match passed almost without deletions, but in the second, the hosts spent 45 minutes in the minority, the guests – 30 minutes.
It was necessary to score first and it was already in the 12th minute that Alan Dzhusoev did it by transforming the corner obtained by the team. It seemed that a whole cascade of beautiful goals awaited the public, since the teams had someone to do it, but it turned out that the ball scored by Alan turned out to be the only and, therefore, victorious in this game. .
Interestingly, the only goal scored made the game sharper, and the closer the final whistle, the more active and tough the teams were, but none of them managed to realize the chances created, which were still sufficient. The result – the victory of “SKA-Neftyanik” in the toughest opposition and the first defeat in the regular season of the once “invincible” “Vodnik”.
– I think for the public it was an interesting game in terms of tension. Until the last minute, we could save the game. But today it was. Difficult. We have several games on thick ice, which makes it very difficult to dribble the ball. Therefore, we play hockey which is unusual for us. We train the guys to play speed hockey, but now it’s not possible. The guys did what they were told, and they hung on. Maybe somewhere a little skill was not enough to score a goal in the decisive phase. But nothing, I think it’s invaluable experience we gained, said HC Vodnik head coach Ilyas Khandaev.
According to the coach of the Khabarovsk team, today’s match is due to the weather
– It was our last away game. Long time, we have been on the road for more than two weeks. And it was already clear that the guys had accumulated fatigue – psychological, mental. We understood that today, if we want to beat the opponent, we have to give everything and even more. Because there’s no other way here – it’s a great team coming top of the league and it shows that the team has great class. But we tried to score first, of course, because the weather conditions today…first half…It’s a horseback game only. Scored a corner, took the lead. The second half could already be played on the merits. We tried to play low. But here, if the first half we played with the wind, then the second we played against the wind, and of course that could not but affect at the end of the game that the pressure was on our gates much more than in the first half. But the guys persevered. They did it, and I’m very happy for them because it’s hard to call it hockey. Martial arts come to the fore, to win the fight on horseback. Whoever wins the most will be the winner. And, of course, standard strikes. At home we played a draw – 4:4. We conceded four corners to Vodnik, but today we scored one and that was enough, said HC SKA-Neftyanik head coach Mikhail Pashkin.
Now the army team from Khabarovsk is returning home, where on February 1 they will play with Ak Bars-Dynamo.
See also: Today it was important to move well: Mikhail Pashkin spoke about the tasks of the “SKA-Neftyanik” from Khabarovsk to Murmansk
