2024-02-28 01:52:42
With a match in the capital of Tatarstan, Lokomotiv opened the final trip of the regular season – 23/24. And it just so happened that our team was to play this game in the old legendary Kazan Sports Palace – Sports Saray. On this very ice, the “railroad workers” won the 2002 championship, and here they overthrew the lockout star Ak Bars in the playoffs of the 2004/05 lockout season. So I really didn’t want to spoil pleasant memories.
In addition, the home team approached the reporting match with a very weakened squad. For various reasons, goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov, defender Alexey Marchenko, and forwards Alexander Radulov, Dmitry Yashkin and Dmitry Kagarlitsky did not play for Ak Bars. But Igor Nikitin, on the contrary, finally has a full “clip.” So Ivan Chekhovich, Yaroslav Likhachev, Raul Akmaldinov, Ivan Bocharov were sent to the reserve. Mark Ulyev remained in Yaroslavl, who also trained with the main team for the last few days before leaving.
The start of the match was entirely up to our team. The Yaroslavl team opened the scoring already in the first minute, when Yegor Averin, who had recovered from injury, ambushed a lucky rebound on the spot – 0:1! It is curious that for the third game in a row, Lokomotiv scored its debut goal in the first three minutes of the game, and in the second match in a row – in the first minute.
In this same game, in the 4th minute the scoreboard already showed 2:0 in favor of the guests. And once more our nominally second line distinguished itself – now captain Sergei Andronov opened up in time in front of the opponent’s goal behind the Leopards’ defenders and managed to outplay Amir Miftakhov in a lightning-fast duel. It took a long time for Bilyaletdinov’s team to come to their senses, so that during the entire first half of the period there was actually one team on the ice – Lokomotiv.
And even the missed goal in the 16th minute did not affect the confidence of our guys. Yes, Koshelev was lucky with a rebound on the spot in front of the Yaroslavl team’s goal, and he was able to beat Daniil Isaev. But even before the break we responded with another goal. After a cool pass from Gernat, Berezkin made a killer throw from the throw-in circle and thereby converted one of Kazan’s two penalties in the first period – 1:3!
But what happened in the second period of this match is difficult to explain logically. But the teams seemed to switch places. Now Lokomotiv had to play on the defensive most of the time, while Ak Bars, on the contrary, created one chance following another. In total, the hosts created 9 acute situations at Isaev’s goal – 2-on-1 and 1-on-1 solutions poured out like a cornucopia. And, if it weren’t for the inspired play of our goalkeeper, no one knows how it would have ended.
Kazan still managed to score, but once more not without the help of a rebound. When the Ak Bars defender shot at the moment of the power play, the puck hit the stick of our defensive player Andrei Sergeev, and then flew directly onto the hook of Kirill Semenov, who sent it to the far corner – 2:3.
The final third of the main time of the reporting match can well be called a gladiatorial fight. After the break, Lokomotiv returned to the site much more collected. Realizing that the opponent would not give any more serious chances at his goal, Ak Bars began to play as harshly as possible, and in some episodes even rude and dirty. From the outside it seemed that the judges “blundered” several blows to the head and pushes with a stick. And in general, it can be stated that following the first period, Lokomotiv played in the power play only once, although the referees had more than enough reasons to use their power on the court.
But our guys responded to the opponent’s aggressive play, as expected, with a goal. In the 46th minute, Alexander Polunin famously robbed his opponent in the middle zone, dragged the puck over the opponent’s blue line and made a cool cross pass to partner Pavel Kraskovsky. TOT immediately threw into the far corner, and Miftakhov, who was clumsily moving around the goal, was powerless – 2:4!
In the end, Ak Bars tried to grasp at straws – they replaced the goalkeeper with a sixth field player, but the final assault never happened. “Lokomotiv” won in Kazan for the first time under the leadership of Igor Nikitin and at the same time guaranteed itself at least 3rd place in the Western Conference based on the results of the first part of the season.
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