Slow start for Salavat in Ufa, Kazakhstan thumps Barys in Astana

Thursday saw the 24th edition of the Republic of Bashkortostan Cup get underway in Ufa. Host club Salavat Yulaev suffered a 0-1 loss to Severstal on the first evening. In Astana, Lada kept up its high-scoring form in the President of Kazakhstan Cup before Team Kazakhstan enjoyed a convincing win over Barys. Earlier in the day, Traktor beat Chelmet in its first pre-season game while Vityaz got its first summer win at the expense of Metallurg.Republic of Bashkortostan CupAvtomobilist Yekaterinburg 1 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 4 (1-1, 0-2, 0-1)Netekhimik made a successful start to the tournament with a good win over Avtomobilist, but their victory was marred by an injury to debutant defenseman Luka Profaca. He took a knock in the opening frame.For Avto, who handed debuts to Brendan Leipsic and Nick Merkley on a new-look top line, a bright start soon faded. After surviving an earlier penalty shot – Vyacheslav Leshchenko unable to beat Vladislav Okoryak – the Motormen got ahead with Vladimir Kuznetsov struck on the power play. However, a goal late in the first from Yegor Korbit tied it up going into the intermission.After that, Neftekhimik had the better of things. Leshchenko found the net 46 seconds after the restart, and it wasn’t long before highly-rated young forward Nikita Khoruzhev doubled the lead. Avtomobilist had one good chance to reduce the arrears, but the puck would not fall kindly for Leipsic on the counter. When Vladimir Bryukvin added a fourth for the Wolves in the final stanza, the game was already done.Salavat Yulaev Ufa 0 Severstal Cherepovets 1 (0-1, 0-0, 0-0)Severstal goalie Alexander Samoilov had 29 saves to frustrate Salavat Yulaev at the start of its home tournament in Ufa. Although the host club had more of the play, the Steelmen pulled off something of a smash-and-grab raid to take the win in its first pre-season game of the summer.Thursday’s action was a first chance for Salavat fans to get a look at new imports Sheldon Rempal and Nathan Todd. They were joined by Josh Leivo and Alex Chmelevski, both back in Ufa for another season. However, none of that firepower could trouble a resolute Severstal defense, which included another import debutant in Yanni Kaldis, late of Dinamo Minsk.At the other end, Severstal created opportunities of its own. Crucially, it was able to convert one of them. Midway through the first period Alexei Kruchinin potted the game’s first and only goal to give his team the verdict.The action continues tomorrow with Metallurg entering the fray against Avtomobilist before Salavat Yulaev looks to bounce back against Neftekhimik.President of Kazakhstan CupAmur Khabarovsk 3 Lada Togliatti 5 (2-2, 1-1, 0-2)Day two of the tournament in Astana saw Lada among the goals again. In Wednesday’s opener, Oleg Bratash’s team scored seven on Team Kazakhstan; today it added five more to defeat Amur.Thursday’s opening game was another high scoring affair, but much more competitive than yesterday’s blow-out. The Tigers took the lead after five minutes through Ilya Talaluyev off an assist from Ignat Korotkikh. However, Korotkikh’s foul midway through te opening frame enabled Lada to tie it up on a power play goal from Troy Josephs.In the 19th minute, the teams traded quick goals. Amur regained its lead thanks to Yefim Gurkin’s slapshot, but it took just 32 seconds for Dmitry Kugryshev to cancel that one out.In the middle frame, it was Amur’s turn to come from behind. Two penalties left the Tigers playing three against five and Ziyat Paigin profited to put Lada up for the first time in the game. Arnaud Durandeau, who looks to be settling in well after joining Amur in the summer, missed a good chance to tie it up on a breakaway, but soon made amends when he rounded off an odd-man rush to make it 3-3 at the second break.The final stanza saw Lada pull away. Josephs got his second of the game to make it 4-3 and as Amur tired in the closing stages, Maxim Berezin added an empty net goal.Barys Astana  0 Team Kazakhstan 5 (0-1, 0-2, 0-2)After a heavy loss in its tournament opener against Lada, Team Kazakhstan bounced back in some style to hand a big loss to Barys. As a result, Lada stands clear at the top of the tournament table, with the two “host” teams level after winning and losing a game apiece.These rosters know each other well: many of Kazakhstan’s players have experience of KHL hockey with Barys. That familiarity seemed to help the national team, which took an early lead and never relinquished it. Eduard Mikhailov’s seventh-minute marker was the only goal of the first period, but things got better for Kazakhstan after the intermission.Kirill Panyukov added a second goal right after the restart, then a power play effort from Alikhan Asetov late in the frame opened a commanding 3-0 lead. Barys never looked likely to find a fightback. Instead, Ruslan Ospanov added a fourth before veteran Roman Starchenko, the grand old man of Kazakh hockey, potted his second goal in two days to complete a 5-0 win.The result will be a big boost for the national team as it prepares for its Olympic qualification tournament at the end of the month. Barys, meanwhile, has cause for concern: just two goals in two games and a heavy loss add up to plenty of work ahead for incoming head coach David Nemirovsky and his team. Friday is a rest day before the group stage concludes Saturday with Kazakhstan facing Amur and current leader Lada taking on Barys. On Sunday, the top two will play for gold and the outsiders will face off for third place.Warm-up gamesTraktor Chelyabinsk 4 Chelmet Chelyabinsk 1 (2-1, 2-0, 0-0)Benoit Groulx took charge of Traktor for the first time since he was appointed head coach, and goals from two import signings led the way to victory over Chelyabinsk’s farm club.Groulx wasted no time in getting a look at his key players in a game situation: his roster included goalie Zach Fucale, while Maxim Shabanov, Vladimir Tkachyov and Dylan Sikora formed the first line. New defensive recruit Steven Kampfer went straight into the team as well, along with center Andrei Svetlakov, another summer acquisition.Meanwhile, Nikita Tertyshny was moved to the Chelmet team for today’s game, and he won the first power play of the game for his team. That didn’t produce a goal, however, and it was Semyon Der-Arguchintsev who opened the scoring for Traktor in the 14th minute. The lead lasted just 21 seconds before a successful Chelmet power play tied it up.Late in the first period a Mikhail Kotlyarevsky goal restored Traktor’s lead. Then, in the second period, the new faces announced their arrival. Kempfer led the way, scoring Traktor’s third goal and assisting as Sikura made it 4-1. Svetlakov also had a helper on his debut. Vitaly Kravtsov also had two assists as Traktor won this one comfortably.Metallurg Magnitogorsk 4 Vityaz Moscow Region 6 (0-2, 3-1, 1-3)Minsk remains the epicenter for KHL pre-season work, with almost a third of our teams coming to Belarus for part of their preparations. On Thursday, Metallurg played its first game since winning the Gagarin Cup and head coach Andrei Razin used an experimental line-up against Vityaz. His first line featured two new faces, Danil Bashkirov and Mikhail Shalagin alongside center Mikhail Grass. Vladislav Yeryomenko was captain for the day. For Vityaz, Pavel Desyatkov took charge of his second game of the summer. He went with an almost full-strength roster.In its first game, Vityaz began well against Admiral. That happened again here, with Nicholas Baptiste scoring twice in the first 10 minutes. His first came on the power play as part of an import-heavy special team. Early in the second period, Andrei Chivilyov, on loan from SKA, extended the Vityaz lead.However, just as in game one, Desyatkov’s team let a three-goal advantage slip away. Magnitka hit back with two goals from Nikolai Mayorov, a new signing from VHL club Tambov. Late in the middle frame, a quickly-converted power play saw Metallurg tie the game.In the previous game against Admiral, Vityaz never recovered from losing the lead. Today was different. At the start of the third, Yegor Morozov restored the advantage. Mayorov responded with his hat-trick goal to tie it up at 4-4, but Metallurg could not finish the job. Instead, Chivilyov potted the game winner for Vityaz before Ivan Vorobyov’s breakaway goal sealed the deal.