Salavat Yulaev beat Ak Bars in away green derby in Davos

UFA, 24 December 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

Last night, HC Salavat Yulaev held a match as part of the KHL World Games project. The team of Nikolai Tsulygin met with Kazan Ak Bars in Davos. According to the press service of the Bashkir club, this “Green Derby” was the fourth in a row in the current regular KHL championship.

After the last game, the coaching staff of the Salavat Yulaev team made several changes to the composition. From the first minutes, Andrey Kareev appeared at the gate again, Vladimir Sokhatsky was a reserve goalkeeper instead of Juha Metsola. At the same time, Shakir Muhamadullin, Maxim Mayorov, and Vyacheslav Solodukhin replaced defender Grigory Panin, strikers Rodion Amirov and Artem Pimenov, respectively.

At the beginning of the starting period, the opponent actually used its first chance, having distinguished themselves after the transition offense. The Salavat Yulaev players failed to capitalize on the power play but managed to score in equal compositions twice in a row with an interval of 64 seconds - 2: 1. After this, the initiative passed to the nominal guests, and in one of the episodes, our team remained shorthanded, which was used by Ak Bars. There were no more goals, the teams left for a break with the score 2: 2.

The beginning of the second twenty minutes was not very successful for our hockey players who missed already in the 9th second of the period. Only in the middle of the game segment, the players of Nikolai Tsulygin managed to gain a power play twice in a row. Salavat Yulaev capitalized on the second advantage: Omark from the flank subtly threw the puck to Gimatov, who whipped a one-timer and drilled it top shelf to make it 3: 3. After that, the playing advantage passed again to the opponent’s side, but the teams left for the break with an equal score.

The third game segment began with the attack of Salavat Yulaev, which ended with a penalty of guests. However, the teams failed to score before the end of regular time, and at the very beginning of overtime, Hartikainen, Omark and Larsen played a gorgeous combination. 4: 3 - Salavat Yulaev won a comeback victory.