After a disastrous second period, the Khabarovsk team was able to show themselves as real “tigers” and win 3:2
I have already written that for the head coach of Avangard, matches in Khabarovsk are of fundamental importance. Why, he has already somehow explained to Omsk, while still acting as a mentor for “hawks”.
And then Avangard arrives on the banks of the Amur and in the Platinum Arena, in a very advantageous situation, suffers the first defeat of the Amur season. It was clear that in the second game, Omsk will do everything to get revenge. In Amur, the situation is such that if the team still wants to enter the playoff zone, they cannot lose points in any way.
Despite this, the first period was not remembered for anything special. Guests more often took the initiative and threw more at goal, but this did not bring results. Janis Kalnins played very well at the gate, the defenders, in turn, helped the goalkeeper by blocking shots. In general, both teams looked good, as they say – there were no signs of trouble.
And it happened in the second half. Avangard managed to extend into the Amur area Ivan Miroshnichenko received an excellent pass from Fedor Malykhin and managed to break through the goalkeeper of the Khabarovsk team with a long-range shot. It happened in the 30th minute of the match, and four minutes later Alexander Dergachev doubled the advantage with a shot from the blue line. All attempts by the hosts to recover have failed. The teams went into the break with a clear advantage over the guests. In Omsk, we were already celebrating the victory, but there were still twenty minutes left in the game.
It’s unclear what Vadim Yepanchintsev said to the team in the locker room, but in the third period Amur increased dramatically in both aggression and movement. And it paid off. At 42 minutes, Yakov Rylov rolls towards Avangard’s goal, launches after a break and puts his team back in the game. And in the 46th minute, Alexander Sharov “anchors” the flying puck as part of the Omsk team. There’s a video review – there’s a hint of high-stickiness, but in the end the goal is numbered.
“Amur” recovers with 0:2, but does not lose the initiative. In the 55th minute, Stanislav Bocharov, having swept the goal, found some kind of gap in the completely blocked Oleksiy Melnychuk and pushed the “tigers” forward. As they joked about such instances in the stands, the Tigers fought like lions and managed to keep the winning scoreline to themselves. The result of the match is 3:2 in favor of the Khabarovsk team and another portion of unpleasant emotions for the coach of Omsk. Amur is returning to the playoff zone, but no one knows for how long.
- A shameful defeat, because in the first two periods they played pretty well, did the job and thanks to this good work, skating scored two goals. But unfortunately, in the third period, immediately after the first shift, there was a kind of panic. Lost the two goals we scored, “Amur” equalized. We had the puck, we just had to get the puck out of the zone, and we gave it to the opponent and, of course, the opponent took advantage of those errors. We will work on the bugs. We have a short break – we are going to rest and we have a lot of home games ahead of us, – stressed Mikhail Kravets, head coach of the Avangard hockey club.
According to Love’s mentor, the Khabarovsk team managed to win thanks to the necessary emotions, which they managed to bring out during the break and which added aggression to the team.
- After two periods, it is probably difficult to say something. Inexpressive game on our part and especially in the second period. I’m happy that we found this team spirit to transmit to the guys, I think the guys themselves understand everything perfectly and I’m happy that they added in the third period the most important in aggression, in movement. Well, the score speaks for itself in the third period to win three-zero and win in regulation time. We had those emotions that allowed us to win today, – said Vadim Yepanchintsev, head coach of HC Amur.
This is the last game of “Cupid” in the first series at home in February. Tomorrow the team leaves for a very difficult trip along the road: Yaroslavl, Kazan, Cherepovets. The opponents are very difficult with whom it is very easy to lose points. So let’s wish the “Tigers” good luck and don’t lose the spirit they have shown in recent games.
With whom and when will Amur Khabarovsk play in February 2023
