Avangard Defeats Salavat Yulayev 5-2 in KHL Game

Salavat Yulayev lost at home to Avangard 2-5. The green team conceded three times in the first twenty minutes and were unable to recover. Colleagues from UFA1.RU report on the rough errors and discuss the match with forward Yegor Suchkov.

The game started cautiously and even meticulously. Avangard opened the scoring after a turnover — a mistake by Danil Alalykin

Yevgeny Kulik came under pressure behind the goal but managed to pass the puck to number 61. Alalykin essentially assisted the opponent in trying to develop a breakout from the defense. The guests quickly passed for a shot, Michael McLeod screened the view, and Vyacheslav Voynov scored.

Forty-seven seconds later — almost the same goal. This time, Artyom Gorshkov helped the opponent

Often, Gorshkov and Alalykin are the ones who draw penalties on themselves, meaning they create conditions for the opponent«s mistakes. It turned out the opposite, and in a short time. Usually, the next shift after a goal is played particularly strictly.

0-3 in the 15th minute from Igumnov, who hadn«t scored since 23 September: a lost face-off, a quick pass to the slot, and a follow-up

Suppose Dean Stewart and Sergei Varlov lost their positioning in the moment, but what did Devin Brosso, the only one who could have covered Ivan Igumnov, do in that shift? Initially, number 57 went for a zone exit hoping that his teammates would retrieve the puck and pass to him to develop a counterattack. Instead of finishing the play.

As a result, Guy Boucher«s team spent six minutes, two seconds, and eight shots on goal for three goals. Moreover, this isn»t a question of the Omsk team«s skill at all: all the conceded goals were very basic. So I cannot agree with head coach Viktor Kozlov»s statement that Avangard punished Salavat for mistakes with their skill.

What really stands out about Avangard — tenacity and pressure. Without the puck in the neutral zone, they operated in a 1-3-1 formation, from which it«s easy to crowd the blue line in front of the puck carrier, meaning if you don»t get through the neutral zone with a quick short pass, it«s hard to break through. Omsk won a lot of battles and developed many attacks from successful takeaways and interceptions.

The period cannot be called anything at all. Yegor Suchkov made a couple of useful takeaways, after one of which he passed from behind the goal line to the slot. Alalykin squeezed through for a one-on-one with the goalie. Jack Rodewald managed to set up Sheldon Rempal in a good position with a short pass.

There were two power plays (if you can call them that), the first of which — after a long-simmering but sluggishly developing five-on-five conflict. Although it didn«t even come to a scrum, the teams took a long time to go to the commercial break. A rare sight: players, ice cleaners, and ice girls all on the center ice simultaneously.

For the second game in a row, the Yulayev team started as wrongly as possible. In Tolyatti, the Ufa team won the first period against Lada 3-0, but then with the same score, they botched the opening twenty minutes against Avtomobilist and Avangard. And this despite how carefully they checked the rollout at the start, how cautiously they played.

Almost conceded while playing 5 on 4, but still converted the fourth consecutive power play

Rempal planned a pass to the far post. Maxim Lajoue read it but didn«t disrupt his compatriot»s plans — the puck bounced off him to Alexander Zharovsky. He coolly passed back to Rempal, and the Canadian shot into practically an empty net. Nikita Serebryakov thought Zharovsky would shoot, so he left the net open.

Sheldon extended his points streak to an amazing 13 games (7 + 17 over that stretch). If he gets on the scoresheet against Sochi, he will enter the top-13 in KHL history including playoffs.

Towards the end of the period, the game opened up, and what Viktor Kozlov calls “trading attack for attack” began. In my opinion, if we«re going down, let»s go down swinging. If the score is bad, you shouldn«t protect it; you can risk and throw everything into trying to get back into the game somehow.

At the start of the third period, Avangard scored again. Again after a turnover in the attack, again a shot and follow-up, again Igumnov

For full context: this wasn«t a power-play goal, but a goal right after a power play: Alexander Khokhlachev, back in the lineup, tripped an opponent in the offensive zone (Grigory Panin looked reproachfully at the fallen opponent).

Less than a minute and a half after 1-4, Salavat took a penalty: Yevgeny Kulik broke the rules in his second consecutive game, 6 penalty minutes over two games. During his penalty, there was a good counterattack from Suchkov and Alalykin.

In the 50th minute, Salavat Yulayev literally conducted their first prolonged positional attack of the match. But at the end, Rempal decided to wrap the puck around from his backhand behind the net (as he recently scored), this decision was read by the defense, and, albeit at the cost of an icing, the guests stopped the attacking surge.

Overall, Sheldon«s play left a mixed impression. He is still the team»s best forward, but in the first period, he allowed two turnovers on the power play: in one attempt, he inappropriately tried to deke in his own zone, and the opponent stole the puck, Zharovsky had to clean up; in another attempt, the Canadian made an inaccurate pass up ice.

Conceded the fifth goal after replacing the goalie with a sixth skater. Sharipzyanov scored a double, and in the last match, the defenseman had a hat trick

Suchkov drew a penalty, they played 6 on 5, and pulled one back from an empty net after losing a battle in the corner.

Damir Sharipzyanov has more points in two games than Artyom Pimenov has all season: 5 + 2 versus 1 + 5. Why, for example, does Denis Yan get into the rotation, but Pimenov doesn«t? I still don»t understand. At the press conference, Kozlov reminded that he is a center, but you could list Zharovsky as center, and in the third line, there are two centers (Khokhryakov and Alalykin).

In the 59th minute, Zharovsky developed an attack after Panin«s pickup in the neutral zone, Tsulygin hit the post, Khokhlachev successfully finished

“This was a sloppy match. With this approach, on 20 January, Avangard will also take revenge. The Yulayev team needs to perceive the fiasco in the Urals as an ice-cold shower and pull themselves together,” — that«s how the review of the game with Avtomobilist on 17 January ended.

It«s unknown what the reflection on the chaotic play in the Urals was, but obviously, with the »hawks,« they also botched the start and never got out of that quagmire. Of course, overall, these are very different games.

On Tuesday, there were more dangerous moments, and it can«t be said that the Ufa team didn»t perk up, but Omsk also knows how to defend, block, and hinder zone entry. The skill showed more here than during the goals, although that«s more a question of tactics.

Two heavy losses in a row — that«s enough to get a grip and start playing quality hockey from the first minutes again. And now they»re lucky with the schedule: three full days without games, then a game with an underdog, Sochi, and at the usual 7:00 p.m. Perhaps the lineup needs a shake-up.

Yegor Suchkov: “When we all want it and work together, the game is completely different”

The winger summed up the meeting with Avangard.

— We started poorly overall. You could tell by the score. I won«t say we outright slept through it, but it was like we were watching the opponent more, what he was doing. There was no control, it was hard to get through the neutral zone. Turnovers. Overall, the second, third [periods] — I think it was visible how much we wanted it. But it was already hard to change the course of the game. But I think that in those two periods — you can find some positive situations for yourself. At least the desire.

— You said that at first you were watching the opponent more. What do you mean?

— There was no puck control. They were doing something, we were watching them, but no takeaways, no pressure, no battling, so that«s how I generally took it.

— The fact that two games in a row 0-3 in the first period, why does that happen?

— It«s hard to say. Against Avtomobilist, we conceded short-handed at the start. Even though we scored the first one, it was disallowed. And today — they were simply better, no questions asked. It was hard afterwards.

— What did you decide to change?

— We were told to just work, forget about the score, just do what was said. There really wasn«t that spark, desire, we just needed to want it more and work.

— Personally, you had a pretty good match: counterattacked short-handed, played well in takeaways. What was missing to get to a goal?

— I wouldn«t say that, I also lost the puck a lot today. I just took risks somewhere, thinking that if those passes had connected, I think there would have been good attacks, but unfortunately, they didn»t, and we had to skate back 60 meters. Yes, there were some good moments, but unfortunately, we lost, and it«s hard to talk about myself. Those breakaways short-handed — they needed to be executed.

— How to properly react to this defeat?

— I think just at least start the next match better, because that«s at least a foundation. Just desire first of all. When we all want it and work together, the game is completely different. I think that in the second, third [periods], somewhere that spark flickered, but it was already difficult with such an opponent. And especially such a team — if you imagine that this is already in the playoffs, then, how we started, it»s probably 0-4. So we need to be ready from the very beginning.

— There were five wins in a row, then two quite painful losses. Such a sharp transition happened. Is there anything common between these two losses?

— The opponents are actually all tough. Even when we were winning five in a row. But starting a match 0-3… You understand. We probably need to emphasize the start of the match, try.

Three stars of the match according to UFA1.RU

Zharovsky: two assists.

Rempal: scored, six shots on goal (tied for game high with Sharipzyanov).

Suchkov: good counterattacks and takeaways.

Earlier we reported that Guy Bouche was dissatisfied with his team«s play against Salavat Yulayev.