Orsk's Yuzhny Ural defeats Rostov for second straight win
Orsk«s Yuzhny Ural hockey team secured a victory over Rostov with a final score of 3–2.
Orsk«s Yuzhny Ural won its second match after the VHL (Supreme Hockey League) season resumed. At the start of 2026, Vladislav Otmakhov»s team lost the opening game (despite promising to delight fans), then fell in overtime to Yugra, took a 1–6 beating from Tyumen«s Rubin, and lost to Zaurabye and Omskie Krylya (even on the club»s foundation day). But the first home-series match brought a win over Buran, and now—over Rostov. Here«s how it unfolded.
The opening period of the match concluded without any goals being scored by either side.
The first period passed without any statistically significant events—no goals or penalties, though the hosts came closer to scoring, aided by the home bench.
After forty minutes of play, the teams were deadlocked with a score of one goal each.
The second period changed everything: Rostov seized the initiative and repeatedly created scoring chances, but either the visitors missed the net or Yuzhny Ural goaltender Sergei Kudryavtsev made excellent saves.
The game ended in a 3–2 win for the Yuzhny Ural squad from Orsk.
But only until the 30:42 mark—a good pass from Egor Balanov in his own zone found Alexey Prokhorov lurking at the blue line, who closed in on the goalie and calmly slotted the puck home—1:0, the former Yuzhny Ural player (with 11 games for Orsk this season—1 goal, 3 assists) opened the scoring.
The flow of the game didn«t change, but the score was leveled: from passes by Ilya Zakharov and Semyon Rubtsov, defenseman Arseny Pozhidaev, who had just joined the team, scored his first goal for Yuzhny Ural in his very first match. The score after two periods—1:1, with no penalties.
In the third period, both teams had chances, but the hosts made better use of theirs. At 52:58, a long shot from Ilya Gatiatulin found the net—assisted by Ilya Zakharov and Alexander Putylov. For the son of Ak Bars«s head coach, this was also his first goal for Yuzhny Ural.
Fifty-five seconds later, YU led by two goals: Daniil Kulyash battled in front of the opponent«s net, and with passes from Konstantin Suslov and Danil Mylnikov, made it 3:1.
Rostov didn«t give up: at 57:57, the visitors narrowed the gap, again through Alexey Prokhorov, who was left completely alone at the far post after passes from Nikita Voronin and Timofey Barsukov.
Rostov«s coach pulled the goalie, but it brought no dividends for the guests—a 3:1 victory for Yuzhny Ural.
— I want to congratulate Orsk fans and our team on a hard-fought team win! We gave it our all, scored three good goals. The first period was even, in the second the opponent outplayed us completely, but it was good we ended it tied, and in the third we scored good goals and managed to secure the victory, — said YU head coach Vladislav Otmakhov.
He also noted the goal-scoring defensemen—Ilya Gatiatulin and Arseny Pozhidaev.
— We spoke with him [Gatiatulin—Ed.] after the last game, told him about his good, strong points that he should use. One of his strengths is a good shot. Yesterday at practice we worked with the defensemen, and today they scored two goals. They just shot into empty nets, without a goalie. They felt confident.
— The team«s newcomer scored too. Has he blended well into the group?
— Yes, he added energy for us, and performed well in movement and defense. But this is only the first game, God willing, he«ll continue to benefit the team, — Otmakhov concluded.
Later today, Yuzhny Ural concludes the home series with a match against Tambov.
