Mikhail Kravets: “Vanguard also played well in the first period – the implementation failed”

On Friday, December 30, in the home match of the KHL championship, Omsk hockey players beat “Salavat Yulaev” 3:2 in shootouts. Avangard head coach Mikhail Kravets praised the meeting, noting that it was very important to survive at 0:2 in the minority.

Mentor at the post-match press conference thoroughly assessed all three periods. He also explained why the young striker Ivan Miroshnichenko did not play in the third period.

“I want to congratulate everyone on the upcoming New Year! It was nice that today there were so many people in the arena again. Of course, we wanted to present this gift for the New Year, victory. “We played well – the implementation let us down a bit, the goalkeeper at Salavat played great. The main moment was when the team stood in the minority with a score of 0: 2. The entire coaching staff said on the bench: “Guys, let’s start from this.” And they pressed, pressed, finally scored good goals, although there were still moments when it was possible to increase the lead over the opponent. Well done, the third period played confidently and with dignity. We resolved the issue of shootouts – this is also a skill, you also need to be able to score. I also want to express my gratitude to the team for all six games after the break. I think that the guys did what they said before these games, they did it. They were not satisfied with our position, and it made me very happy. They said: “We will move forward,” Kravets said.

As a result, he added, from game to game the team moved up the steps. The coach noted that he was glad to work with such great hockey players as in Avangard.

“Mikhailov’s wonderful pass today became the key to a comeback. Do you think it’s better for Nikita to play on the edge than in the center?” The journalists asked.

“It seems to me that he shows himself better on the edge, so of course, on the edge. I like it better on the edge,” Kravets explained.

When asked whether he specifically changed anything in the team’s game before the second period, the head coach replied:

“The second period is a far bench, so we play in a completely different way. We tried to play more in the opponent’s zone, tried to drag less to ourselves, tried to transfer from defense to attack faster. There were good, fast shifts. It turned out to be a very high-quality second period: two exits 1 to 0 for Bush, there were a lot of moments.”

The situation, when forward Ivan Miroshnichenko did not go on the ice in the third period, Kravets explained as follows: as in the previous meeting, the coaches released him and Nikita Mikhailov in two shifts. As a result, the key moment was successful when Nikita took the puck away from the opponent and then it led to a goal. According to the game, the coaching staff and personally the main “helmsman” thought that at this moment it was necessary to give him a chance to play until the end of the meeting. “I think we did the right thing, and Vanya will still get his playing time,” said the mentor.

Also, the coach did not agree with the assessment of the press that in recent matches, forward Corban Knight did not play very well. On the contrary, in his opinion, the last two matches he played with his link and acted great.

Earlier we also wrote about assessment of the club’s transfer work during this season from the hawks’ general manager Rashid Khabibullin.