The long-awaited, third, in a row: Khabarovsk “Amur” beat “Lada” cleanly

This away series is a match in Novosibirsk, two in Astana and one more game in Togliatti – it promised to be very difficult for Amur. This is the situation. Nevertheless, the Khabarovsk team carried it out by five, or rather by seven points, scoring seven points out of a possible eight. Was lost the meeting with Siberiawhich, they say, was promised mountains of gold for its victory, but it was lost in extra time, after a shootout, in which, frankly, “Amur” plays far from brilliantly.

Then there were two battles in Astana, with Barys struggling to get rid of the dubious honor of finishing the regular season in last place in the East conference. It was not easy, but the “tigers” managed, generously sharing points with the hosts in the first matchand second winning dry. Now it’s time for the final game of the tour – in Tolyatti, where Lada is entrenched – the seventh place in the conference.

The gap between the Tolyatti team and their pursuers is quite comfortable – 11 points, but God protects the best, so the Lada Arena owners were not going to surrender to Amur without a fight. Additional motivation lies in the confrontation with Traktor – the teams are neck-and-neck with an equal number of points and the Tolyatti team always has the opportunity to improve their tournament position in order to enter the playoffs from a more advantageous position.

As for the Khabarovsk team, three games that crossed the sixty-minute mark clearly did not add strength to them. It could be assumed that Andrey Martemyanov’s team will try to play defensively, trying to catch the opponent’s mistakes. In the first period, the Khabarovsk team refuted this assumption, but the local Lada, which had previously lost three matches in a row, chose not to reveal itself much. The teams had chances, but their execution let us down, but the fault for this was not the attackers who did everything to score, but the goalkeepers who did not allow them to do so.

In the second period, the hosts were more active, trying to gain a foothold in the Amur zone, and here Igor Bobkov had to work. Now the Khabarovsk team defended and counterattacked. True, there was a moment when Brody could have opened the scoring in the first minute of the period, but the Lada goalkeeper played above all praise and kept his team in the game. Then it was time for the Amur goalkeeper to save the Tigers. And Igor did an excellent job with this. In general, in this game everything depended on the goalkeepers; miss one of them and his team will most likely collapse. But so far both have held the blow.

The third period began with the score 0:0 and ended the same way. In the last minutes, “Lada” tried to storm the Khabarovsk team’s goal, they even played on the power play, but they were unable to break through “Iron Igor”. The match went into overtime. Here the trick that worked in Astana, with an artificial increase in striking power by exchanging a goalkeeper for a field player, did not work. Moreover, Bobkov was not in the goal, and the puck stubbornly refused to go on target, even empty. After five minutes of overtime, the scoreboard was zero again. And what always makes Amur fans nervous is the shootout.

An unexpected move by the Amur coaching staff was the appearance of Dmitry Lozebnikov in goal. Having plowed the whole match and a little more, Igor went to write down the second cracker in a row in his notebook, and his partner prepared to fight tooth and nail and did an excellent job. Probably, someone adjusted the aim of the Amur attackers – the first shootout from Stanislav Bocharov and immediately a goal. Alex Broadhurst scored the second, winning goal against Vladislav Podyapolsky. Dmitry Lozebnikov also has a “zero” in the “missed” column. Result of the match: 0:1 in favor of the Khabarovsk team.

“As our press service wrote: “Everyone did well today!” This is true. But not only today. A very difficult trip, very intense matches with overtime, shootouts, wild nervous tension. After an unnecessary loss in Novosibirsk, the team rallied and produced a 100% record in the next three matches. Special words of gratitude to Igor Bobkov. As the main character in “Rocky” said: “It doesn’t matter how you hit, it’s how you take the blow.” Igor proved that he can take a punch. Two “crackers” in a row confirm this. Well, Dmitry Lozebnikov played great in the shootout. With a third victory in a row, Khabarovsk! The team is returning home, and we are waiting for you in the stands in the home series,” he shared his emotions in his Telegram channel Roman Kramar, General Director of the Amur hockey club.

There is something to be happy about. Indeed, Amur, for the first time this season, wins three victories in a row, extends its scoring streak to five games and climbs to eighth place in the East, beating Neftekhimik, which has not yet played, by one point.

“Our team played strictly according to instructions, when necessary we pressed, and when necessary we played defensively. The rivals did the same. In the third period they played according to the score. There, any mistake could lead… One goal would have decided everything. We need any glasses – at least one, at least two. Doesn’t matter. We held the game tightly, tried to play with the majority in overtime, unfortunately, we were a little unsuccessful. Well done to our goalkeeper. We do not take into account the points that Siberia lost. We comply with the regulations, I think everyone should comply with them. The hockey law is the law,” noted at the post-match press conference Andrey Martemyanov, head coach of HC Amur.

Oleg Bratash, head coach of HC Lada, I liked the inner nerve of the game, but the attacks that were aimed at before the match didn’t work out very well, although his forwards did everything they could. The coach was especially upset by the goal that was not scored into an empty net in overtime. He also promised to show everything in the playoffs; March should be the peak of the Tolyatti team’s form.

“Amur” ends the away series with a victory and returns home, where he will play several more very difficult matches. Two, with the Chelyabinsk “Tractor” and two more with thirsty for revenge “Barys”. The first game will take place this coming Tuesday, February 13th.

Read also: The first crown, the second funeral: Khabarovsk “Amur” again beat “Barys” in Astana. The Khabarovsk team scored both goals in the third period, Igor Bobkov kept a clean sheet

Khabarovsk “Amur” beat “Barys” in overtime. The match ended with a score of 2:3 in favor of the Khabarovsk team, the decisive goal was scored by Vladislav Barulin

It became known who and when Khabarovsk “Amur” will play in February 2024. In February 2024, Amur will play 11 matches, and only four of them will be at home