They left all their strength in Krasnoyarsk: the coaches of SKA-Neftyanik and Kuzbass commented on the game in Kemerovo

The Khabarovsk team arrived in Kemerovo after four away games in a row, and the first in this series was the confrontation in Arkhangelsk with the same “Kuzbass” in the fight for the Super Cup, which the Khabarovsk team lost outright. Then there were two more games in difficult conditions in stadiums open to all the winds and a crazy confrontation in Krasnoyarsk with Yenisei, where SKA players managed to snatch a draw literally in the last seconds of the match.

Kemerovo today are the undisputed leaders of the championship, who will probably enter the playoffs from first place in the regular season. So far, this is the only team that has the coveted zero in the “defeats” column. Her “draws” column is also empty. This season, the meeting with the miners usually ends in tears for the rest of the championship participants. It is clear that expecting a victory from Khabarovsk SKA in such conditions would be the height of optimism. That, however, did not stop the fans from hoping.

Unfortunately, expectations were not destined to be met. The meeting between Khabarovsk and Kemerovo residents predictably ended in defeat. SKA stood, Kuzbass moved and scored. In this match, the army team lost everything – the opening, the middlegame and the endgame. It’s good that the Khabarovsk team managed to win back at least two goals, otherwise the score would have been completely indecent for the still active championship. The result of the match is 2:10 in favor of the home team. Tuomas Mäattä and Vladimir Kalanchin scored for the Khabarovsk team.

“Apparently, we left all our strength in Krasnoyarsk – our fifth game is away. Of course, this does not provide an excuse, but no one can cancel physiology, the guys just stood there today. There was no struggle, there were splashes, but these were glimpses. And so, “Kuzbass” with a victory. Only individual episodes can be noted. Today, almost the entire team did not move. This is the fifth away game, and, of course, there are not enough benches. The quality is lacking. As for Yuri Shardakov, he is recovering after the operation and undergoing treatment. I don’t know whether he will play this season,” he shared his opinion about the game Alexander Savchenko, head coach of HC SKA-Neftyanik.

Ilyas Khandaev honestly admitted during the press conference that he expected SKA to arrive in Kemerovo squeezed like a lemon, and made full use of his trump card – the physical condition of the Kuzbass players. However, even in a different scenario, it is unlikely that SKA would have been able to beat the future champion – it has strengthened very well this season and has gained too much momentum in the championship.

“We understood that the opponent had their fifth game on the road, and three of them were in difficult conditions, just like ours – on open ice, they played the last match in Krasnoyarsk very difficult, and today our main trump card is pace and once again pace. And it turned out that if in the last game we would have used the chances that we had, then the last game would have turned out exactly the same. Well, today I felt a responsibility to the public, to ourselves, that this is a great team, today it is still a champion, and once again I would like to thank the fans who… just crazy support, and it drives us forward, and sometimes I even worry so as not to be overwhelmed by emotions. I don’t think about the score, I’m more interested in the game moments. As for this game, we were physically better than our opponents today. We took advantage of our trump card,” commented the game Ilyas Khandaev, head coach of HC Kuzbass.

In turn, we congratulate the fans of Kuzbass, who finally got a holiday on their street. What to hide – the residents of Kemerovo deserve it. And we wish not to fall into a situation like in the bearded joke about fake New Year’s gifts that looked like real ones, you couldn’t tell them apart, but they weren’t happy at all. By the way, it was assumed that this particular game would be the central match of the tour, but it so happened that all the attention of the hockey community was again captured by Krasnoyarskin which genuine passions were again seething.

Now “SKA-Neftyanik” is returning to Khabarovsk, where, during a short pause, it will try to put itself in order so that on the last day of January to play with Rodina Kirov and secure a comfortable place to reach the playoffs.

Read also: SKA-Neftyanik lost to Kuzbass in the final away match. The match, which took place in Kemerovo, ended with a score of 10:2 in favor of the local Kuzbass

Mentors of “Yenisey” and Khabarovsk “SKA-Neftyanik” commented on the game in Krasnoyarsk. The match ended with a football score of 1:1, SKA managed to score in the last seconds of the match

The calendar of games for Khabarovsk SKA-Neftyanik in January 2024 has been announced. Fans of the Khabarovsk team will only have one home match in January 2024