Traktor lost to SKA in a beautiful match

“Traktor” completed its trip along the “Sapsan” route Moscow – St. Petersburg with a great match against SKA. Alexey Zavarukhin’s team showed character, although they lost 3:4 in overtime. Anton Burdasov, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev and Danil Yurtaikin scored goals for the Chelyabinsk team.

The Chelyabinsk team approached the match with the Nevsky giants with a series of six victories in a row, which, of course, made them the favorites of the confrontation. SKA, on the contrary, looked lackluster and was fighting in the tournament on the border of the playoff zone.

After a brilliant victory over CSKA 4:0, the changes in the “black and white” lineup were only forced. Ilya Karpukhin dropped out due to injury, and was replaced in the first pair of defense by another Chelyabinsk student, Alexander Shepelev. Also with an injury, Artyom Blazhievsky remained out of the lineup, who was replaced by Ilya Nikolaev. Artyom Shuchinov, who returned from the Russian youth team, took the position of seventh defender. Alexander Sharov was not included in the lineup, and was replaced by Alexander Rykov in the place of the 13th striker. The goal was once again entrusted to Zach Fucala.

The beginning of the match caused alarm among Traktor fans: the guests went forward very dashingly. Yes, Anton Burdasov opened the scoring with his signature shot (the first point for Traktor was for an assist from Ilya Nikolaev), but the failures in defense and losses of the “black and whites” were very noticeable. It was a lucky chance that SKA realized only one dangerous chance before the break – Vladimir Alistrov scored.

The second period began with the second goal of the army team. Chelyabinsk defenders Albert Yarullin and Viktor Antipin acted as extras at the moment of Emil Galimov’s accurate throw. Anton Burdasov gave the puck to the St. Petersburg striker with a throw across the boards. After this, the Chelyabinsk team gathered and began to act more carefully in defense, but because of this they lost their sharpness in attack.

Both teams continued to make mistakes in the third period. Traktor managed to take advantage of the fatigue of the SKA line and equalize the score. Only on the third finishing move did Semyon Der-Arguchintsev manage to get the puck into the goal. And at the end of the period, Traktor’s power play team played unsuccessfully and conceded an unfortunate goal from Stepan Falkovsky. And in the last minute, Traktor did something that is extremely rarely possible – they got even by changing the goalkeeper to the sixth fielder. Danil Yurtaikin finished off the puck into the SKA goal after a shot from Maxim Shabanov.

Overtime turned out to be interesting and dramatic to match the entire match. Both of them could have scored the winning goal, but everything was decided by a shootout awarded for Vitaly Kravtsov’s foul on Sergei Tolchinsky in the last second of overtime. Tolinsky himself took a free throw and beat Zach Fucale.

“Traktor” showed that the team has not only courage, but also character. 3:4 – a more than worthy game for Alexei Zavarukhin’s team, even if it ended in defeat for the “black and whites”. Traktor’s winning streak was interrupted, but there are all the prerequisites that a new one can begin on November 14 in the home match against Salavat Yulaev. But Maxim Shabanov’s scoring streak has reached nine matches in a row and is still ongoing. Shabanito equaled in this indicator the previous record holders – Lukas Sedlak and Petri Kontiola.