HC VMF (St. Petersburg) - HC Donbass (Donetsk) - 1:2 (0:0, 0:1, 1:1)
Venue: St. Petersburg. Sport Palace Yubileyny. October 2, 2011. 16:00.
Referees: V. Bukin (Moscow), Dmitry Romanov (Voskresensk), Safronov, S. (Podolsk)
Donbass: Tsaregorodtsev. Tolkunov - Pobedonostsev, Tezikov - Esipov, Lyutkevich - Malevich, Kochetkov - Varlamov - Piskunov, Bobkin - Shafarenko - Materukhin, Donika - Belukhin - Zhurun, Isayenko - Borovkov - Pastukh.
Goals: 31:54 Varlamov (Shafarenko) 0-1 PP1; 46:50 Belukhin (Donica) 1-2; 58:47 Yukseev (Monakhov) 1-2 PP1.
PIM: 12 - 12.
SOG: 26 (5 +8 +13) - 31 (8 +15 +8).
Alexander Kulikov (Donbass Head Coach):
- In the end we got a meaningless removal - gave a chance to a rival, and they took advantage of it. Our opponent is a young, fast, very promising. It is evident that the players had a good school, many people want to promote to KHL. So I think neither team will feel comfortable in St. Petersburg. As for the game we looked a little stronger, and therefore won. Once again - I like the home team, I'm sure - they are going to win a lot of points later.
Yuri Leonov ( HC VMF Head Coach):
- We had a good game against a strong opponent. I would not say that Donbass outplayed us today: there were good moments. Our guys fought and played to the end. I am happy with our passion on ice. There were mistakes, but they are always. So we will continue to work (hc-vmf.ru).
Alexander Kulikov, changed the composition of a few lines: Aleksandr Bobkin the top line instead of Dmitri Tsyrul. In the fourth line threre was Alexander Borovkov in the center and Pastukh with Isayenko on the wings. Evgeniy Tsaregorodtsev took a place on the net after 6 games a suspension .
Donetsk as always started the match confidently, but the first opportunity to score had VMF. Anyway two minutes of powerplay went to nothing with Donbass good penalty killing activity. On the 15:00 could score, but Petersburg goalie Shikin perfomed really great. The hosts responded with quick head-to-head from Alexander Shcherbina, but Tsaregorodtsev won a duel.
In general, Donbass controlled the game, but thanks to a well-organized rival game our players could not create chances. Only in the middle of the second period, Oleg Shafarenko moved to the striking position and with an opponent "on the back" was able to shoot - the goalkeeper blocked th shot and the puck went behind the net. So there was Sergei Varlamov, who made it score.
Continuation followed a bit later: Eugene Belukhin exacerbated the net, skidded behind and shoot to the corner - 0:2. Donbass had enough time so that they'd feel more comfortable at the end, but they have not realized yet another competitor removal, but instead got a goal from "navy. Fortunately, before the final siren we controlled the game and brought it to its logical conclusion.
HC Donbass press-office
