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“I deed it!! I finally score!!” (Photo credit: Dynamo Moscow)
Thursday night at Small Sports Arena in Luzhniki, Moscow, Alex Ovechkin returned to the Russian team that put him on the world’s stage as a teenager. And his performance did not disappoint.
In Moscow Dynamo’s 7-2 win over Dinamo Minsk, Ovechkin had seven shots, two big hits, and recorded his first ever KHL point, a powerplay assist, in 17:38 of ice time.
Highlights of the game are below the jump.
Alex Ovechkin and copious triforces. (Photo credit: Sport-Express)
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has reportedly agreed to a contract with his hometown team, Dynamo Moscow. According to Sport-Express’ Yuri Golyshak, the Caps’ star winger will sign the deal and an official announcement will be made “in the near future.” The contract will give Ovechkin the flexibility to leave if the NHL lockout ends.
Kuznetsov during warm-ups. Photo credit: 74hockey.ru
Coming into Sunday’s game, Traktor Cheylabinsk’s fourth of the season, Caps top prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov had scored in every game he played in. Sunday kept that streak going.
Against the KHL’s defending Gagarin Cup champions Dynamo Moscow, Kuznetsov had his second straight two-point game, scoring a goal and recording an assist in the victory.
Photo credit: Valery Zvonarev / KP.ru Chelyabinsk
In their third game of the 2012-13 KHL season, Traktor met Western Conference powerhouse SKA at home in Chelyabinsk. Evgeny Kuznetsov entered the game with two goals. He left with three.
Kuznetsov also tallied his first two-point performance of the year. His first point came very early in the game, as he got credit for a secondary assist on Jan Bulis‘ goal less than three minutes into the game. That goal tied the game at one. Things quickly unraveled for Traktor however, as SKA scored twice more to take a 3-1 lead into the first intermission.
The score remained unchanged for the next 39 minutes, despite both teams trading chances (one of the biggest opportunities was a Kuznetsov breakaway denied by goaltender Ilya Yezhov). With about a minute to go in the third period, Kuznetsov finally broke through, skating the puck into SKA’s offensive zone guarded by two men. After his initial shot was blocked from the slot, Kuznetsov, out-battled three other defenders and got to the rebound first, snapping a shot past Yezhov. Kuznetsov celebrated by jumping high into the boards near center ice. Despite a late flurry, SKA, led by their netminder, managed to keep their one-goal lead and win 3-2. The game’s highlights can be seen under the jump.
Photo credit: 74hockey.ru
Don’t look now, but wayward Capital Evgeny Kuzetsov has started the 2012-13 KHL season with two goals in two games.
In Traktor Cheylabinsk’s first away game of the year on Monday, the defending Continental Cup champions held a huge shot advantage over Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (41-24), but were unable to crack Avtomobilist’s all-star goalie Chris Holt through two periods. With less than nine minutes to go in the game however, Traktor finally dented the twine. After a Avtomobilist defender turned the puck over at center ice, Kuzya sprinted the puck into the offensive zone and wristed a shot past Holt glove side. The goal was unassisted.
Washington Capitals top prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov opened the 2012-13 season with style on Thursday, scoring an empty-net goal in Traktor Chelyabinsk’s 2-0 victory over KHL rival Metallurg Magnitogorsk. But that wasn’t all. Since Kuzya can’t do anything without a tinge of controversy, he decided to celebrate his goal by dropping down in Metallurg’s offensive zone and doing push-ups. For a man who has in the past both canoed and swam down the length of the ice after scoring, this seems a bit reserved for him.
Below the jump, check out the video.
Kuznetsov during the game against Kolner Haie. (Photo credit: Vitaly Gubin/HC Traktor)
Washington Capitals top prospect/prodigal son Evgeny Kuznetsov kicked off his season last week at the Chelyabinsk Region Governor’s Cup, a 4-game preseason tournament which featured two local teams (Traktor Chelyabinsk, Metallurg Chelyabinsk), two KHL teams (Avangard Omsk, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk), and one foreign team – Kolner Haie of the German DEL.
On Saturday, Kuznetsov showed why he’s one of the best players not currently in the NHL, tallying a shorthanded goal and an assist in Traktor’s 5-1 victory over Kolner Haie, a team coached by former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Uwe Krupp.
Video of Kuzya’s highlight-reel plays are below the jump.
Photo credit: Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times
Tomas Vokoun, who was sidelined with an injury during the playoffs, announced at Kettler Monday that he will not be back next season. The Veteran Czech netminder, who signed with the Capitals last July to a one-year deal at the surprisingly low rate of $1.5 million, is rumored to join the new Lokomotiv squad.
As per the Czech website iSport.cz:
Behind the hockey scenes, there are talks that he [Vokoun] will be a goaltender for the Yaroslavl [Lokomotiv] in Russia!
[...]
Sport talked to a few scouts and players in Russia, and all of them confirmed: “We heard about it”. Some even added: “That’s a sure thing”.
During the Russian National Team’s media day before the World Championships, Evgeny Kuznetsov announced that he will be staying in the KHL for two more seasons.
Slava Kozlov (Dynamo) and Nikita Pivtsakin (Avangard) go at each other during regular season Avangard – Dynamo game (Photo credit: OldWest.su)
The History
These two teams have met 66 times. Dynamo has won 35 of those match-ups, Avangard 23, with eight tie games. The teams have squared off in the playoffs five times– with Dynamo winning in 1995, 2005 and 2008, and Avangard winning in 2003 and 2004. But they have never played each other in the finals. Until now.
The most famous series between the two was the 2004-05 semifinals. After getting eliminated by the Omsk Hawks two straight times, Dynamo (featuring Pavel Datsyuk, Alex Ovechkin and Andrei Markov) tried to stop Avangard (with Jaromir Jagr, Oleg Tverdovsky and one of the greatest lines in modern Russian hockey history: Maxim Sushinsky, Dmitry Zatonsky and Alexander Prokopiev).
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