In the home match against the team from the bottom of the standings, CSKA, of course, was the clear favorite. But Sochi is a fighting team and does not give away points just like that. In the very first minutes, the teams exchanged similar moments – the forwards broke through to the goal, but because of the defenders hanging on them, they could not aim. The CSKA team had the advantage, spent much more time on the attack and were close to scoring several times, the Sochi defense could not stand it, and the guests were lucky. CSKA opened the account in an unobvious situation. Tahir Mingachev took the puck away from the goal, rolled out on a spot and pushed the puck into the near corner. The referees watched the video for a long time and still determined that Maxim Tretyak did not have time to cover the puck before it crossed the goal line.
It was possible to achieve a more significant advantage after the break. Mamin and Abramov broke the opponent's defense, and Vitaly scored his next goal of the season from Maxim's pass. And soon Nikita Nesterov beat Tretyak with a trademark long throw.
If anyone had doubts about the winner of the match, they were finally dispelled immediately after the teams returned to the ice. Sochi defenders gave Klasson so much space that he took his time aiming at the puck for two or three seconds, and the throw became accurate without resistance. And exactly a minute later, Maxim Sorkin greeted Alexey Melnichuk on the ice, who replaced Maxim Tretyak, by netting a goal between-the-legs. Unfortunately, Adam Reideborn could not chalked up the doughnut. Sochi players did not stop playing and twice stumped the CSKA defense, making the score more competitive. But this could no longer affect the result. 5:2 – a confident victory of the CSKA team.
