The game on December 28 was significant for our club. Besides the significant of the derby against Spartak it marked another important moment – the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the famous club Super Series, in which CSKA defeated NHL teams in 1975-1976. It was on this date half a century ago that the Army team won a crushing victory in New York over the local Rangers, 7-3.
The teams started the derby without overture. The first minute left us in minority, but for two minutes the four worked flawlessly in defense. And soon after that, CSKA opened the scoring. Kirill Dolzhenkov made a precise shot on Takhir Mingachyov puck at the crease. The army men looked good in attack and created several more interesting moments. The clearest chance got to Alexei Churkin, who breakaway one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but was on the short end of it. There was pressure on our goal, and one of Spartak’s shots gave it way. After a long shot from the blue line, the puck flew under the crossbar along a smart trajectory that was inconvenient for Dmitry Gamzin. Denis Zernov's goal let the team enjoy the lead in the break. It was difficult to see the exact shot duet to traffic in front of Spartak’s goal, and in the end our players managed to “bury” the puck. The second was poor on goals, though the teams had every opportunity to score. In particular, during the majority, which was very dangerous for both CSKA and Spartak, and the visitors even had a 5-on-4 moment five minutes in a row. But the minority teams stayed upper-head level. Mac Hollowell could have finished one of the attacks when being set up after a long playout to shoot from a good position, but the Canadian’s first goal for CSKA take a break, the puck went wide. The tension reigned until the very end of the game; our team played religiously in defense and didn’t give Spartak many chances even during the final 6-on-5 assult. Thanks to two points, the army team moved up two places in the Western Conference standings.
