First day of KHL’s Cup of Hopes

21 Feb 2013 | Dennis Mende

Dinamo Riga and Vityaz Chekhov started with good results in the opening matches of the "Nadezhda Cup", a tournament for the ten KHL teams who missed the playoffs.

In the first round the four worst-placed teams in the West play for the last two available spots for the tournament's quarterfinals. This happens because the West had two more participants than the East during regular season. The second legs will be played on Saturday.

Western Conference

Dinamo Riga (14) - Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (11)

The Latvians showed that this is not only some sort of holiday tournament for them. Despite laying behind early against guests Torpedo - Vladimir Gorbunov had opened the score for the capitals at 05:40 - Dinamo showed a lot of will and came back through Roberts Bukarts, Vitalijs Pavlovs, Kristaps Sotnieks and Oskars Cibulskis to get a solid 4-1 win. For Torpedo it will be a tough job to make the next round but it is not impossible with the home advantage in the second leg.

Spartak Moscow (13) - Vityaz Chekhov (12)

Guests Vityaz opened the score through Anton Korolyov at 09:09 but Alexander Suglobov and Alexander Romanovsky turned the result around completely in favour of Spartak before the second intermission. With his late equalizer at 57:15 Vityaz' Vladimir Malevich gave the guests a very good result. With the home advantage in the next match they have best chances to make the next round of the Nadezhda Cup.