Nadezhda Cup quarterfinals, Day 1

Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Minsk delivered a real fight at the start of their quarterfinal series - so much about a meaningless tournament as many fans and journalists predicted. After only 38 seconds Vyacheslav Kozlov opened the score for Spartak but the Belarussians answered with three goals within less than six minutes before "half time". Goeff Platt, Andrei Mikhalyov and Janne Niskala were successful for Dinamo. In the third period Yegor Mikhailov twice cut the Minsk lead to just one with the game winner by Zbynek Irgl in between.

In the only completely non-Russians series Latvian side Dinamo Riga lost at home against Ukrainian leage newcomers and Nadezhda Cup favourites Donbass Donetsk. In front of only 2000 fans Clay Wilson opened the game for Donbass at 01:56 but only 23 seconds later Martins Karsums answered for Riga. With a double at the start of the third period Evgeny Dadonov and Lukas Kaspar made everything clear for Donetsk. The power play strike by Gunars Skvorcovs at 56:54 came too late for Dinamo and they lost 2-3.

Their match against Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk delivered a rare oppportunity for joy to home side Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg who won in overtime. Evgeny Lapenkov brought Avto in front at 12:28 but Anton Krysanov answered for Yugra after half an hour. With their second shot in overtime Alexei Simakov scored the game winner for the team from Yekaterinburg at 61:22.

In hockey crazy Khabarovsk the fun of this tournament has not yet affected fans and only 2,720 of them found their way into the arena. The ones who came saw a good game against Metallurg Novokuznetsk though. Topi Jaakola, Vyacheslav Litovchenko and Vladimir Loginov made it a solid 3-1 lead for the hosts after the initial guest goal through Konstantin Turukin. Power play goals by Alexander Mereskin (Metallurg) and Alexander Loginov (Amur) made it a 4-2 home win for the team from the Far East.

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