Shakhtyor Soligorsk raises its voice

The Continental Cup is back in one of its favourite place, the Iles Lacroix Arena in Rouen, to play one of semi-finals group. Host Dragons Rouen, winner of the trophy in 2011-2012 season, hunt one of two passes for Superfinals along with HC Kremenchuk (Ukraine), Shakhtar Soligorsk (Belarus) and GKS Tychy (Poland), emerged from the qualification round played at home in October.

Rouen fans remember the tragedy of Paris

The opening match featuring Kremenchuk against Soligorsk, probably the main accredited to the final victory. Ukranian team was silver medallist last season at home but replaced champion ATEK Kyiv, folded after the title.

Followed by its loyal fans, Shakhtar immediately shows its superiority on ice but doesn’t kill the game already in the first period as expected, even because Kremenchuk proves to be better than the current level of Ukrainian hockey suggests. After surviving a power play, Pidgursky squad capitulates at 07:19 when Evgeny Kuntsevich finds the way to beat skilled goalie Mikhail Shevchuk. After a couple of good chances for Kremenchuk, created using the speed of forwards, Soligorsk closes the period doubling the advantage on power play: the combination Aleksander Usenko – Artem Demkov to open the defence allows Viktor Andrushenko an easy finish at 18:54. A powerful shot by Dmitri Chernyshenko deflected by Malyutin closes the period. The second one has the same plot, Shakhtar controlling the game and Kremenchuk trying to use the counterattack. On powerplay Shevchuk is reactive on Malinovsky and Kambovich and superb in closing the door on Andrushenko slap during another power play. At 32:08 Shakhtar finally scores the third goal after a speedy descent of Levko finalized by Vadim Sushko: Shevchuk touches the shot but was unable to stop it. Puck in the centre and goal number four, scored by Evgeny Goranin deflecting a pass by Artem Demkov. At 37 referee calls a penalty to Shevchuk for delaying the game voiding a goal by Khlebnikov, but the celebration is just delaying: on following power play Artem Levsha scores the fifth goal, again on pass by Demkov. The period closes with a significant 23-1 SOG. Demkov misses an easy chance at the begin of last period and finally also Malyutin has some work blocking a shot by Korenchuk. At 45 Shevchuk makes a great save denying a spectacular goal to Kambovich after a classy wrap-around, while Malyutin can only look at the puck smashing on the post on Petrangovsky move one minute later, in the best chance of the game for Ukranians. The last 10 minutes are nothing more than a training for Soligorsk, closing the session with the sixth goal, scored by Artem Levsha 20 second before the final siren.

Soligorsk fans celebrating the victory

MVP: Mikhail Shevchuk – Kirill Brikun

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