Sochi Leopards Achieve Historic 5-0 Victory Over Primorsky Admiral, Ending 7-Year Losing Streak

For the first time in 7 years, Sochi defeated Primorsky Admiral in an away match. The second loss in a row this week ended with a score of 5:0. The winning goal for the Leopards was scored by former Admiral Nikolai Chebykin.

With a match in Sochi, the Primorye “Admiral” continued his hospitality journey, which began with a major failure in Minsk (2:7). For the match against Sochi, head coach Leonid Tambiev shook up the lineup a lot, changing it a lot: Leonid Metalnikov and Alexander Shevchenko returned, Nurgaliev replaced Chmykhov, and Vasily Demchenko took his place in goal.

The first period was not the brightest stage in the performance of both teams. The opponents calmly probed each other’s possessions, so the number of chances and dangerous situations were very few. The only thing is that the “sailors” had a good chance to score to open the play: Gutik aimed for almost nine, and a couple of attacks from the blue team ended in chaos on the spot – the turn of the plus left a lot to be desired, 0:0.

The second period saw more activity, and it all came from the hosts. The game period started with a goal: Nikolai Chebykin, in a duet with Tyanulin, opened the Admiral’s defense quickly and clearly, and then in the 27th minute Tyanulin himself scored – 2:0.

Despite the fact that the guests tried to even, especially in the power game, the Sochi team scored again, and not just one, but three at the same time. They fell in the decisive 20 minutes. In the 41st minute, Seroukh scored thanks to a wonderful solo pass, 3:0. Soon Demchenko had to pull the fourth puck out of the goal, scored by Garayev. The Admiral’s coaching staff immediately changed the goalkeeper, but in the 50th minute the Leopards also disturbed him: Timashov crossed Popov, who calmly shot into the sailors’ goal – 5:0 .

“Our game didn’t work out today. There was not enough strength, speed, movement. The boys tried, but it’s clear that we may still be flying the plane, we don’t have enough fire, enthusiasm or speed. We didn’t have time everywhere, we lost the whole fight, the puck was very bad. Everything was right,” said Leonid Tambiev, head coach of Admiral.

Let’s note that “Admiral” lost for the first time since August 28, 2017 (3: 1) to “leopards” in Sochi. The previous four games in the KHL ended with victories for the sailors. Leonid Tambiev’s team will play their next match on October 5 against Lada in Togliatti.