Bragin's debut victory: the Russian national hockey team beat Sweden in shootouts in the Channel One Cup match

The Russian national ice hockey team started with a victory in the Channel One Cup.

Valery Bragin's wards defeated Sweden in his debut game at the head of the team.

The meeting at the CSKA Arena ended with a series of shootouts, the hero of which was goalkeeper Alexander Samonov.

The composition of the Russian national team for the match with Sweden began to take shape two days before it.

Then strikers Kirill Marchenko, Sergey Tolchinsky and Alexander Kadeikin, as well as defenders Dmitry Samorukov and Artyom Minulin trained separately from the main team.

As a result, everyone, except for Kadeikin, was out of the application.

And on the eve of the game, Bragin resolved the last intrigue and named the main goalkeeper - Samonov, who was well known to the SKA coach, became him.

The Swedes could be called the "dark horse" of the entire Channel One Cup.

On the one hand, their head coach Juhan Garpenlev clearly made a bet on the players from the KHL, inviting only five strikers from the national championship.

On the other hand, of the summoned players, few can be called real league stars.

By the beginning of the second stage of the Eurotour, Oskar Lindberg was the top scorer of the regular season in the Swedish team, with only 23 points in 32 matches for Dynamo Moscow.

In statistics, the Scandinavians were seriously losing to both the Russians and the Czechs with the Finns, who were the first to hold their meeting in Moscow.

The start of the match between Russia and Sweden remained with the ice owners.

Already in the second minute, Alexey Marchenko struck a powerful shot at the goal of Magnus Hellberg.

The puck hit the bar and bounced off the side.

Soon the Swedish goalkeeper asked for a substitution and gave way to Anders Lindbeck, but nothing bad happened to the goalkeeper - he just needed to put his equipment in order.

The next attack of the Russians was repelled by Hellberg.

The Swedish goalkeeper had to show all his skills in the middle of the first period.

Andrei Chibisov threw especially often and dangerously at his goal.

Hellberg hoped to get some respite after Anton Burdasov's removal.

However, the Swedes barely managed to gain a foothold in the Russian zone and oppose something to Bragin's wards.

With the return of Burdasov, the offensive on the Hellberg estate continued, but did not lead to anything even after the retaliatory penalty of Magnus Pääjärvi.

During the entire first period, the Russians made 11 shots, and none of them reached the goal.

The Swedes, on the other hand, had only three shots at Samonov's goal - Garpenlev had a reason to make claims to the charges during the break.

In the second period, the Scandinavians appeared as a completely different team.

Now in the Russian zone, moments began to arise during which Samonov had to catch the puck even while sitting on the ice.

But SKA goalkeeper did not save from a long-range shot of Claes Dahlbeck.

After two ricochets, the puck flew into the net, and Pontus Oberg became the author of the goal, who was the last to correct its trajectory.

The guests held the initiative for a long time and more than once forced Samonov to get the puck out of the most difficult positions.

The Russians were locked in their zone for several minutes, but the team's morale did not shake from this.

As soon as the Swedes relax for a while, the game moved on to their goal.

At the 33rd minute, Ivan Morozov found himself with the puck on someone else's patch, transferred it to Andrey Kuzmenko, and he evened the score in one touch. 

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- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 17, 2020

The end of the second period was again dictated by the Swedes, but Samonov continued to cope with his duties - for the sake of the save, he was ready to sprawl in the twine, as after Dahlbeck's throw.

At the last minute of the problems the owners of the ice added the removal of Vladimir Tkachev, but still the teams left for the break with an equal score.

The final third of the match began optimistically for the Russians.

They not only held out in the minority, but also got a two-minute chance to play an extra player.

However, the most dangerous moment was Burdasov's click, which never brought the hosts of this stage of the Eurotour forward.

And soon after that, Emil Pettersson threw the puck, which did not follow from the logic of the game at all.

The player of the Swedish "Vekshe" could go through more half-zones for a throw, but he snapped much earlier and caught Samonov by surprise.

13 minutes before the end of regular time, Bragin's wards again found themselves in the role of catch-up.

But this did not last long.

Soon the first line of captain Vadim Shipachev conducted a quick attack, which was entrusted to Nikita Soshnikov to complete.

If in the KHL the CSKA striker is not too often happy with his performance, then in the match for the national team one movement of his hands was enough for him to level the score.

The Swedes tried to challenge the Russians' goal and asked to check the episode for an offside position, but the judges did not agree with them and, as a punishment, removed one fielder for two minutes.

Nikita Soshnikov!

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- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 17, 2020

Bragin's charges immediately took advantage of such an unexpected removal.

Chibisov tried for a long time to throw the puck on the patch, but as soon as she bounced on the hook of Shipachev, the Russian national team nevertheless came out ahead.

Thanks cap pic.twitter.com/0P9e7z2Ck8

- Hockey of Russia (@russiahockey) December 17, 2020

The Swedes were not ready to lose so quickly everything that they had achieved in the match, and fell on the gate of Samonov while Igor Ozhiganov was absent on the ice.

The SKA goalkeeper was still reliable in close combat, and then Emil Larsson threw from an average distance.

The Russian goalkeeper was again not ready for such a turn, and the spectators at the CSKA-Arena saw their fourth goal within ten minutes.

Larsson's puck turned the match into overtime. In it, the Russians looked much more preferable, especially thanks to Soshnikov's counterattack, but still they had to determine the winner of the match in a shootout. The duel between the two SKA goalkeepers ended in favor of Samonov - he saved seven of eight shots. Hellberg was able to break through Soshnikov and Kuzmenko, who cold-bloodedly threw from an acute angle into the gate and brought Bragin the first victory at the head of the adult Russian team.