Liga Stavok Sochi Hockey Open. Sochi - Russia - 2:1

In the first game of the 2023 Liga Stavok Sochi Hockey Open, the Russian national team just came up short against Sochi, suffering a narrow 1:2 loss to the competition hosts.

Borna Rendulic opened the scoring for Sochi in the 12th minute. In the second frame, Dmitry Buchelnikov hauled Russia level, but Kirill Rasskazov once again put Sochi in the driving seat a little over two minutes later.

Overall, our players managed to register 35 shots on target, but Mikhail Berdin and Sochi managed to hold on.

In accordance with the tournament regulations, overtime and a penalty shootout were subsequently staged. Nikita Buruyanov grabbed the overtime winner for Russia, before our team also stole the shootout with markers from Grigory Kuzmin and Ruslan Abrosimov. Russian goaltender Dmitry Nikolaev didn't concede a single shootout goal.

Russia will return to action on Saturday against Admiral Vladivostok. Puck-drop is scheduled for 12:00 Moscow time.

Match protocol:

Sochi - Russia - 2:1 (1:0, 1:1, 0:0)

Goals:

1:0 Rendulic (Kristof, Garaev), 11.58
1:1 Buchelnikov (Nikonov), 21.49
2:1 Rasskazov (Tyanulin, Shiksatdarov), 24.05

Goalkeepers: Berdin - Nikolaev

Shots: 57 - 73

Shots on target: 31 - 36

Faceoffs: 32 - 32

Blocked shots: 14 - 12

Hits: 14 - 12

Penalty minutes: 18 - 10

Referees: Olenin, Ovchnnikov

Linesmen: Shelyanin, Ponamarenko

03.08.2023.