Triple world champion Alexei Tereshchenko said that the story of the striker’s return Ilya Kovalchuk in Moscow “Spartacus” perhaps, will end with the victory of the “red-whites” in the Gagarin Cup.
On Sunday, Spartak defeated Kunlun in the regular season match of the Fonbet KHL Championship with a score of 5:2. For Kovalchuk, this meeting was the first after his return to the KHL. The 40-year-old forward has not played professional hockey since winning the Gagarin Cup with Avangard as captain in April 2021.
— As Ilya Kovalchuk showed us, anything is possible in hockey. Even after a 40-year break, you can return to the ice and show a very good game in the first game. I watched my long-time teammate’s debut and was very happy that he could join the team right away. This was noticeable in the way he interacted with the other players and the way they celebrated his puck together. It’s clear that everyone treats him with great respect and understands that a true leader is playing with them.
Spartak has great respect for taking such a step and giving Ilya the opportunity to finish his career where it started. This is very valuable both for all fans of the “red and whites” and for Russian hockey in general. And it is possible that this will be the beginning of a beautiful story that will end with Alexei Zhamnov’s team winning the Gagarin Cup and Ilya lifting it over his head. After that, you can leave quietly,” Tereshchenko quotes RT.
Spartak, with 62 points, leads the Western Conference standings.
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL Championship matches on the channel, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
RT
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
