Athletistic / Hockey. The new KHL season started on September 3, but even before its opening, Russian hockey passions began to boil seriously. The fact is that during the match of the Ivan Romazan Memorial pre-season tournament in Magnitogorsk, the local Metallurg refused to finish the match with Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik.

In the third period of the match between Metallurg and Neftekhimik, Magnitogorsk forward Daniil Vovchenko, entering the opponent’s zone, lowered his head and collided with Wolves defender Roman Abrosimov. It must be said right away that it looked scary, but Abrosimov played by the rules. However, the head coach of the current Gagarin Cup winner Andrei Razin strongly disagreed with this. The mentor demanded sanctions against the Neftekhimik player, and after their absence he took his players to the stands.

But Razin gave even more fire at the post-match press conference. He managed not only to criticize the refereeing and Abrosimov, but also allowed himself to criticize the head coach of Neftekhimik, Oleg Leontyev.

“I listened to the opponent’s head coach, who placed all the blame for that moment on Vovchenko. But I will say in Belousov’s words, because Leontiev was about the same hockey player as Abrosimov. Belousov once told us: “A drunk Andrei Sapozhnikov is better than a sober Oleg Leontiev.”“, Razin said then.

It is clear that Andrei Vladimirovich said this out of emotion, but this does not change the fact itself: the word is not a sparrow, if it flies away, you will not catch it. In general, in professional sports, it is not customary to criticize colleagues and it is generally forbidden to be personal.

Photo source: HC “Metallurg” Magnitogorsk

Journalists, of course, did not ignore these words of Razin and tried to get a comment from Leontiev himself as soon as possible. I must say that the coach of the Nizhnekamsk club was more diplomatic.

— I don’t expect any apologies from Andrei Razin. Roman Abrosimov and our captain called Daniil Vovchenko, he talked and found out that everything was fine with him. He had a concussion, but he’s talking nowLeontiev told TASS.

A few days later, Leontiev added:

— Razin’s reaction to an ordinary game episode with Abrosimov’s participation is still incomprehensible to me. Now I do not want to comment on this situation. This topic is closed for me.

Later, the Metallurg management tried to smooth out the situation, but the sediment remained. Leontiev did not publicly tolerate the reaction to the disrespect shown by his colleague from Magnitogorsk, but he definitely drew certain conclusions for himself. He just wanted to give the answer with the help of his players on the ice. It remains only to wait for the next face-to-face between Magnitogorsk and Nizhnekamsk.

At first, the KHL schedule turned out to be very generous and already in the first 10 days of the championship we had two matches between Metallurg and Neftekhimik: on the 9th the teams were to meet in Magnitogorsk, and on the 12th in Nizhnekamsk.

The teams approached the first head-to-head match in about the same way – both won one victory in two games: Metallurg lost in the opening Cup match to Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (2:3) and beat SKA (5:4 OT), and Neftekhimik ” beat Barys (2:1 OT) and lost to Omsk Avangard (2:4). It is only worth noting that at the beginning of the season the Nizhnekamsk team has an almost optimal composition, while the “metallurgists” have almost half of the team in the infirmary.

Anyway, unexpectedly, Neftekhimik approached this match with a cool head and managed to win with a score of 2:0. Leontiev took his first sporting revenge against Razin, and Artyom Zagidulin, a hockey graduate from Magnitogorsk, who was ousted from the starting lineup of Metallurg last season, helped him in this task – the Nizhnekamsk goalkeeper kept his goal intact, repelling all 29 shots.

Photo source: HC “Metallurg” Magnitogorsk

Then the teams had a two-day intermission. They played the second part of this play on September 12 in Nizhnekamsk. This time, “Metallurg” took to the ice with sparkling eyes and a frantic attitude and in the 5th minute took the lead, and in the 15th minute they were already winning by two goals. It seemed that everything was returning to normal, but it was not. After the first break, angry and hungry Neftekhimik came out on the ice: the Wolves closed Magnitogorsk in their zone and by the middle of the second period they had already equalized the score – 2:2. The fate of the match was decided 23 seconds before the final siren, when forward Jean-Sebastian Di brought Neftekhimik a willful victory.

This is how Leontiev, like a man, answered Razin: Oleg Yuryevich did not waste words (this is typical of him), but charged his players with two important victories over the reigning champion at the beginning of the championship. What is remarkable is that the main characters of both matches were former players of Metallurg, now defending the colors of Neftekhimik. If in the first meeting it was goalkeeper Artyom Zagidulin, then in the second it was Jean-Sebastian Di. Both hockey players did not suit Andrei Razin’s coaching staff and were forced to leave Magnitogorsk. This is the kind of collective revenge that broke out.

Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic



Athletistic