Caviar Cup is officially ours!

On March 11, Admirals faced Amur for the sixth time in the season. The fate of the Caviar Cup – Far East Derby’s main trophy – has been decided long ago, but the Sailors needed a victory shortly before the playoffs in order to keep the team's nerves during the difficult ending of the championship.

In the first period, Admirals did their best: Zavgorodny scored in the fifth minute, finding his way out of a scramble in front of Shaimardanov’s net. The Tigers could get back on track quickly, but they didn't take their chances on the power play after Gutik's infraction.

The Sailors’ game on the power play was more effective. The first and only opportunity to score after guests’ penalty resulted in a goal in the 14th minute: Zavgorodny won a faceoff, Sulak shot from the blue line, and Soshnikov played well on the slot, hitting the flying puck. Petukhov increased the gap soon with an accurate shot from the faceoff circle two minutes later. After the third conceded goal, Amur changed a goalie. Kobozev was nearly beaten by Starkov 10 seconds after getting on the ice, but the luck and defensemen helped him not to shame himself.

The opponents spent the second period more active: they had only five shots on goal in the first period, but in the second twenty minutes they almost tripled their attempts to score. One of them turned into a goal, but not without help from the Sailors. In the 22nd minute, Mishurov made a big mistake, so Talaluyev and Li instantly initiated a successful counterattack. The hosts regained a three-goal lead pretty quickly: Gutik sent the puck behind Kobozev's back from the right faceoff circle three minutes later – 4:1.

The score remained unchanged until the end of the second period, but the heat of the game only increased. In the middle of the period, Petkov played rough against Mishchenko and was sent to the sin bin, then he had an altercation with Cam Lee. But the real fight was between Sulak and Bryntsev. They punched each other, shook off the snow and went to the penalty box.

In the third period, the course of the game was similar. This time Admirals were the first to score: it was already the ninth second when Nikita Soshnikov punished the guests for Mishchenko's mistake. In the middle of the period, Bryntsev closed the gap by scoring his first goal in the season. The numbers 5:2 remained on the scoreboard until the final seconds of the game, and the buzzer marked the sixth victory in the sixth game of Far East Derby. The Caviar Cup is now officially in the hands of Admirals.