Penza, 11 January 2016. PenzaNews. The Penza “Diesel” won a match against the Saratov “Kristall” during the first game of its 2016 home series in the regular championship of the Supreme Hockey League.

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The match took place at “Diesel-Arena” sports and entertainment complex on Sunday, January 10, and finished with a score of 4:2.

“Diesel” took the initiative right from the first minutes of the match; however, the players struggled with scoring a goal. “Kristall” returned the favor with threatening counterattacks, one of which succeeded as Sergei Gribanov shot the puck between the goalposts.

The Penza team managed to make up for the goal several minutes later thanks to Victor Tereschenko’s power play performance. In addition, several minutes before the first period ended, the vising team missed another goal by Vladislav Vorobyev.

In the second period, the teams exchanged the accurate attacks: Alexander Delnov successfully scored a goal for “Diesel,” while German Nesterov scratched one more for “Kristall.”

Further on, Denis Tsyganov improved the standing of the home team during the last twenty minutes of hte match.

Nearly 4,000 people came to root for “Diesel” during the match – such as the Penza region governor Ivan Belozertsev, and the students of the Mokshansk orphanage that had received a visit from the hockey team during the New Year holidays. After the match, the children took an opportunity to meet the players, congratulate them with the victory, and wish them new successes.

The game was followed by a Christmas raffle for match spectators, some of whom received presents from players of “Diesel.”

During the post-game press conference, Andrei Lunev, head coach of “Kristall,” congratulated his Penza colleague with a win, and noted that the visiting team rivaled the home team in performance.

“A positive sign is that we have the game visible, we are creating opportunities. But our weakness is that we are struggling with the goals and missing them easily. The opponents had a weak opportunity during the first period, but we still missed a goal. When you have such a situation on your hands, a positive outcome is very rare,” he stressed.

In turn, the trainer of “Diesel” Andrei Nikishov agreed with his colleague that the teams played on an equal level.

“In my opinion, we also have a lot of opportunities, but their development leaves much to be desired. I am grateful to the guys: we managed to win, cheer up the fans. Will be preparing further, going forwards. Analyzing the mistakes – that were quite numerous, by the way. We got caught into a sort of a stupor by the end of the game, when we got confused after gaining the advantage. Will be working on it,” he said.

The head coach also noted that the New Year holidays helped the team.

“That is – the guys rested, arrived in a good mood, worked eagerly, and it was easy to feel. And as for the nuances of the game – it is tough to re-enter the routine with such a break. We played a friendly match with the youth team. But that still doesn’t cut it. I hope we will also be able to play a friendly match versus ‘Kristall’ to prepare more. We seek to make it on the 15th,” the press service of “Diesel” club quotes Andrei Nikishov.

After 37 matches, the Penza team holds the 24th position in the competition roster with 37 points.

The next match for “Diesel” is going to be another home game, this time against the Orsk “Yuzhny Ural.”