Yanovna almost scores a hat trick, Khimik beats Cosmonauts 3-1 in Round 2

Mesha 28, 2078, m249

Khimik takes the win in today’s in a 3-1 victory over the Cosmonauts. The two teams battled it out in Europa’s brand new rink in front of a sold-out audience.

Despite a strong offensive push by the Cosmonauts throughout the game, they were only able to get one shot past Khimik goalie, Veronica Danilenko.

Anna Fedin collected a loose puck that slipped past defenseman Rybar and put it high into the net to give Cosmonauts the lead in first period. That lead didn’t last long though.

Alex Yanovna stole the spotlight today with an unexpected play during a two-man advantage while the Cosmonauts were waiting out their double-penalty—scoring two consecutive goals in 4 minutes!

With Novak and Burien in the box and an extra Cosmonaut on the ice, Cosmonaut defender Rybar was able to slip down the left to feed a pass to Yanovna who fired a shot over Hansen’s shoulder

hundreds of fans look on today at europa's sold-out rink

“Alex really blew us away today,” says teammate, Ruslan Vasiliev, “even though he’s our captain, he usually takes a supporting role on the ice. But today he was so dynamic—I’d say he was the best player on the ice today.”

Yanovna flicked a wrist shot clean past Hansen’s left 4 minutes after his first goal.

Cosmonauts forward, Lawrence Miller, received medical attention today after an awkward landing sent him down hard at the end of first period. It’s uncertain exactly how extensive injuries to the 34-year-old Korolevian are, but medical staff have confirmed that his ribs have been fractured.

We can be sure that Miller will be out of the picture for a few weeks as he recovers.

Illya Hryc converted a play from the left circle into a goal-resulting breakaway, bringing the score to 3-1 for Khimik five minutes into second period.

Penalties were awarded to Andrej Petrovyh at 4:13 of the second period for cross checking to Ivan Vasiliev for highsticking at the end of the third period.

Cosmonauts were unable to take advantage of the penalty to close the gap in third period, closing game 2 of Exhibition Hockey Round 2 at Cosmonauts 1-Khimik-3.