Last year, a new arena was opened in Sochi to house the hockey tournament and this year it's home to a KHL expansion team. The Sochi Leopards had their first home game Monday - and scored their first goal 19 seconds in.
The Bolshoy Ice Dome opened in 2014 for the Winter Olympics and this year it's home to a KHL expansion team. The Sochi Leopards won one of their first three games on the road and yesterday they played their home opener. And
here's the first-ever home goal scored by the Leopards, which came just 19 seconds into the game against Ekaterinburg's Avtomobilist. Alexei Krutov, a player who's spent his entire career in Russia and Switzerland, left former NHL defenseman Sami Lepisto in the dust and on his butt, and then beat goalie Jakub Kovar through the five hole. Sochi won its first home game 6-3. According to the KHL's website, there were about 8,000 people in attendance.
A player of note on the Sochi team is Cory Emmerton, a 26-year-old former Detroit Red Wings prospect who signed with the team over the summer. Originally, Hockey Hall of Famer Pavel Bure was supposed to GM the Sochi team, but he backed out when it became clear the team's budget would make it hard to compete with the league's big spenders.
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The Hockey News