A quartet of clubs from Belarus and Russia will compete for the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Chairman's Cup in hockey

August 9, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. A quartet of clubs from Belarus and Russia will compete for the traditional hockey cup of the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee on August 11-14, Dmitry Ivanenkov, press attaché of the Vitebsk hockey club, told a BELTA correspondent.

This year, the Vitebsk hockey club will host guests: Khimik-SKA (Novopolotsk), HC Mogilev, and the Slavutich team from Smolensk, which competes in the Russian championship among club teams. Belarusian participants of the tournament consider the games in Vitebsk as the final stage of preparation for the upcoming Belarus Cup games and the start of the national championship.

At the tournament, which will be held for the seventh time, teams will play in a round-robin format. Based on the results, participants of the finals for first and third place will be determined, who will compete for the main awards of the tournament. In addition to the cup of the Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee and cups for second and third place, valuable prizes will be awarded to the best players of the tournament in the nominations "Goalkeeper", "Defender", "Forward", and the best scorer of the cup. In addition, during the hockey marathon, the best players of the teams will be honored after each match.

The upcoming tournament will essentially be the first official performance of the Vitebsk team, which has been updated by about 2/3 of its roster and may become one of the youngest teams in the Belarusian championship. During the offseason, several experienced players left HC Vitebsk, and they were replaced by young hockey players, including graduates of the Vitebsk school and promising athletes from neighboring countries. The changes affected almost all playing lines. Therefore, the main task for the Vitebsk hockey team in the upcoming tournament will be to develop game connections.

On the eve of the tournament, the Vitebsk club played two friendly matches against its future opponent, Slavutich from Smolensk. Vitebsk lost the first match with a score of 1:3, and in the second match, the Vitebsk team managed to take revenge with a score of 5:3.-0-