Oleg Tverdovsky recalled a near-fight involving Alex Ovechkin during the 2005 Russian Superleague Championship semifinals. Ovechkin, then 19, delivered a hit into the back of Jaromir Jagr in game two while playing for Dynamo Moscow against Avangard Omsk. The hit occurred near the benches, and Tverdovsky stepped in quickly to defend his team’s best player. Tverdovsky described the incident as a routine scuffle rather than a true fight, emphasizing that teammates must react to such actions. Dynamo Moscow won the series 11-0, and Dynamo later captured the 2005 RSL championship.
"“It's hard to even call it a fight,” Tverdovsky said to Sports.ru's Daria Tuboltseva and translated by Google Translate. “Dynamo was leading by a large margin, and late in the game, Sasha made a bodycheck on Jagr near the bench. And such things do not happen on any team, in any league, without a reaction from teammates. I was there and simply reacted. There was no need to commit such a dirty trick against our team's best player in such a situation. So nothing out of the ordinary happened - a bit of a scuffle, just a routine matter.”"
"The 19-year-old Ovechkin landed a hit into the back of Jagr in game two of Avangard Omsk and Dynamo Moscow's semifinals series, which Dynamo took 11-0. Tverdovsky took exception to the blow and quickly stepped in to defend his team's best player - a play that's still recalled in Russia decades later because of the players involved."
"Ovechkin seized his first professional post-scrum moment, hyping up the already-rowdy crowd and brandishing his jersey's logo as he got escorted off. Dynamo Moscow went on to claim the 2005 RSL championship, and Ovechkin racked up 31 penalty minutes in his 10 postseason games."
Read at RMNB
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