Evgeny Kuznetsov recruited Zach Fucale to play for his hometown KHL team, Traktor Chelyabinsk, in June 2023. Now, he may be regretting it after being shut out by his former Capitals teammate 3-0 on Thursday.
Fucale made 38 stops in the victory over SKA St. Petersburg — none better than a miracle glove save that kept the game scoreless in the second period.
“Call him KING ZACH,” the KHL wrote on Twitter.
The 2023 Calder Cup champion made the save on SKA’s Mikhail Grigorenko after stopping an attempt at the far post and falling over. As the puck rotated over to the right circle, Fucale, on his side and completely out of position, reached out with his glove and had his prayer was answered. Despite being in the opening weeks of the 2024-25 campaign, Fucale’s save could end up being the KHL’s best by year’s end.
Traktor would rally after the stop, scoring three goals in the third period (2 from Maxim Shabanov and another from Vitaly Kratsov).
The victory marked Fucale’s second in three games. He’s stopped 84 of the first 88 shots he’s faced this season and boasts a .955 save percentage and 1.36 goals against average.
“I don’t know how many blocked shots we had tonight but that’s how we win hockey games,” Fucale said to his team in the locker room after the W. “That’s how we’re going to play in the playoffs. Really proud of this group, good job tonight.”
On the other side of the ice, SKA was shut out for the second consecutive game and now sits in 9th out of 11 teams in the KHL’s West Division. After scoring in his debut for SKA, Kuznetsov has gone without a point in the last three games and is no longer the team’s captain.
The loss to Traktor was particularly emotional as the club is Kuznetsov’s former hometown team.
“I don’t want to talk about it yet. It’s been a tough day, let’s say,” Kuznetsov said to Rossiyskaya Gazeta when asked what it was like to play in the reunion game. His words were translated by Google Translate.
“They scored, and we didn’t. That’s the difference,” Kuznetsov said of the loss. “In principle, everything was expected. We knew that they would be patient, work, lift the puck up, shoot. The game was in our hands, but it turned out like this.”
The full game highlights from the KHL YouTube account are below.
