As everyone knows, Nikita Filatov (pictured - Getty Images) has just been loaned back to Russia by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He played his first match in his mother club CSKA Moscow on Saturday, and it was a triumph. Playing more than 16 minutes on ice, he scored the Game Winning Goal, added two assists on his team's victory over Traktor Chelyabinsk.
"I took the right decision" - he said in an interview with allhockey.ru after the match. "I am happy for my first game here, but the first thing I am happy for is my team's victory" - added Nikita. He also got man of the match honors, and he felt it was "pleasant. I scored and successfully played my first game – I'm very happy".
He scored his first goal with CSKA jersey at the 43th minute's mark, and he described his goal like that: "Monya gave me an excellent pass. I got it, worked the puck. No one checked me and thus I shot. Good that it hit the net." He also assisted Monya's goal fifteen minutes later and successfully passed the puck to Denis Kulyash for CSKA's first goal of the match on the second period. But he wasn't happy only for his performance. He was also pleased that "everyone wanted to win, there was a big drive. We did feel the match. Even on the bench we were supporting each other for the whole match. We worked to win the match. Traktor is a very aggressive and tough team. That and the fact that they scored first complicated things for us. I liked Traktor and it was truly a not easy game for us."
Filatov's new game has also been all about new team and line mates. They were the aforementioned Dmitry Monya and veteran Albert Leschev. It was - he said - "Super. It was simply a pleasure to play with him. Albert Leschev is twice as old as me and I remember that when I was a child I used to go seeing him playing. He's a master, playing with him is easy and pleasant. I trained with him for half a hour yesterday and now we played a good match. The guy does know hockey."
No regrets to be back - he also stated. "I've never thought about regrets. I was sure that all would be good. I took the right decision."
Filatov's next game will be played on Monday against a much tougher opponent, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the former club of Pittsburgh Penguin Evgeny Malkin and Toronto Maple Leaf Nikolai Kulemin.
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