In the opening game of the first round of the Continental Cup, the host Polis Akademisi succumbed to a physical stronger Slavia Sofia

The first round of the 2009/10 Continental Cup has started in Ankara, Turkey with the host and Turkish champion, Polis Akademisi, FC Barcelona (Spain), Slavia Sofia (Bulgaria) and Hertzilya (Israel) as participating teams.

The BEL-PA arena is a small but nice rink and the Turkish Federation has made notable efforts organizing a warn welcome for the teams and the spectators. The federation has furthermore forged a deal with a national tv station which will broadcast the home team's games.

For an early afternoon game, the opening game between Slavia Sofia and Polis Akademisi attracted a decent crowd.

Slavia Sofia, the Bulgarian champion, is almost synonymous with the Bulgarian national team. Notable players include the forward, Stanislav Muhachov and defenseman, Roman Murganov (who recently had a tryout with Manglerud Star in the Norwegian Get-Liga) and the skilled American center, Jeffrey Haglund. The team likes to play a physical game. Polis Akademisi likewise provides the core of the Turkish national team and has only one import, namely the Ukrainian forward, Dmitri Rudenko.

Slavia opened the scoring on the powerplay at 4:50 when Svetlin Stoev picked up the rebound after a shot from Peter Hadzhitonev. Two minutes later, the home team got the equalizer when Slavia's goaltender, Konstantin Mikhailov failed to block a weak shot from Serkan Gümüş; Yavuz Karakoç simply had to touch the puck into the net. Slavia regained the lead at 16:04 when Muchachov deflected a shot from Hadzhitonov.
However, it didn't take long for Polis to tie the game again as Yavuz Karakoç made a quick pass to Ozan Güven who found the right angle to beat the shaken Slavia goaltender, Mikhaylov at 17:50
Polish could be quite happy with their accomplishments in the first period. The team has quick and technical players, in particular Ozan Güven, the captain, and Alper Solak, but had difficulties compensating for Slavia's toughness and the strong Bulgarian trio, Morgunov-Muchakov-Stoev.

Slavia also dominated the second period and added a lot of rubber on Levent Ozbayduğan who had replaced
the starting goaltender Bariş Uçele after the first frame. Slavia, however, didn't get closer than hitting the post on a hard shot from Morgunov. In the third period, however, Polis ran out of luck.

44 seconds into the third period, Slavia managed to take the lead again on a combination by Morgunov and Muchakov. This time Polis failed to answer quickly back giving Slavia time to organize its defense before the end game. At 50:13 Slavia got an insurance goal when Martin Boyadjiev picked up a rebound on Muchakov's shot. The game was then stopped for about 10 minutes as the plexi glass had to replaced in one end of the arena. After the break, Slavia added three more goals within four minutes, while Polis scored once. The final score 7:3 reflected Slavia's greater concentration and physical presence.

Internationalhockey.net MVP are: Stanislav Muchakov for Slavia and Erdoğan Coşkun for Polis Akademisi

Polis Akademisi Ankara - Slavia Sofia 3-7 (2-2,0-0,1-5)
0-1 04:50 Svetlin Stoev (Peter Hadzhitonev,Bogdan Stefanov)PP
1-1 06:34 Yavuz Karakoç (Serkan Gümüş)
1-2 16:04 Stanislav Muhachov (Peter Hadzhitonev,Svetlin Stoev)
2-2 17:50 Gürkan Cetinkaya (Serkan Gümüş,Ufuk Güçlü)
2-3 40:44 Stanislav Muhachov (Roman Morgunov)
2-4 50:13 Martin Boyadjiev (Georgi Mladenov,Rosen Asenov)
2-5 53:43 Stanislav Muhachov (Peter Hadzhitonev,Martin Boyadjiev)
3-5 54:32 Erdoğan Coşkun (Caner Baykan,Dmitri Rudenco)
3-6 56:30 Georgi Mladenov (Martin Boyadjiev)PP
3-7 57:25 Roman Morgunov (Peter Hadzhitonev)
PIM: 10x2+1x10(Hamarat) - 5x2 SOG: 20-39