Continuing our series at khl.ru of the most popular action clips from the sixth KHL Championship, we give you the five most frequently viewed saves of last season.
The most-watched save came from Medvescak’s Barry Brust. The Canadian loves to make forays out of his goal, but on this occasion he made a serious error, passing straight to Spartak forward Vyacheslav Kozlov who gratefully fired off an accurate shot, but Brust redeemed himself with an agile reaction save.
Second place goes to SKA goaltender Alexander Salak. CSKA’s Nikolai Prokhorkin produced a series of feints which sent Salak to his knees before setting up Sergei Shirokov, lurking dangerously at the far post. Alexei Morozov’s arms went up to celebrate a goal, but Salak rescued his team with a diving save in the style of a soccer goalie.
Sometimes a skater is called on to do the goalie’s job. Trailing to Ugra in Khanty-Mansiysk with under a minute remaining, Avangard replaced the netminder with a sixth skater. Radek Smolenak took a shot at the unguarded net, but Omsk defenseman Miroslav Blatyak was alert to the danger and thwarted his fellow Czech with this acrobatic one-handed save.
During the thrilling first round playoff series between Salavat Yulaev and Torpedo, young Ufa goalie Andrei Vasilevsky foiled Denis Parshin’s penalty shot attempt with a lightning-swift raise of his pads.
Number five in our list of most-viewed saves of the season is this stunning effort from Traktor’s Michael Garnett against Spartak. Former teammate Deron Quint’s powerful strike from the blue line hits the Canadian in the mask. Play continues, as the rules demand, and despite being momentarily disorientated, Garnett somehow recovers in time to stop Rastislav Spirko’s follow-up shot from close range.
