Prokhorkin’s double gives Avangard the edge. March 2 playoffs
This keenly anticipated clash between two traditional powerhouses of the East proved every bit as competitive as expected. In the end, defending champion Avangard went to overtime in Kazan before Nikolai Prokhorkin settled the outcome.
Ak Bars Kazan 1 Avangard Omsk 2 OT (0-0, 0-0, 1-1, 0-1)
(Avangard leads the series 1-0)
After lifting the cup last season, Avangard’s defense was not always wholly convincing. Indeed, the Hawks failed to secure a top-four place in the East and thus gave up home ice advantage at the start of the playoffs. Moreover, there was a tough assignment in store against an Ak Bars team that is always expected to be firmly in the mix when the honors are up for grabs.
However, Kazan was not entirely compelling during the regular season either. A fourth-placed finish in the East was no disgrace, but Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team languished some way behind Metallurg and Traktor over the course of the campaign. This was all set for a clash of the titans, and game one provided the hard-fought encounter everyone was expecting.
Avangard made the brighter start and had the better of the first period. However, even in that session, Ak Bars steadily came into the game and was beginning to test Simon Hrubec late in the opening stanza.
The home team had a great chance to open the scoring early in the second. With Sergei Tolchinsky serving a minor penalty, Jordan Weal set up Eric Fehr on the slot but the Canadian veteran could not convert at the far post. Another veteran, Danis Zaripov, then produced a defense-splitting pass but once again Fehr was denied. Avangard killed that penalty but Hrubec remained under pressure for much of the second period and produced a notable stop late in the frame to stop Daniil Tarasov’s redirect.
After two-and-a-half goalless periods, the visitor finally broke the deadlock in the 54th minute. Nikolai Prokhorkin was the scorer, with a marker that was largely self made. The forward surged forward from center ice, putting doubt into the mind of defenseman Dmitry Yudin. That proved to be the Ak Bars man’s undoing: too late to commit himself to a challenge, he was powerless to prevent Prokhorkin’s progress. Up close with Timur Bilyalov, Prokhorkin found the angle to slide the puck past an outstretched pad and inside the far post.
Ak Bars had less than seven minutes to save the game, but needed just two. The Hawks’ defense failed to tie down Nikolai Kovalenko behind the net and he was able to get the puck out to the slot. Avangard’s defensive problems continued as Pavel Dedunov got caught up under his skates and presented possession to Dmitry Kagarlitsky, who pounced on the chance to tie the scores and send us into overtime.
However, this was to be Prokhorkin’s day. The 2017 Gagarin Cup winner was an unexpected arrival at Avangard late in pre-season, traded from Metallurg with Denis Zernov going the other way. Today, the center highlighted what Avangard saw in him with a game-winning performance. Three minutes into the extras, he scampered to collect an underhit drop pass from Peter Cehlarik and turned that unpromising opening into the game’s decisive moment. Coming off the boards, he circled to the top of the right-hand circle and unleashed a wrist shot that whistled past Bilyalov’s glove to give the defending champion an early lead in the series.
