Severstal takes Dynamo to game seven. March 12 playoffs
The tightest series in the West is going all the way to game seven. Severstal got a home victory for the first time in this first-round match-up with Dynamo, squaring the series at 3-3 and setting up a win-or-bust showdown in Moscow on Monday.
Severstal Cherepovets 3 Dynamo Moscow 2 (1-0, 2-2, 0-0)
(Series tied at 3-3)
Severstal survived a tense – and sometimes explosive – third period to keep its playoff campaign alive with a narrow win over Dynamo. The home team jumped to a 3-0 lead, but saw that whittled down to a single tally midway through the second period. However, the visitor could not finish the job and frustration got the better of the Blue-and-Whites in the final seconds.
The home team got the only goal of an even first period after eight minutes. Nikolai Timashov was the architect, skating around the back of the Dynamo net and attempting to score on the wraparound. Alexander Yeryomenko stopped that attempt and got something behind two further efforts from Adam Liska on the rebound. However, the Slovak forward’s third shot found its way into the net.
Grabbing the lead did not enable Severstal to grab the initiative in the game, however. Both teams had their chances, but Dynamo’s offense was finding it hard to generate clear-cut chances on Vladislav Podyapolsky.
At the start of the second period, Severstal extended its lead and, for a time, threatened to run away with the game. First, Joonas Nattinen got on the end of a Jakob Stenqvist pass to make it 2-0 after the home team executed a superb counter attack in the opening minute of the middle frame. Then, on 28 minutes, Kirill Pilipenko chased down the puck in the corner, fed Daniil Vovchenko in the left-hand circle and celebrated his sixth point of the series after his team-mate fired home. Pilipenko, a former Dynamo prospect, has been on the scoresheet in all but one of the games in this series so far; with a goal and an assist in the second period here, Vovchenko joins him on six points. Dynamo goalie Yeryomenko went to the bench, replaced by Ivan Bocharov.
In the previous game, Dynamo jumped to a 3-0 lead early in the second period only to see Severstal roar back into contention. On Saturday, history repeated itself. It took a mere 34 seconds for Dmitry Rashevsky to get the visitor on the scoreboard. It wasn’t the most fluent of build-ups, coming with a flurry of turnovers and plenty of puck battles in the Severstal end. But when Eric O’Dell moved the puck to Rashevsky between the hash marks, the young forward had time and space to pick his spot on the top shelf.
Severstal was not happy. The home bench believed there was a hand pass involved as the puck bounced around behind the net. However, a video review upheld the on-ice decision and the goal stood. More pertinently, Dynamo now had a power play and began to pile up the pressure on Podyapolsky’s net. The defense was pulled out of shape and eventually O’Dell managed to set up Slava Voynov for a point shot that ripped through traffic and made it a one-goal game.
Now the dynamics changed. Severstal had gone from confidently anticipating a game seven to worrying about whether the visitor could complete its fightback. Dynamo, meanwhile, saw a real chance to end the series tonight. The home team adopted an active press in center ice to try to keep the Blue-and-Whites at arm’s length in the third period. For the most part, it was an effective tactic, frustrating the visiting players and protecting that slender lead. True, there were anxious moments when Vadim Shipachyov got the chance to pick out a shot that Podyapolsky struggled to save, or when the ever-active O’Dell rapped in a testing effort from the circle. For the most part, though, the home team did a solid job of running down the clock.
Ultimately, that proved too frustrating for Dynamo. In the 58th minute, Andrei Sergeyev took a minor penalty for holding back Vovchenko in center ice. As a result, Bocharov could not get to the bench until 59:25. The goalie was not a spectator for long, though. Thirteen seconds later, the action was overtaken by a brawl that drew in all 10 skaters. Nattinen traded blows with Dynamo’s defenseman Boykov, Oscar Lindberg fought it out with Igor Geraskin and six seconds later there was also a double minor for roughing issued to Mikhail Fisenko. As a result, Severstal played out the final seconds with a 5-on-3 advantage and closed out a victory that takes this series the full distance.
