Admiral seals playoff place, Ak Bars finishes top in the East. February 19
A 4-0 victory at Amur confirmed that Ak Bars would finish top of the Eastern Conference standings at the end of the regular season. It also helped Admiral clinch the seventh playoff ticket in the conference despite a 1-4 loss at home to Avtomobilist. The Sailors confirmed their place later in the day when Traktor, the last remaining team that could overtake them, lost to SKA.
Defeated Admiral still celebrates playoff place
Admiral Vladivostok 1 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 (0-1, 0-1, 1-2)
The Sailors could not get the win that would have guaranteed a playoff spot, but still finished the day with a ticket to post season thanks to defeats for Amur and Traktor. Avtomobilist, meanwhile, moved up to second in the Eastern Conference but can no longer catch leader Ak Bars.
For the Motormen, the latter part of the season has been frustrating. Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team has not won back-to-back games since early December and in recent weeks has alternated wins and losses. It speaks to the unpredictable and inconsistent form of many teams in the east that Avto remains high in the standings: with the exception of post-Bilyaletdinov Ak Bars, nobody has shown the kind of compelling form that would make it a stand-out contender in the playoffs.
Today, at least, Avtomobilist avenged its 3-1 loss to Admiral 24 hours earlier. Midway through the first period, Alexei Makeyev opened the scoring; midway through the second, Stephane Da Costa doubled that lead.
Admiral belatedly began to show some offensive presence at the start of the third. When Anton Berlyov harried Yefim Gurkin, the visiting defenseman coughed up the puck and presented Alexander Shevchenko with the chance to pull a goal back. That inspired the Sailors to go in search of more, but when Berlyov took a double minor for high sticks the host’s hopes took a nosedive. Curtis Valk converted the power play to give Avtomobilist some breathing space, then Makeyev’s second of the game finished the job.
Voronkov’s double helps Ak Bars secure top spot
Amur Khabarovsk 0 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (0-2, 0-0, 0-2)
Victory in Khabarovsk was enough to guarantee top spot in the Eastern Conference for Ak Bars. A comfortable win in the final regular season road game completes a remarkable transformation for a team that found itself outside the playoff places back in the fall. However, Amur’s defeat leaves the home team running out of games as it bids to catch Neftekhimik in eighth place.
Ak Bars quickly gained the initiative after a penalty on Jan Drozg and an early goal from Dmitry Voronkov. The forward got a fortunate bounce as the puck hit his shoulder, but it was enough to extend his productive streak to five games. Voronkov was also involved in the next big incident of the game as he got into a fight with Amur’s Vyacheslav Gretsky. The home forward ended up with 30 penalty minutes in that incident: 5+20 for his foul on Dmitry Yudin, plus another five for his fight. Alexander Radulov joined Voronkov in the box on the minor, but when he returned to the game Ilya Safonov extended the visitor’s lead on the power play.
Just as in Saturday’s game, Amur needed to retrieve a 0-2 deficit. This time, though, the Tigers were unable to do so. After a goalless second period, Ak Bars took the game away in the third. Radulov made it 3-0 on the power play before Voronkov potted his second of the game. Amir Miftakhov finished with 39 saves for his shut-out as Ak Bars secured top spot in the Eastern Conference – and a possible rematch with Amur if the Tigers make the playoffs.
SKA completes its century
SKA St. Petersburg 4 Traktor Chelyabinsk 1 (1-0, 1-0, 2-1)
Traktor fluffed its chance to draw level on points with eighth-placed Neftekhimik, going down to table-topping SKA in St. Petersburg. The home team broke through the 100-point barrier with Sunday’s victory and looks to be in ominous form ahead of the playoffs.
Traktor’s loss was enough to secure Admiral’s post season place, while Anvar Gatiyatullin’s team remains in tenth, two points behind Neftekhimik. With three games left, Traktor needs to make up three points on the Wolves since the tie-breaker would go against the Chelyabinsk club. Meanwhile, Amur lies between the two, having played one game more, and will also have its say in the final standings.
When these teams met in Chelyabinsk, SKA powered to a 9-3 victory. On home ice, Roman Rotenberg’s men started as if they wanted another big win. Pressure from the opening faceoff got its reward in the fifth minute when Dmitrij Jaskin opened the scoring. The Czech was close to doubling that lead a couple of minutes later, firing a one-timer from close range off Nikita Gusev’s feed. This time, though, Kirill Ustimenko got his angles right and stopped the shot at the near post.
However, when Traktor got the first power play of the game, the visitor had the puck in Dmitry Nikolayev’s net. Sergei Kalinin redirected a Sergei Telegin shot beyond the SKA goalie, but a video review ruled that his stick was high and SKA held onto its lead.
Midway through the second period, SKA increased that advantage with a shorthanded goal. The home team forced a turnover, Mikhail Vorobyov released the pacey Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov and he skated down the ice to outwit Ustimenko. Late in the frame, another SKA penalty saw Traktor come close to pulling one back. However, neither Kalinin nor Teemu Pulkkinen could force the puck home after Alexei Byvaltsev’s point shot caused chaos in front of Nikolayev.
Traktor could feel that it was still in contention at the start of the third period, but a penalty on Byvaltsev led to a power play goal for Vorobyov and a 3-0 lead always looked too much for the visitor to overcome. Pulkkinen got one back in the 53rd minute, but that was as close as Traktor would get. Late in the game, a penalty for Zakhar Bardakov enabled Ustimenko to make way for a sixth skater. However, a six-on-four advantage saw Alexander Volkov hit the post before Stepan Falkovsky found the empty net to seal a 4-1 win.
