All square in the East. March 3 playoffs
After two surprise results on the first day of playoff action, Friday’s games were more in line with expectations in the Eastern Conference. Salavat Yulaev defeated Admiral 5-2 to tie that series, while Ak Bars avenged its loss against Neftekhimik and made it 1-1 in the Tatarstan derby.
Ufa hits back with emphatic win
Salavat Yulaev Ufa 5 Admiral Vladivostok 2 (3-1, 2-1, 0-0)
(Series tied at 1-1)
Salavat Yulaev had little difficulty in tying this Eastern Conference first round series with a powerful display. After Admiral sprang a surprise in the opening game, grabbing an overtime win, Ufa bounced back with an attacking display that might have produced more goals. However, with the game won in the second period, both teams seemed happy to conserve some energy ahead of Sunday’s game three in the Far East.
With less than two minutes played, Salavat Yulaev got a power play when Nikolajs Jelisejevs was penalized for a high hit after a high hit on Ryan Murphy. It didn’t take the home team long to convert that into the opening goal, with Shakir Mukhamadullin smashing home a slapshot.
Admiral found a quick response to that, tying the game in the fifth minute thanks in part to Jelisejevs. His shot was too hot for Ilya Ezhov to handle and when Mikhail Naumenkov was unable to clear the danger, Michal Kristof took charge and forced the puck home. Immediately after that, the visitor got its first power play of the game, but the Sailors’ special teams could not match the effectiveness of their counterparts. Back at full strength, Salavat Yulaev intensified the pressure and regained the lead in the 15th minute through Danil Bashkirov. His effort was deflected past Nikita Serebryakov via a defenseman’s stick.
The visitor might have managed to stay in the game if it had reached the intermission with just one goal to make up. Admiral killed another penalty late in the frame but, in the final minute, Salavat Yulaev got its third. This time, Alexander Kadeikin was on target, reacting fastest after Danil Alalykin’s shot flashed wide of the net and cannoned back off the boards.
Salavat Yulaev controlled the game fairly comfortably at the start of the second period, creating several decent chances. Only a rush by Prokhor Korbit, Admiral’s game winner on Wednesday, caused much alarm at the other end. The pressure paid off midway through the session when Ivan Drozdov made it 4-1. Leonids Tambijevs challenged that play for offside, but the officials dismissed his complaint and handed Admiral a delay of game minor. That was followed by a high stick from Libor Sulak and the remaining three skaters could not stop Salavat Yulaev adding a fifth through Alexander Chmelevski.
Suddenly, the game was in danger of becoming a rout. Josh Ho-Sang went close, and another penalty kept Ufa on the PP as Admiral wobbled. But the Sailors held on and even pulled a goal back late in the frame when Anton Berlyov struck on his team’s power play in the 38th minute.
Encouraged, the visitor made a lively start to the third period. However, Salavat Yulaev knew that its big lead meant it could play out the closing stages with some comfort. In the end, the game drifted to a fairly tame conclusion. Tomorrow brings a long journey for both teams, but each camp will travel with some optimism after splitting the opening games of the series.
Voronkov’s double puts Ak Bars back on track
Ak Bars Kazan 4 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 (2-0, 1-1, 1-0)
(Series tied at 1-1)
After an overtime loss in the series opener, Ak Bars had a point to prove against its Tatar neighbor. Moreover, a roster that many expect to be a serious cup contender needed to reassert its championship credentials and tie up this first-round contest.
Clearly, Dmitry Voronkov was fired up for this game. The Angarsk native has worked his way through the Ak Bars system after arriving from Siberia in 2018. As such, he’s steeped in the traditions of one of the KHL’s most prominent clubs. And he took charge of this encounter from the first seconds. The 22-year-old opened the scoring after just 14 seconds, redirecting a Slava Voynov point shot to give Ak Bars a perfect start. Then, in the seventh minute he doubled that lead with a power play goal. This time Voronkov collected the puck on the back boards and fired it to the crease. A helpful bounce off Andrei Tikhomirov’s pads saw it drop into the net and Ak Bars led 2-0.
That was the end of Tikhomirov’s game, with Alexander Sudnitsin replacing him. Almost immediately, he had to fend off another Ak Bars power play, but to give Neftekhimik credit the visitor refused to buckle after that horror start. Despite a couple of big chances for the home team in the closing minutes of the first period, the scoreline remained 2-0 until the break.
After that intermission, Neftekhimik got exactly the fast start it needed. As Maxim Beryozkin released a point shot, Kirill Vorobyov forced his way to the slot and stretched out his stick to divert the puck beyond Timur Bilyalov in the home net. For a moment, it was game on. However, Alexander Radulov quickly restored a two-goal cushion for Ak Bars with another effort fired in from beyond the goal line and deflected into the net.
Radulov was involved in the next big incident just after the midway point when he triggered a fight. First, he floored Andrei Chivilyov. Then, after the Neftekhimik got up to remonstrate, the volatile Ak Bars forward delivered an uppercut to his opponent. While that was going on, Maxim Goncharov and Ilya Safonov also traded blows, resulting in a crowded penalty box and a power play for Neftekhimik.
The game remained bad-tempered, and when Ak Bars found itself with a 4-on-3 power play in the third period, Stanislav Galiyev extended the home lead. That was the final incident of note as the teams head to Neftekhimik with the series tied at 1-1.
