Severstal stuns CSKA, Torpedo ties its series. March 4 playoffs
After two games in each of the eight Conference quarter-final series, every pair is locked at 1-1. In Saturday’s Western Conference action, Severstal grabbed a shock win in double overtime at CSKA thanks to Nikita Guslistov’s goal. Meanwhile, Torpedo heads to Moscow next week with its series against Dynamo deadlocked following a 5-2 home victory today.
Torpedo battles back to tie the series
Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 Dynamo Moscow 2 (2-0, 0-1, 3-1)
(Series tied at 1-1)
A stormy game in Nizhny Novgorod saw Torpedo level its series against Dynamo. As well as seven goals, the game was littered with clashes between the players and at one stage Dynamo was able to play six-on-three against its host. Two players, one on each side, received major penalties during a real battle.
After the opening game of this series, Torpedo was left to rue a refereeing call that handed Dynamo a key advantage on the way to a 3-1 victory. Today, Igor Larionov’s team made sure that there would be no external factors that could influence the result and took control of the play from the start.
The home team jumped to a 2-0 lead inside seven minutes, laying the foundations for a win that ties this series as the teams head to Moscow. Torpedo got on the power play after 53 seconds when Andrei Mironov was called for hooking, and turned that into the opening goal when Vladislav Firstov’s one-timer beat Ilya Konovalov. And a good start became a great one on six minutes when Andrei Belevich fired in a long-range shot through traffic. That spelled the end of Konovalov’s game, replaced by Dynamo’s back-up goalie Konstantin Volkov.
Volkov was soon called into action to deny Belevich a second goal before both of Torpedo’s goalscorers got involved in scuffles that resulted in two spells of four-on-four hockey. That did not greatly disrupt the home team, and Sergei Goncharuk was close to adding a third after Nikolai Kovalenko led a two-on-two breakaway.
Dynamo’s first major chance came in the 17th minute when Mironov intercepted the puck on the blue line, stepped forward and unleashed a slapshot that Ivan Kulbakov did well to stop. That gave the visitor a lift and the Blue-and-Whites made a bright start to the second period. When Maxim Dzhioshvili converted an Ilya Kablukov feed to the slot, his second goal of the playoffs put his team right back into contention.
However, that was as close as the visitor got in this game. Although Dynamo continued to press, it could not find a way through the Torpedo defense. As frustrations increased, Dzhioshvili took a major penalty after flattening Vasily Atanasov against the boards and his team’s hopes began to fade.
In the final stanza, Torpedo reasserted itself and extended its lead. Maxim Fedotov and Kirill Voronin took the scoreline to 4-1 early in the third period and Dynamo had no answers. Even a spell of six-on-four play following a penalty for Firstov could not immediately force the breakthrough that the visitor needed. Instead the game was broken up by another skirmish, with Fedotov getting a major for boarding while Kovalenko and Jordan Weal picked up roughing minors.
For a time, Dynamo got to play with a three-man advantage and eventually the pressure told. Firstov was already back in the game, but the six-man visiting offense finally got its goal in the 55th minute when Dmitry Rashevsky’s wrist shot finished off a pass from Vladislav Kodola. However, a penalty for Eric O’Dell undermined Dynamo’s push and Kovalenko finished the job with an empty net goal.
Guslistov stuns defending champ
CSKA Moscow 2 Severstal Cherepovets 3 2OT (0-1, 0-0, 2-1, 0-0, 0-1)
(Series tied at 1-1)
In regular season play, Sergei Fedorov’s CSKA had a habit of pulling the goalie and playing with an empty net in overtime. Today we got a first look at how the defending champion would deal with the extras in playoff hockey. Not surprisingly, Fedorov offered no such bold move on this occasion: apart from the higher stakes, there’s a world of difference between up to five minutes of four-on-three play and the possibility of 20 minutes of facing a five-man offense with an unguarded net.
Even without a man advantage, though, CSKA took control of the game in the extras. The first additional period saw the home team outshoot Severstal 17-2, but Alexander Samonov would not allow a way through in that 20-minute session.
Then the visitor delivered the winning blow at the start of the second overtime period. Young Nikita Guslistov produced a sensational effort, collecting a pass on halfway and surging down the right-hand board before dancing around Nikita Nesterov. With a pathway to goal opening for him, the 20-year-old cut inside and evaded the lunging Fredrik Claesson with a rising shot that beat Alexander Sharychenkov to tie the series.
In game one of this series, Severstal showed that it can be an awkward opponent for the Muscovites. Despite losing 2-5 in the end, the visitor led for some time in the game. Today, the Steelmen did even better. Alexander Suvorov’s fifth minute goal put the visitor in front, and that lead endured until midway through the third period. Although CSKA had a noticeable advantage in terms of shots and territory, the home team’s dominance was not absolute. In the first period, helped by a couple of power plays, Severstal had a slight edge in shots on goal; in the second, goalless session, the visiting defense worked hard to limit the number of good looks at Samonov’s net.
However, with so much attacking quality to call upon, CSKA was never likely to be denied for the full 60 minutes. On 48:31, the home team finally drew level. Vladislav Kamenev was the scorer, rifling home a lethal one-timer from the left-hand circle to the relief of the home crowd.
Within 45 seconds, CSKA was in front. This time Mikhail Grigorenko got the goal, arriving in front of the net in time to meet Maxim Sorkin’s swivel pass from the goal line. That double blow would have been a knock-out for many teams, and few in the arena anticipated what was coming next.
Severstal, though, is not an easy opponent to dispatch. Two minutes after falling behind, the visitor tied the game and set us on the road to overtime. This was a play that highlighted the importance of the face-off: Severstal won an attacking draw and Semyon Lugovyak’s point shot skipped through traffic in front of a startled Sharychenkov in the home net. He managed to keep out the effort from the former CSKA man but gave up a big rebound that Nikolai Timashov gleefully gobbled up.
That sent the game to the extras, where Severstal’s patience under pressure and Guslistov’s moment of magic secured a win that tied the series.
