Admiral, Ak Bars inch ahead. March 5 playoffs
Vladivostok celebrated victory as it hosted its first playoff game since 2017. A fightback and an overtime win against Salavat Yulaev put the Sailors up 2-1 in that series. In Tatarstan, Ak Bars also holds a 2-1 lead after posting a second successive 4-1 scoreline against Neftekhimik.
Sailors fight back for OT victory
Admiral Vladivostok 3 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 OT (0-0, 0-2, 2-0, 1-0)
(Admiral leads the series 2-1)
After a six-year wait, Vladivostok was treated to a cracker as playoff hockey returned to the Pacific coast port city. The Sailors rallied from 0-2 to defeat Salavat Yulaev in overtime and take a 2-1 lead in this first-round series. With two wins in the series, the team has already matched its best-ever playoff result (in 2017 it lost to Avangard in six games). Moreover, this is the first time Admiral has led in a playoff series.
Notably, this was only the third playoff game in KHL history to be played without a single penalty issued. And that clean slate covered 75 minutes of action, rather than the traditional 60.
The Ufa line-up raised eyebrows due to the absence of Josh Ho-Sang. The Canadian forward missed almost the entire regular season but seemed to be recovering well on his return to action at the start of the playoffs. Head coach Viktor Kozlov said the move was simply due to Nikolai Kulemin’s return to fitness, allowing the veteran to resume his place on the first line.
Regardless of the personnel, Salavat Yulaev tends to start on the front foot and this game was no exception. In response, Admiral worked hard to close down the space for the opposition to manoeuvre and frequently blocked shots. However, there were few chances to score and the teams went into the intermission deadlocked at 0-0.
In the second, Salavat Yulaev got ahead despite Admiral demonstrating far more of its own attacking potential. Although the visitor had to withstand some significant pressure, it also generated dangerous counterattacks. Two of them brought goals, with Artyom Pimenov opening the scoring before Kulemin doubled the lead.
However, once ahead Salavat Yulaev took its foot off the gas. The visitor played a passive game in the third period and allowed Admiral to take the initiative. After 15 minutes of the session, the shot count was 12-0 in the home team’s favor and after something of a comedy of errors in front of Ilya Ezhov’s net, Dinar Khamidullin’s first ever playoff goal had the Sailors right back in contention. With three minutes left, Evgeny Lisovets – back in the team today after recovering from an injury sustained late in the regular season – got the tying goal against one of his former clubs and took the game into overtime.
The decider came 15 minutes into those extras. After dominating the third period, Admiral had to absorb some Ufa pressure in the extras. However, the visitor could not carve out the winning chance and at the other end defenseman Yury Pautov grabbed the decisive goal. Danil Faizullin’s shot was pushed away into the corner, where Pautov instinctively fired in a shot from beyond the goal line and reaped the reward as the puck bounced off Ezhov and into the net.
Top seed proves too strong on the road
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 1 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (0-1, 1-1, 0-2)
(Ak Bars leads the series 2-1)
As this series moved to Nizhnekamsk, Ak Bars picked up a second victory to edge a 2-1 lead overall. The Eastern Conference top seed posted another solid victory after losing out in the series opener in overtime. Today’s margin might have been greater, but the piping twice came into play for Neftekhimik in the first period, helping the home team to hang around until late in the third.
The visitor made a good start to the game and its early pressure forced the first power play in the third minute. Neftekhimik withstood that, but found itself in further danger when Dmitry Kagarlitsky’s shot clipped the crossbar shortly after Andrei Belozyorov returned to the action.
Midway through the frame, Alexander Radulov had two chances in one shift and soon after that Ak Bars got the lead. Kirill Petrov was the scorer, arriving at the back door to put away the rebound after a seemingly straightforward shot from Kagarlitsky got away from Andrei Tikhomirov in the home net.
Late in the opening stanza, Kirill Adamchuk was close to doubling the lead when he joined the attack, but his shot rebounded off the crossbar.
Although Ak Bars had by far the better of the first period, outshooting Neftekhimik 15-11 and spending more than twice as long on the attack, the home team was not out of this game. At the start of the middle stanza, the home team proved it was still alive with a goal on its first power play of the afternoon. Nikita Yevseyev took the penalty, and Pavel Poryadin put his team level in the 22nd minute. Shortly after that, Poryadin drew a foul from Dmity Voronkov but a second power play did not produce a further goal for Neftekhimik.
After that reprieve, the visitor went down the ice to regain the lead. Radulov stormed down the right-hand channel and his backhand feed took a deflection off a defenseman’s stick and dropped for Ilya Safonov to fire home at the back door.
Back in front, Ak Bars was determined to finish the game off. It took some time before the visitor’s pressure paid off, but midway through the third a misplaced pass in center ice presented the puck to Nikita Dynyak. He advanced on Tikhomirov’s net to make it 3-1 with 10 minutes to play and leave Neftekhimik with a huge task to save the game. As the action went into the final five minutes, Tikhomirov left his post in favor of an extra skater, but Neftekhimik could not make the additional man count. Instead, Radulov claimed an empty net goal as Ak Bars repeated its 4-1 verdict from Friday to move ahead in the series.
