Hawks on top, Avto and Magnitka all square. March 8 playoffs
Avangard is just one game away from progressing after today’s 4-1 win in Novosibirsk put the Hawks 3-1 up in its series against Sibir. However, Avtomobilist and Metallurg are locked at 2-2 after the Motormen won 4-0 on the road to tie up that battle.
Gritsyuk returns as Avangard moves clear
Sibir Novosibirsk 1 Avangard Omsk 4 (1-2, 0-0, 0-2)
(Avangard leads the series 3-1)
In a series that has often been tight, this has the feel of a breakthrough win. It wasn’t just that Avangard moved 3-1 ahead in the contest, although that is in itself a significant step. The manner of the Hawks’ success here is also significant. For the second time in the series, Avangard recorded a 4-1 victory.
Sibir’s loss on Monday owed much to the quality of Avangard’s power play. Two of the visitor’s four goals – which came from just 12 shots on target – came while Evgeny Chesalin was in the box. Today, Chesalin was scratched from the line-up, while Dmitry Ovchinnikov, previously ever present in regular and post season, was also dropped.
Avangard, meanwhile, brought Viktor Svedberg into the defense in place of Alexei Bereglazov, whose wife was giving birth. The visitor also welcomed back fit-again forward Arseny Gritsyuk. And it was the youngster who celebrated his return with the opening goal in the second minute, picking up a great feed from behind the net and showing great technique to finish the chance. Sibir’s unfortunate Ilya Morozov inadvertently provided the “assist” on that play, attempting to move the puck from behind his own net and sending it to Gritsyuk instead.
In game three, the visiting power play prospered thanks to some needless Sibir penalties. That theme continued here, with a too many men call leading to Corban Knight making it 3-1. Not that the home team was alone in its disciplinary problems. Fyodor Malykhin saw Valentin Pyanov pull a goal back as he sat in the box on a delay of game call; on returning to the ice, he continued to protest his innocence to the officials and immediately sat for a further two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Gritsyuk was close to claiming a second goal at the start of the middle frame. Again, a defensive error helped the young Avangard forward, but this time Trevor Murphy was relieved to see the puck go wide of the post. However, much of the second period passed with little danger to either goalie.
For much of the game, Sibir was forced to rely on getting pucks to the net and hoping for a generous bounce. However, Avangard defended carefully and accurately, offering few chances to really test Vasily Demchenko in the visitor’s net. Although the shot count strongly favored the home side, most of these efforts were relatively straightforward efforts from long range and carried little menace for an experienced goalie.
In the end, another error from Sibir saw the home team present Sergei Tolchinsky with the puck in center ice and the Avangard man coolly converted his chance to make it 3-1. Any doubts about the outcome were ended in the 54th minute when Reid Boucher – prolific against Sibir in the regular season – got his first goal of this year’s playoffs to make it 4-1. Boucher and his team-mates will look to finish the series in Omsk on Friday.
Motormen tie it up
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 0 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 4 (0-0, 0-2, 0-2)
(Series tied at 2-2)
After two epic encounters that went into double overtime, game four of this series was surprisingly straightforward. Avtomobilist enjoyed a convincing win, tying things up at 2-2 before the action moves back to the Urals on Friday.
Metallurg brought Josh Currie back into the team for the first time in the playoffs. He replaced the injured Yegor Korobkin, who was hurt during Monday’s OT success. Other than that, the home team was unchanged. Avto, likewise, was much the same as in the previous game with head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin contenting himself with a couple of tweaks to his defensive pairings.
There were few surprises in the first period as both teams stuck to their familiar game plans. Maybe Metallurg was a bit slow out of the blocks, offering the early initiative to Avtomobilist. However, the visitor had nothing to show for that beyond a power play. The teams went into the break without a goal, and with little to choose between them.
After the intermission, Magnitka picked up the pace and began to attack more. That helped the home team get two power play chances, but the second of them proved costly. An error from Grigory Dronov, whose attempted no-look pass went straight toCurtis Valk, saw the Motormen take the lead on 31 minutes. Valk sprinted clear to pot a shorthanded goal, extending his productive streak to four games.
Boosted by that goal, the visitor went on to double its lead when Denis Barantsev smashed home an unstoppable one-timer in the 34th minute.
The home team’s problems in front of goal continued in the third period. There were more power play chances for Metallurg, but Johan Mattsson came up with the answers in the Avto net. The Swede finished with 35 saves to backstop his team to victory. Meanwhile, Alexei Makeyev put the result beyond doubt when he added a third goal in the 53rd minute. To add to Metallurg’s frustration, that goal came on the power play. The decision to withdraw Eddie Pasquale and play with six skaters for the last couple of minutes looked like more a gesture than a serious bid to save the game; whatever the motivation, it ended badly for Magnitka when Oleg Li scored into the empty net to complete the job.
