CSKA on cloud nine, Torpedo edges nine-goal thriller. March 8 playoffs
Nine was the magic number in the Western Conference on Wednesday. Defending champion CSKA, wounded by Monday’s 3-5 loss at Severstal, responded in emphatic style as it scored nine on the road in Cherepovets to tie the series. Fellow Moscow club Dynamo is also level at 2-2 after Torpedo snapped a 4-4 tie in overtime.
CSKA hits back in style
Severstal Cherepovets 3 CSKA Moscow 9 (0-4, 1-2, 2-3)
(Series tied at 2-2)
The defending champion showed its class with an astonishing nine-goal salvo to tie up this series. After losing here on Monday, CSKA found itself under some unaccustomed pressure. Sergei Fedorov’s team typically breezes through the early stages of the playoffs, but was down 2-1 in a series against a stubborn Severstal team. However, the response was perfect: four unanswered first period goals set up a convincing victory to take the teams back to the capital with the contest evenly poised.
Severstal, meanwhile, endured a day to forget. Unusually, the home team deployed three different goalies in the course of the game. Starting netminder Alexander Samonov came out of his net in the 14th minute after CSKA went up 3-0. Dmitry Shugayev replaced him, but was in turn replaced by Artyom Nazarkin at the start of the third period. Nazarkin, 20, made his only previous KHL appearance back in December 2021 in a 1-2 loss against Amur.
However, this game was all about CSKA’s offense. The visitor proved clinical, scoring six goals off 22 shots in the first two periods. Sergei Plotnikov opened the scoring midway through the first period when he redirected a Nikita Nesterov effort past Samonov. Severstal might have got a clue about the kind of day that was in store when a bench challenge ruled that there was no interference on the home goalie and CSKA got a power play to go with its lead. Sure enough, the Muscovites converted that chance with Vladislav Kamenev doubling the lead on 10:03.
It wasn’t long before Pavel Karnaukhov added a fourth goal and brought Samonov’s evening to a premature end. Anton Slepyshev had an assist on that play, then scored himself to make it 4-0 on 16:44. Severstal was not about to give up, though: a late power play saw Shugayev come to the bench to allow a spell of six-on-four play in the last seconds of the frame.
Early in the middle frame, the Steelmen got another power play and, once again, sent out six skaters. This time, the plan got its reward and Robin Press pulled a goal back. However, this was not the start of an unlikely recovery. Barely 30 seconds later, Takhir Mingachyov made it 5-1, then Mikhail Grigorenko added a sixth on another power play for the visitor. Nesterov collected his third assist of the game in the process.
Although the game was settled, the third period was not short of interest. First, Nazarkin acquitted himself well in the face of constant CSKA pressure. The youngster made a string of saves early in the session before fading in the last minutes. In addition, Severstal managed to make the final scoreline more respectable with a couple of consolation goals. Ruslan Abrosimov and Yegor Morozov were on target to close the gap a little, but CSKA responded with Slepyshev and Mingahcyov both getting their second of the game either side of a Prokhor Poltapov tally.
Bokun gives Torpedo a high-scoring win
Dynamo Moscow 4 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 OT (2-2, 1-1, 1-1, 0-1)
(Series tied at 2-2)
This game could have gone either way in regulation before Torpedo potted the winner midway through the first session of overtime. The result ties this battle at 2-2, with game five coming up on Friday.
Dynamo was quick out of the blocks in this game, looking to build on its 2-1 lead in the series and put itself in a strong position ahead of Friday’s return to Nizhny Novgorod. The home team scored twice in the first six minutes as the Blue-and-White power play wasted little time hitting top gear. Jordan Weal opened the scoring in the third minute, then a second Torpedo penalty with five minutes gone helped Eric O’Dell to double the lead.
On Monday, Dynamo blunted Torpedo’s dangerous offense, picking up a 3-0 victory as Ilya Konovalov enjoyed a shut-out. So when the home team jumped to a 2-0 lead early in Wednesday’s action, it was tempting to assume the visitor was drifting out of contention. However, Igor Larionov’s team had learned from its problems on offense and proved a very different proposition today. Torpedo was level before the intermission, with Sergei Goncharuk converting his team’s first power play before Maxim Fedotov tied it up just before the break. The teams went to the locker rooms deadlocked, even though Dynamo outshot its visitor 14-4 in the opening frame.
After the intermission, the home team quickly regained the lead. As in the first period, Weal scored an early goal. This time he struck at equal strength, taking possession on the blue line and advancing to fire in a shot that beat Ivan Kulbakov following a deflection off an opponent’s stick. However, Weal later found himself in the penalty box after attempting to halt Nikolai Kovalenko’s counterattack. With Torpedo on the power play, Goncharuk got his second of the game to make it 3-3 at the midway stage.
While Dynamo may have felt that its fast start earned it a position from which it should have gone on to win the game, the third period saw Torpedo get into a place from where it could touch victory. In the 54th minute Danil Veryayev set up Anton Sizov for a one-timer from deep and his effort surprised Konovalov to give the visitor the lead for the first time in the game. With less than seven minutes to play, Dynamo had little time to respond. However, the home team drew level when Brennan Menell fired in a shot that set the puck bouncing around in front of Kulbakov’s net. Dmitry Rashevsky stepped in to take charge of the situation and fire the Blue-and-Whites level.
That sent the game to overtime, the first in this series. Torpedo looked the livelier of the two teams during the extras and got the reward for that endeavor in the 69th minute. Daniil Bokun’s first career playoff goal made the difference, with the 26-year-old Belarusian firing home from a Yegor Vinogradov pass out of the corner.
