Avangard advances, Avtomobilist moves ahead. March 10 playoffs
The first Eastern Conference semi-finalist is confirmed: Avangard defeated Sibir in overtime to complete a 4-1 series win. Avtomobilist could join the Hawks on Sunday if it wins in Magnitogorsk. Today the Motormen won 6-3 on home ice, powering to a 5-0 lead inside 26 minutes.
Hawks fly into next round
Avangard Omsk 4 Sibir Novosibirsk 3 OT (0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 1-0)
(Avangard wins the series 4-1)
Avangard reeled off a fourth successive victory to win this Siberian series. However, it took overtime to finish the job here after Sibir bravely battled back to tie this game late on. Ziyat Paigin, who scored his first ever playoff goal earlier in this series, got the decider today as the Hawks became the first team to reach the Eastern semi-finals.
For the third game running, Sibir had more shots on goal and more attacking possession than Avangard. However, the home team defended well and made the most of its chances to record another victory.
The early stages saw both teams playing precise but cautious hockey. Sibir, in particular, concentrated on defense in the first period and ensured that Denis Kostin was rarely troubled in goal. As a result, it was little surprise that the teams were locked at 1-1 going to the intermission.
After the intermission, Sibir began to show greater attacking intent. However, scoring chances were still few and far between until midway through the session. Then Sibir got its first power play and began to pose some significant questions of Vasily Demchenko, only for Avangard to resume full strength and open the scoring in the 33rd minute. Semyon Chistyakov broke the deadlock, firing a wrister through traffic to breach Kostin’s defenses at last.
However, Sibir tied the scores in the final moments of the session. Alexander Sharov won possession in the corner and sent the puck back to the point, where Trevor Murphy fired home to make it 1-1. That came 20 seconds before the intermission, and 41 seconds into the third period, the visitor had the lead. Sibir won the opening face-off and piled onto the attack, which ended with a goal for Valentin Pyanov.
That prompted Avangard to raise the tempo and the home team found a tying goal within a couple of minutes when Vladimir Tkachyov’s deflected shot got past Kostin. The visiting goalie then pulled off a huge save to deny Alex Broadhurst the go-ahead goal just seconds after Tkachyov’s strike. The Hawks had to wait until a power play midway through the session before captain Damir Sharipzyanov made it 3-2.
Sibir was left with 11 minutes to save the game and the series. As a result, the visitor switched to all-out attack. Avangard largely abandoned any pretence of looking for more goals, but could not repel every wave of white-uniformed menace. With 2:44 left to play, another well worked passage of play around the Avangard net found a gap in the Omsk defense and Michal Cajkovsky fired into the open side of the net to take the game into overtime.
However, the visitor had not completed its task. To prolong the series, Sibir had to win here. Instead, in the third minute of overtime, Paigin spotted that Kostin’s view was completely blocked by players from both teams. The defenseman picked out a pinpoint shot that found the corner of the net to settle the outcome of this Siberian series.
Fast start puts Avtomobilist one game away from round two
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 6 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (3-0, 2-3, 1-0)
(Avtomobilist leads the series 3-2)
The Motormen came out on top in a high-scoring game to take the lead in this series. Now Nikolai Zavarukhin’s men can finish the job in Magnitogorsk on Sunday and advance to the second round for the first time since 2019.
However, while the final scoreline looked fairly comfortable for the home team, Avtomobilist had to hold its nerve as Magnitka made a brave attempt to recover from 0-5. Avto completely dominated the early stages and five goals in 26 minutes. After that, though, Metallurg rallied and pulled three back before the end of the middle frame. In the final frame the flow of goals dried up at both ends until Stephane Da Costa’s empty net tally wrapped up the win.
Avtomobilist made a great start to the game. The home team forced the first penalty of the day after 31 seconds when Andrei Chibisov tripped Nick Ebert. That early power play brought the opening goal when Alexei Makeyev got to the slot and steered Anatoly Golyshev’s feed into the net. Midway through the first period, Alexei Vasilevsky doubled the lead with a point shot off a Curtis Valk feed, then Valk himself made it 3-0 to chase Eddie Pasquale from the Metallurg net. Pasquale lasted just 13 minutes and, for a time, it seemed that Vasily Koshechkin was able to put the brakes on the rampant Avto offense. At the same time, Igor Bobkov replaced Johan Mattsson in the home net, with the Swedish goalie apparently suffering an injury.
However, Koshechkin was beaten right at the start of the second period when Nick Ebert made it 4-0 just 30 seconds after the restart. Whatever gameplan Ilya Vorobyov had drawn up in the intermission was already out of the window for the visitor and there was worse to come when Andrei Obidin finished an odd-man rush to make it 5-0 on 25:58.
At this stage, it looked like Avtomobilist might produce a rout. Instead, and seemingly out of nowhere, Metallurg began to play itself back into the game. Three goals in nine minutes brought the contest back to life as Philippe Maillet, Nikita Korostelyov and Brendan Leipsic hauled Magnitka back into contention. In the midst of all that, the visitor killed 30 seconds of 3-on-5 penalty. The third period was set to be intriguing.
However, Avtomobilist did a great job in that final session. Although Metallurg fired in plenty of shots, solid defense meant that there were few clear cut scoring chances for the visitor. In the end, Da Costa had the final say with an empty net tally to seal the home win and put the Motormen one game away from progressing.
