Admiral writes history, Ak Bars marches on. March 11 playoffs
The first pairing of the second round is set. Eastern Conference top seed Ak Bars will face outsider Admiral after both teams booked their passage on Saturday. Admiral moves to its first ever Conference Semi Final after edging Salavat Yulaev 3-2 thanks to a late goal from Anton Berlyov. Ak Bars, meanwhile, twice came from behind to beat Neftekhimik 4-2 on the road.
Berlyov’s goal makes history for Admiral
Admiral Vladivostok 3 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 2 (0-1, 2-0, 1-1)
(Admiral wins the series 4-2)
The Sailors’ playoff voyage moves into uncharted waters for the club after today’s win put the team in the second round of the playoffs for the first time. Leonids Tambijevs’ men, seeded seventh in the Eastern Conference, held its nerve to beat second seed Salavat Yulaev 3-2 and wrap up the conference quarter-final series in six games.
For Viktor Kozlov’s Ufa team, the season came to an unexpectedly early end. Most assumed that Salavat Yulaev would have enough to get past an Admiral team that made a fast start to the season but later relied on dogged effort to secure a playoff place.
Admittedly, there were injury problems for Kozlov to contend with in the build-up to Saturday’s big game. First line center Alexander Kadeikin and pacey winger Ivan Drozdov were both unavailable, while Josh Ho-Sang also missed out. The Canadian, signed with great fanfare in the summer, missed almost the entire regular season with a broken arm and his playoff outings showed only flashes of what he can do. In the absence of those experienced figures, Kozlov handed first playoff appearances to Yegor Suchkov and Danil Aimurzin.
That said, Admiral also had personnel concerns. Colby Williams, one of the Sailors’ leading defensemen, missed the game. That brought Valery Orekhov back into the team.
The home team did a good job of slowing Salavat Yulaev’s offense early in the game. The visitor’s greater playoff experience was not immediately apparent, but gradually Ufa began to pick up the tempo and create more opportunities to test Nikita Serebryakov. Eventually, that bore fruit. In the 17th minute the visitor got on the power play and Alexander Chmelevski needed just six seconds to score on the wraparound and give Salavat Yulaev the lead.
It all turned around in the middle session. Admiral revised its tactical plan and suddenly Salavat Yulaev could generate almost nothing as the home team grabbed the initiative. That delivered goals from Pavel Shen and Ivan Yemets. Shen surprised goalie Ilya Ezhov with a shot from the left-hand boards midway through the frame, then Yemets converted the rebound after Libor Sulak’s point shot was padded away.
That left Salavat Yulaev with just 20 minutes to save the game, and its season. Kozlov’s players charged forward in search of the all-important tying goal, and Chmelevski got it when he again managed to jump out from behind the net and stuff the puck home.
The visitor continued to press, and looked capable of going on to win it in regulation. However, when Suchkov took a penalty for simulation in the 55th minute, that slowed Ufa’s momentum. Admiral could not score on the power play, but a minute later the home team got the decisive goal. Salavat went for a change on the fly, lost possession in center ice and got caught by a quick counter. Yemets saw his shot saved, but the rebound went straight to Anton Berlyov who slotted it past Ezhov to make it 3-2 with two-and-a-half minutes to play.
Top seed advances in six games
Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 Ak Bars Kazan 4 (1-1, 1-0, 0-3)
(Ak Bars wins the series 4-2)
Eastern Conference top seed Ak Bars got the win it needed in Nizhnekamsk, wrapping up this series in six games and advancing to the Conference semi-finals. Neftekhimik led twice on home ice, but could not stay in the game for the full 60 minutes and fell away in the third period.
Although this was a win-or-bust encounter for Neftekhimik, there was no sign of early nerves. On the contrary, the home team went straight onto the offensive and opened the scoring in the first minute. After the Wolves won an attacking face-off, Anthony Camara took the puck behind the net and set up Ansel Galimov for a close range finish.
However, Ak Bars hit back at once. Kirill Semyonov’s pass to the right wing went to Kirill Panyukov, who advanced to fire a shot through Andrei Tikhomirov’s pads. After that, the home team continued to create slightly more chances but could not regain its lead in the opening frame. Ak Bars came close to moving ahead late in the session when Nikita Lyamkin’s point shot crashed into the crossbar, while at the other end Vadim Shipachyov had to be alert to prevent Yegor Popov from converting Ilya Khokhlov’s dangerous diagonal pass.
In the middle frame, Neftekhimik again went in front. Andrei Chivilyov converted a power play in the 34th minute, producing a powerful one-timer off Semyon Kizimov’s feed. That saw the home team take a slender advantage into the second intermission, and raised hopes that it could take the series back to Kazan for a final showdown.
The visitor, meanwhile, was determined to get the job done tonight. Although Ak Bars started the third period on the penalty kill, once Artyom Lukoyanov returned to the game it did not take long for the tying goal to arrive. The source was unexpected: Konstantin Luchevnikov is very much a bit-part player on this team, with the 27-year-old playing most of his hockey in the VHL. Today, though, he picked a great time for his first ever KHL goal, firing home a point shot while Dmitry Voronkov screened Tikhomirov in the home net.
After that, Ak Bars began to take more control of the game. Neftekhimik struggled to maintain the intensity it showed in the first two periods and gradually the visitor’s pressure made the difference. Dmitry Kagarlitsky made the breakthrough in the 51st minute with a solo effort. Goalie Timur Bilyalov beat away a shot at the other end, Alexander Radulov stroked the puck in his team-mate’s path on his own blue line and Kagarlitsky did the rest with a devastating high-speed rush that ended with his team in front for the first time in the game.
Neftekhimik still had a chance to save itself when Lukoyanov took another penalty. Oleg Leontiev sent a sixth skater onto the ice in place of Tikhomirov, but the intended storm never materialized. Instead, Voronkov found the empty net to settle the win and send Ak Bars through to the next round and a match-up with Admiral.
