CSKA fightback sinks brave Severstal. March 14 playoffs
After last year’s beaten finalist, Metallurg, got through its game seven showdown in Yekaterinburg, defending champion CSKA faced a similar test at home to Severstal. Like Metallurg, the Muscovites had to recover a two-goal deficit before wrapping up the series and advancing to the Conference semi-finals.
Kamenev’s double sends CSKA through
CSKA Moscow 5 Severstal Cherepovets 3 (1-2, 1-0, 3-1)
(CSKA wins the series 4-3)
Underdog Severstal pushed CSKA right the very end of this series before succumbing in the third period. The visitor led 2-0 in the opening frame but could not hold on to that advantage as the defending champion made its pressure count in the closing stages.
The home team made a bright start. In the fourth minute, Sergei Plotnikov’s redirect almost steered Konstantin Okulov’s feed into the net. Then Plotnikov released Vladislav Kamenev, who forced a double save from visiting goalie Alexander Samonov. The pressure continued, and within a minute Anton Slepyshev fired narrowly wide from a dangerous position.
Severstal then had to kill a penalty, but the visitor gradually neutralized the home offense and began to create chances of its own. In the 14th minute, David Dumbadze stunned the home crowd by opening the scoring. Goalie Adam Reideborn may feel that he could have done better with Pavel Denisov’s shot, but Dumbadze had no complaints as the rebound went straight to his stick in front of the net. Shock turned to disbelief a couple of minutes later when the visitor doubled its lead. A penalty on Vladislav Provolnev was the catalyst, and Alexander Petunin made it 2-0 when he batted home puck after it looped off the goalie. There was a video review to check that Petunin kept his stick down as he looked to convert the rebound from Ruslan Abrosimov’s effort, but the officials found no reason to reprieve the defending champion.
The situation demanded a quick response, and CSKA delivered. Denisov took a slashing minor and the home power play made it 1-2. Plotnikov, so active at the start of the game, got the goal he deserved when he redirected Mikhail Grigorenko’s effort past Samonov.
If CSKA’s players hoped that a goal late in the first period would provide a psychological boost at the start of the second, they soon had to think again. Almost immediately, Slepyshev handed Severstal another power play and Ilya Ivantsov carved out a chance for Nikita Guslistov or Nikita Rozhkov to extend the lead. The home team survived that scare, though and eventually managed to tie the scores in the middle frame. However there was an element of controversy about Kamenev’s goal, which was scored while Severstal’s Yegor Morozov lay injured on the ice and could neither help his defense nor make way for a healthy team-mate.
That goal left a sour taste for Severstal, and things got worse for Andrei Razin’s team in the third period. CSKA scored twice in 30 seconds to take a firm grip of the game and usher its determined opponent to the exit in this year’s playoffs. The home side built up the pressure from the start of the session and got its reward when Provolnev thumped home Slepyshev’s feed to the blue line. Once in front, it took just 27 seconds to extend the advantage. Maxim Mamin raced into the Severstal zone and from the corner he fed the puck to Maxim Sorkin at the far post, who made it 4-2.
Even so, that was not quite the end of the story. Despite CSKA’s lead, and despite its on-going pressure, with five minutes to play, Severstal pulled a goal back. Alexander Suvorov gathered the puck in the CSKA zone and whipped in a wrister that beat Reideborn on the short side.
CSKA had to see out a tense few minutes to win the game, and the home team attempted to do so on the front foot. Samonov was unable to exchange places with a sixth skater until 58:43, but Severstal played six-on-four for the final 21 seconds after Yaroslav Dyblenko took a holding minor. That two-man advantage did not save the game, though. Instead, Kamenev fired the puck all the way down the ice into the empty net to seal the win for CSKA.
The defending champion progresses to face Severstal in the second round. SKA will take on Torpedo.
