Gritsyuk grabs OT winner for Avangard. March 21 playoffs
In a game full of late drama, Avangard picked up a road win that has it one game away from the Eastern Conference final. Metallurg took the lead with five minutes left, but could not close out its first victory in this series. Viktor Svedberg too the game to overtime, and Arseny Gritsyuk potted the winner for the visitor.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Avangard Omsk 3 OT (1-1, 0-0, 1-1, 0-1)
(Avangard leads the series 3-0)
After losing both games in Omsk, Metallurg needed a strong response here. The Steelmen could hardly have asked for a better start, with Sergei Tolchinsky catching Grigory Dronov in the face with his stick in the opening minutes. However, Magnitka could not turn that early power play into a goal and it wasn’t long before Avangard opened the scoring.
The goal came in the sixth minute with the visitor winning an attacking face-off and building up pressure on Eddie Pasquale’s net. The home goalie got his pad to Svedberg’s point shot but could do nothing to stop Corban Knight converting the rebound. Almost immediately, Metallurg got another power play chance but once again failed to find a way past Vasily Demchenko.
In playoff hockey, much depends on who can elevate his regular season form. Today it was Maxim Karpov’s turn to find a bit extra. The Metallurg forward hadn’t scored since January, but he put that right in the 12th minute when he potted the tying goal. Philippe Maillet got the puck to the danger zone, and Karpov outwitted Demchenko from close range.
Overall, Metallurg had slightly the better of the first period play but could not turn that into a lead. It was a similar story in the second frame. The home team made a lively start, with Nikolai Goldobin close to steering a Dronov feed in at the back door. Once again, though, there were no goals to reward Magnitka’s efforts. At the other end, Avangard showed enough to keep the home team alert: Semyon Chistyakov came closest with a shot against the post in the 33rd minute.
In the third period, Metallurg continued to press for a goal that could bring its first win of the series. The home side survived an early scare when Tolchinsky won possession, took the puck around the net and looked to score on the wraparound, but Pasquale got his pad into the corner to deny the Avangard forward. After that, though, Magnitka had more of the game and limited the Hawks to counterattacks.
The pressure forced Viktor Svedberg into a penalty in the 53rd minute. Avangard killed that, but just as the defenseman returned to the game, Grigory Dronov smashed home the go-ahead goal. Dronov had broken his stick moments earlier when he unleashed a shot from the top of the right-hand circle. However, he rushed to the bench, returned with a new weapon and immediately put it to good effect with a goalbound effort from the same spot.
With five minutes left, Metallurg hoped it had done enough to get the win in regulation. However, Svedberg was out to atone for his costly penalty. The Swedish-born Kazakh international stepped onto Reid Boucher’s cross-ice pass and fired in a shot from the right-hand dot as Avangard made the most of a delayed penalty.
That set up the extras, and for the second time in this series Avangard had the edge in overtime. In the 65th minute, Chistyakov’s point shot was deflected into the path of Gritsyuk and the young forward placed his wrist shot on the top shelf. Avangard can finish the job here on Thursday, while Metallurg must win to keep its season alive.
