Avangard advances to Eastern final. March 23 playoffs
With a convincing victory in Magnitogorsk, Avangard completed a sweep of Metallurg in this Eastern Conference semi-final series. The Hawks advance to the conference final at the expense of the team that ousted them at this stage a year ago. It will be Avangard’s fourth conference final appearance, and so far, the Omsk team has progressed each time.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 Avangard Omsk 4 (1-1, 0-1, 0-2)
(Avangard wins the series 4-0)
It didn’t take long for game four of this series to wake up. Although Metallurg was surely looking for a fast start to seize the initiative and – hopefully – keep its season alive, last season’s Gagarin Cup finalist suffered a huge blow inside the first minute. Arseny Gritsyuk, who potted the overtime winner here two days earlier, was at it again. This time his feed to the slot set up Sergei Tolchinsky for the opening goal from the first shot of the game. Just 48 seconds had elapsed when the visiting forward swung his stick at the loose puck in front of Eddie Pasquale to give Avangard an early lead.
No sign of fatigue from the visitor, despite icing an unchanged line-up for the fourth game in a row. Metallurg brought back Andrei Chibisov and Semyon Koshelev in place of Anatoly Nikontsev and Arkhip Nekolenko in the hope of conjuring up a great goal threat. However, the tying goal came from defenseman Grigory Dronov. He found the net for the third successive game in this series, converting a five-on-three power play midway through the opening frame. Despite that early goal, it seemed that Magnitka was ready to take the game to Avangard and could hope for better fortune after enjoying the better of Tuesday’s overtime loss.
That was certainly the message at the intermission, with Metallurg coming out at the start of the second and dictating the play. Avangard head coach Mikhail Kravets admits that his team is not always at its best playing from the far bench, and Metallurg took advantage of that to put pressure on Vasily Demchenko’s net. However, the Hawks did a good job of keeping Metallurg to the outside and ensuring that clear scoring chances were hard to come by. At the other end, the visitor was always ready to deploy a quick counterattack, and that brought the go-ahead goal. Corban Knight led the rush, luring the entire home defense out of position, then delivered an inch-perfect pass for Reid Boucher to score. Between them, Avangard’s North American forwards have 17 points in seven games. Part of Metallurg’s problems in this series stem from the lack of a similar return from its imports.
With a slender advantage to defend in the third period, many expected Avangard to retreat deep into defense. Instead, though, the Hawks continued to play a two-way game and began the final frame by seeking to cause Metallurg more problems. It took some time for the home team to find a way of repelling this pressure and steering play to the other end of the ice, where it desperately needed a goal to save its season. Although the Steelmen poured everything into the quest for an equalizer, Avangard held firm and effectively sealed the outcome when Boucher put away the rebound from a Knight shot to make it 3-1. Once again, the Omsk imports came up with the big play, while Metallurg’s defense allowed Boucher far too much space.
After that, there was no way back for the home team. Although Pasquale left the game with more than three minutes to play, the extra skater did little to help Metallurg. Instead, Alex Broadhurst’s empty netter made the final score 4-1 as the Hawks soared into the next round.
