Admiral stuns Ak Bars, keeps semi-final series alive. March 24 playoffs
Admiral staged something of a ‘smash-and-grab’ raid in Kazan to keep its season alive. The home team dominated much of the game, but a quickfire double salvo late in the second period put the Sailors on course for a narrow victory. Goalie Nikita Serebryakov starred, making ?? saves to frustrate the home team’s powerful offense.
Ak Bars Kazan 1 Admiral Vladivostok 2 (0-0, 0-2, 1-0)
(Ak Bars leads the series 3-2)
Many expected Friday’s game to be something of a formality. Ak Bars, top seed in the East, returned to Kazan with a 3-1 lead in the series and could book its place in the conference final against Avangard with victory against Admiral. However, the Sailors have been highly competitive throughout the series, blunting the Kazan offense and keeping every game to a single-goal margin. Here, once again, the visitor played to its strengths and secured another memorable victory in the best post season in the club’s history.
Admiral arrived in Kazan knowing that only victory would keep it in playoff contention. Thus, the visitor looked to set the tempo in the early exchanges. Instead of the usual cautious approach from Leonids Tambijevs’ team, we saw a more adventurous game early on. Ak Bars adjusted, though, and the play soon evened out. There were no goals in the opening frame, but both goalies made 11 saves.
In the middle frame, Ak Bars was by far the more progressive team. The host outshot Admiral 22-9 across the 20 minutes, serving notice of its intent in the opening minutes with an extended spell of possession. There were decent looks for Stanislav Galimov (twice), and Dmitry Voronkov orchestrated a breakaway that saw Alexander Radulov test Serebryakov from a tight angle. Even an Admiral power play did little to reverse the tide: Nikita Dynyak’s interception gave him a chance on the breakaway, but once again Serebryakov was alert to the danger.
After absorbing all that pressure, Admiral responded late in the second period. Two quick goals put the Sailors on top, and gave every chance of the series returning to Vladivostok for game six on Sunday. The opening goal, on 35:01, is a moment that will haunt home goalie Timur Bilyalov. He did well enough to stop Evgeny Lisovets shot on the turn, but remained sprawled on the ice as Daniil Gutik fired in the rebound. The puck flashed wide of the net but bounced back to the crease and crept inside the near post off the prone goalie. It took a moment for the officials to work out what had happened, but the goal was awarded to Gutik after a quick review.
A couple of minutes later, the visitor doubled its lead. After forcing a turnover on its own blue line, Admiral got a three-on-one breakaway. Nikolai Chebykin exchanged passes with Anton Berlyov before slotting home his team’s second goal of the game.
Ak Bars almost engineered a response before the intermission when Alexander Radulov went around the net and slung the puck into the danger zone. Kirill Adamchuk was battling hard on the slot, but could not force it into the net and the 2-0 scoreline remained until the break.
In the third period, to nobody’s surprise, the home team looked to raise the tempo. However, the reliability of the Admiral defense has been much discussed this season, especially in the playoffs. For all the home team’s possession, there were relatively few big scares for Nikita Serebryakov in the visitor’s net. He was only beaten midway through the session on a home power play, when Radulov’s wrister from the left-hand channel was deflected into his own net by Colby Williams.
Williams’ next big contribution was foul on Nikita Dynyak that gave the home team another power play chance with four minutes left to play. Dmitry Yudin was close to tying the scores on that PP, but a penalty for Dmitry Voronkov levelled up the teams. Ak Bars continued to threaten in four-on-four play, with the Sailors struggling to clear their lines after another Yudin effort sparked chaotic scenes in front of Serebryakov’s net.
