Fast start sends Ak Bars forward. March 26 playoffs
Admiral’s hopes of a fairytale playoff run came to an end in game six of its semi-final series against Ak Bars. The Sailors went down 1-3 on home ice, losing the series 2-4. For Ak Bars and Zinetula Bilyaletdinov it means progress to another Eastern Conference final, but only after a more challenging contest than many expected for the top seed.
Admiral Vladivostok 1 Ak Bars Kazan 3 (0-2, 1-1, 0-0)
(Ak Bars wins the series 4-2)
For much of this series, Ak Bars found it difficult to solve Admiral goalie Nikita Serebryakov. Today, the visitor got it right from the start. A couple of dangerous attacks in the first few minutes were followed by two quick goals. First, Kirill Adamchuk’s stretch pass released Dmitry Voronkov. He dished off the puck for Ilya Safonov to fire home the opener. Next, Stanislav Galimov won possession in the Admiral zone and set up Nikita Dynyak to make it 2-0 in the sixth minute. Rocked, Admiral called a time out, but the damage was done. Ak Bars continued to dominate the play, and by the end of the session the shot count was 18-3 in the visitor’s favor.
It was the first time Ak Bars had scored two goals in a period since the opening game of this series. On that occasion, Admiral fought back and tied the scores in the second session. Today, though, there was no repeat. At the start of the second period, Dynyak scored his second of the game, emerging from behind the net and dancing away from Colby Williams before shooting home from a tight angle. A 3-0 lead already looked like too much for Admiral to recover, although the home team gave it a good go and clawed one back quickly when Nikolai Chebykin scored on the power play.
However, Chebykin’s 26th-minute tally was the last meaningful act of the series. Neither team scored again in this game as Ak Bars closed out the win. Passions continued to run high, and threatened to boil over in the 35th minute when Voronkov and Yury Pautov came together in an angry exchange. The officials moved quickly to halt that fight before it started, much as Kazan’s fast start effectively ended this game in the opening minutes.
The third period was goalless and proved something of an anti-climactic end to an absorbing series. Unsurprisingly, Ak Bars defended in depth to preserve its lead and for all Admiral’s hard work and puck possession, there was no way through a well-disciplined opponent. The Sailors’ success this season – and despite today’s defeat, 2022-2023 has been a resounding triumph for Admiral – relies on solid defense rather than offensive flair. Today, when it needed a spark of creativity to unpick the Kazan defense, Admiral was found wanting.
As a result, Ak Bars secured its win and goes on to an Eastern Conference final series against Avangard. That battle gets underway in Kazan on April 1. For Admiral, defeat in round two brings to an end the most successful season in the club’s history, with head coach Leonids Tambijevs taking the team further into the playoffs than ever before.
