Voronkov’s goal puts Ak Bars within reach of the final. April 7 playoffs
A second win on the road puts Eastern Conference top seed Ak Bars just one game away from this year’s Gagarin Cup final. After Wednesday’s overtime verdict in Omsk, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s men followed up with another tight victory – this time by the only goal of the game.
Avangard Omsk 0 Ak Bars Kazan 1 (0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
(Ak Bars leads the series 3-1)
Down in the series, but backed by its home crowd, Avangard looked to force the tempo from the start of Friday’s game. Sergei Tolchinsky fashioned the first goalmouth incident when he went around Timur Bilyalov’s net but his backhand effort was meat-and-drink for the Ak Bars goalie.
At the other end, Stanislav Galiyev came close to giving the visitor an early lead, but Avangard generally had the better of the opening exchanges. Ivan Telegin was closest to a breakthrough, jumping off the boards to take Alexei Bereglazov’s pass to the net, but once again Bilyalov had the answers.
Gradually the Ak Bars defense got a grip on the game, and the latter part of the first period was played away from Bilyalov’s net. That momentum carried into the second period, when Dmitry Voronkov soon had the puck beyond Demchenko. However, the Avangard bench challenged the play, believing that Voronkov impeded the goalie as he stuffed home the rebound from an Alexander Radulov effort. The game remained goalless, although there was little to choose between the two teams on the balance of play.
At the end of the session, Ak Bars took two penalties in quick succession, inviting Avangard to begin the final stanza with a 5-on-3 power play. Reid Boucher came close to converting the chance, but his one-timer from Corban Knight’s cross-ice pass flashed narrowly past the post. Arseny Gritsyuk also caused some alarm for Bilyalov with a powerful shot from the face-off circle, but there was nobody on hand to convert the rebound and Ak Bars made it safely back to full strength.
Late in the third period, Voronkov had the puck in the net once again. Kirill Petrov picked out the forward on the doorstep with his back to the net but after Voronkov’s attempt to set up a team-mate failed connect, he managed to stuff the puck home from close range as Demchenko struggled to close the door. That wasn’t the end of the conversation, though. Once again, Voronkov had to sweat on a video review after Mikhail Kravets challenged the play for goalie interference. In the second period, a similar review saw Voronkov’s goal whistled off, but this time the forward got the nod and Ak Bars had the lead at last. To make matters worse for Avangard, the home team now had two minutes on the PK with less than six minutes left to save the game.
Although the Hawks managed to kill that penalty without suffering any further loss, it gobbled up too much of the remaining time. Ak Bars was able to get its defense properly set and, even after Demchenko went to the sidelines, the visitor was able to win all the big puck battles and keep the action away from Bilyalov. Kazan closed out the victory, with the goalie making 25 saves, and can wrap up this series on Sunday when the action returns to Tatarstan.
