Ak Bars at one step to the Gagarin Cup finals

It was a hard-fought win for Ak Bars on Friday when they achieved a 1:0, away victory to get a 3-1 lead in the series. The Omsk side was backed by its home crowd, but it wasn’t enough to push the puck in the back of the net past Timur Bilyalov as he recorded his first playoff shutout this season. Dmitry Voronkov had his fifth postseason tally with fewer than six minutes to go – it was the lone goal of the game as the series returns in Tatarstan.

17:00: Ak Bars vs Avangard

Series stand
Ak Bars is leading the series 3-1 (3:2 ОТ, 2:3, 3:2 ОТ, 1:0).

About the game

Avangard tried to set the tempo early in the game with a high-pace first period, yet they couldn’t beat Timur Bilyalov, who had 25 saves for the night. Dmitry Voronkov had a first tally in the middle frame when Ak Bars started reverting the trend, but the goal was called out for goalie interference on Vasily Demchenko, who rejected 26 Kazan shots. In the closing frame, following Voronkov’s actual goal, Avangard pulled Demchenko for a sixth skater, but failed to cause any real trouble to Bilyalov as Ak Bars has now a chance to wrap the series up tonight.

Ak Bars’ goalie Timur Bilyalov is on an 86:52 shutout streak.

Ak Bars’ defenseman Dmitry Yudin is on a three-game scoring streak, with 3 (1+2) points over that span.

Injury list

Avangard: Stanislav Galimov.

Milestone alert

Ak Bars’ defenseman Vyacheslav Voynov and Avangard’s forward Sergei Tolchinsky may reach 200 KHL points (both are currently at 198).

Ak Bars’ forwards Vadim Shipachyov and Dmitry Kagarlitsky are in the run to reach an assist milestone, with Shipachyov getting close to 600 (currently at 597), and the latter seeking his 300^th (currently at 298).