Torpedo stuns SKA, Eastern pairs go with seeding. March 1 playoffs
The shocks keep coming in the first round of this year’s playoffs. Friday saw Torpedo, seventh in the West, travel to SKA and romp to a 5-2 victory over the second seed. In the east, there were no surprises. Amur made things tough for Metallurg but fell 2-1 in Magnitogorsk, while Avangard eased to a 5-1 win over Lada.
Hawks start with big win over Lada
Avangard Omsk 5 Lada Togliatti 1 (2-0, 2-1, 1-0)
Avangard leads the series 1-0
This was Lada’s first playoff action since the inaugural KHL season. Back then, in 2009, the Togliatti team could not get beyond the first round and fell to Lokomotiv. However, the same season serves as a reminder to Avangard, second seed in the East, of the danger of complacency. Despite scraping into the playoffs as the 16th ranked team, the Hawks stunned regular season champ Salavat Yulaev in the opening round.
Today, however, things very much went to form. Avangard took the early initiative and parleyed that into two goals in the first 10 minutes. The host’s fourth line broke the deadlock in the ninth minutes after Sergei Boikov won back possession and shot over Vladislav Podyapolsky’s glove. On 10:07, Nikolai Prokhorkin doubled the lead when he took Mikhail Gulyayev’s pass beyond the last defenseman and fired a shot into the top corner.
The home team couldn’t score on its first power play, but at the start of the second period it had no problems with its second PP of the game. Vladimir Tkachyov fed Reid Boucher and a combination that proved so productive in regular season was off the mark in the playoffs. In the 28th minute, Avangard added a fourth when Ivan Igumnov got the crucial touch as Artyom Chmykhov’s shot flew towards goal.
Finally, Lada managed a response. Within a minute of Igumnov’s goal, the visitor won possession in the Avangard zone and after seeing one shot blocked, Georgy Solyannikov fired past Pavel Khomchenko. That lifted the Motormen and for a time they seemed capable of grabbing a second goal. However, Troy Josephs’ foul slammed on the brakes and the Hawks reassumed control of the game.
There wasn’t much prospect of a fightback in the third period. Early in the session, Avangard added a fifth after its top line had the visiting defense in a spin. Tkachyov couldn’t quite find the net, but the puck was only cleared as far as Gulyayev. The 18-year-old Avs prospect added to his first-period assist with a goal in his first KHL playoff game.
That was the end of the scoring, but not the end of the action. In the final minute Lada’s Maxim Berezin tripped Tkachyov, sparking a bout of pushing and shoving that saw 16 minutes of penalties handed out to players on both sides. But there was more to come a few seconds later when Mark Verba and Vladislav Syomin wrapped up proceedings by dropping the gloves. Verba landed the best punch of the bout, Syomin wrestled his rival to the ice. The officials rated it a tie and handed major penalties to both men.
Magnitka wears down Tigers’ resistance
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (0-0, 0-0, 2-1)
Metallurg leads the series 1-0
Back in the playoffs for the first time since 2018, Amur faced a tough task on the road against the East’s top seed. However, the Tigers could take confidence from some competitive performances against Magnitka in regular season, peaking with a remarkable 7-6 win on home ice in late January.
Today’s game was another close-fought battle, with Metallurg eventually claiming a narrow verdict in the third period. The home team surprised nobody by recalling the raft of leading players who missed the concluding game of the regular season, although injury to Nikita Podskrebalin meant that 20-year-old rookie Alexander Smolin was back-up goalie to Ilya Nabokov. Alexander Petunin also missed out. Amur continued without the injured Alex Broadhurst and went with former Metallurg junior Igor Bobkov as first-choice goalie.
The opening frame was cautious, and it was no surprise that neither team could open the scoring. Amur had more possession, Metallurg more shots. The best chance went to the visitor when Yegor Korshkov fired in a dangerous close-range effort on the power play. Nabokov made the biggest save of the session.
That quiet opening didn't greatly excite home head coach Andrei Razin and he began to reshuffle his lines during the intermission. Dmitry Silantyev moved to the second line, Luke Johnson dropped to the fourth and Arkhip Nekolenko was not used at all. More importantly, Metallurg injected some pace into its play and looked for speedy transitions through center ice to shake Amur’s defensive discipline. That produced counterattack chances for Nikita Grebyonkin and Igor Geraskin, but no goals.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 46th minute when Yegor Yakovlev joined the attack. His shot needed a deflection, but the puck found the net. That lifted Metallurg. Subsequent attacks had greater purpose and Johnson soon doubled the lead when he potted the rebound from a Robin Press shot. Bobkov had to be alert to deny Danila Yurov a third goal for Magnitka.
However, Amur was still in the game. The Tigers stuck to their systems and got a reward with five minutes to play. Ivan Mishchenko fired in a shot from the right-hand circle, Dmitry Shevchenko battled away on the slot and got the puck to the post where Jan Drozg was waiting to stuff it over the line. It wasn’t the most elegant of plays, but it brought the game right back to life.
However, in the closing stages Metallurg rode out the visitor’s late surge. It wasn’t the most emphatic start to the series, but the home team got the job done.
Goncharuk double sees Torpedo win the opener
SKA St. Petersburg 2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 5 (1-2, 1-1, 0-2)
Torpedo leads the series 1-0
In contrast to the other games today, both of which featured teams long absent from the playoffs, this was a repeat of one of last year’s match-ups. In 2023, SKA swept past Torpedo in the second round before falling to CSKA in the conference final. How much did Igor Larionov and his team learn from that experience?
The opening day of this year’s playoffs showed that there are few predictable match-ups in this first round. Friday’s action followed the formbook until Torpedo handed SKA a first-period surprise.
The visitor, which finished the regular season in alarmingly poor form after a good start to the campaign, grabbed the lead in unlikely fashion. Six minutes into the game, visiting goalie Ivan Kulbakov got the first penalty of the evening. Immediately, SKA’s power play dinged the post, but the next big moment saw Torpedo force a turnover in center ice. Nikolai Kovalenko moved down the right and slung a cross-ice feed for Sergei Goncharuk to rifle home a one-timer at the far post.
Barely a minute later, it was 2-0. Bobby Lynch, who served Kulbakov’s penalty, returned to the game and hassled Alexander Nikishin into a mistake behind his net. Lynch set up Vasily Atanasov in the left-hand circle and his shot chased Nikita Serebryakov from the net in favor of Pavel Moisevich.
The action kept coming. Denis Yan fired agonizingly wide after Vladislav Firstov set him up in front of goal, then Moisevich denied Atanasov another goal. At the other end, SKA found the net when Marat Khairullin intercepted the puck and set up Glotov. His shot looped up off Kulbakov and bounced into the net amid a scramble on the crease. The Torpedo bench challenged the play, convinced that Borna Rendulic impeded the goalie, but the review upheld the goal and left the visitor shorthanded once again.
This was true playoff hockey: no holds barred, both teams trading chances and fouls in an absorbing encounter. SKA, chasing the game, was closest in the early part of the second period. However, the third goal went to Torpedo after Maxim Fedotov sat for tripping. Lynch won the faceoff, Atanasov picked up the loose puck and advanced to the slot to score his second of the night. Once again, though, the two-goal cushion did not last long. Oleg Li took a hooking verdict and SKA produced its version of Atanasov’s power play tally. This time Mikhail Vorobyov won the face-off and Sergei Tolchinsky supplied the finish.
Torpedo was not content to try to play out time in the third period, and the visitor went in search of a fourth goal at the start of the final frame. Moisevich was kept busy dealing with attempts from Dmitry Breus and Nikita Shavin. At the other end, SKA began to keep the play in front of Kulbakov’s net and the visiting goalie also featured in some key moments to preserve the lead. However, the game was decided when SKA removed Moisevich and went for a sixth skater. Vorobyov’s error in center ice presented Goncharuk with his second of the game, this time into an empty net. Then, with seconds left, Firstov potted another empty-netter to ensure that the first ever playoff game at the SKA Arena ended in a home loss.
