SKA, Avangard advance, Metallurg moves ahead of Amur. March 9 playoffs
Saturday’s action brought two more series to an end. Avangard’s 4-0 win at home to Lada sent the Hawks through in five games. SKA matched that outcome with a 3-0 victory over Torpedo in game five in St. Petersburg. Metallurg still has to go back to Amur, but can finish its contest in the Far East after today’s victory put it up 3-2 in the series.
Hawks fly into second round
Avangard Omsk 4 Lada Togliatti 0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0)
Avangard wins the series 4-1
The Hawks became the fourth team to progress to the second round of this year’s playoffs, finishing off its series against Lada with a shut-out win in game five. Reid Boucher scored twice, taking his post season tally to seven goals, while Pavel Khomchenko made 24 saves to claim his first playoff shut-out.
Lada had done well to bring the series back to Omsk, escaping a sweep with victory in Togliatti two days earlier. That was the Motormen’s first ever victory in a KHL post season game and it will be their last until next year.
The game began cautiously – no surprise from Lada, but unusual for Avangard. The puck spent much of the time in center ice, and it wasn’t until the sixth minute that Boucher asked his first question of Vladislav Podyapolsky. The visiting goalie came up with the answer on that occasion, but gradually the home team turned up the heat. When Maxim Berezin took a double minor for high sticking, the power play delivered. Vladimir Tkachyov and Valentin Pyanov combined to set up Boucher for the opening goal. Pyanov then had a couple of good looks as Berezin’s second power play ran down, but Lada made it to the intermission just one goal in arrears.
Berezin’s day did not improve. At the start of the second period he was back in the box, and Boucher was back on the scoresheet after evading the attentions of Andrei Altybarmakyan on the slot. That second goal seemed to undermine Lada’s belief that it could compete in this game. The visitor got a power play almost immediately but, not for the first time, failed to make much impression with the extra man. Once Tomas Jurco added a third, this time at equal strength, the remaining 26 minutes of the game already felt like a formality rather than a contest.
That was exactly how the final frame played out. Avangard spent much of the remaining minutes on the attack, with Lada forced to accept that its season was drifting to an inevitable end. With a couple of minutes to play, Mikhail Belyayev applied the finishing touch. Lada can take some satisfaction from a promising season on its KHL return, but it’s Avangard that moves forward.
Magnitka moves back in front against Amur
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 Amur Khabarovsk 1 (2-0, 1-0, 0-1)
Metallurg leads the series 3-2
After a convincing win on home ice to tie the series, Amur returned to Magnitogorsk with plenty of confidence. The visitor was unchanged from the roster that won 5-2 on Thursday, while Magnitka made a couple of minor alterations.
The Tigers’ increasing belief was evident at the start of the game, with the notional underdog enjoying a slight advantage in the early stages. The visitor moved quickly through center ice and produced several dangerous attacks. Ilya Nabokov produced several stops from point blank range to keep his team in the game early on. However, the opening goal arrived at the other end, somewhat against the run of play. Nikita Grebyonkin spotted Igor Geraskin on the slot, fired the puck in his direction and saw it bounce off his team-mate and into the net.
Shortly after that, Geraskin found himself in the box. Worse, he was joined by team-mate Valery Orekhov as Magnitka was reduced to three skaters. However, the two-man advantage could not inspire a goal for Amur and on his return to the ice Geraskin grabbed the loose puck and almost claimed his second of the game. Igor Bobkov stopped that effort, but was beaten for a second time late in the session when Roman Kantserov surprised him with an early shot.
The second period saw Bobkov beaten again, this time by a shot to the short side from Danila Yurov. That prompted Andrei Martemyanov to swap his goalies and send Dmitry Lozebnikov into the action. For a time, the game calmed down, although there was danger around Metallurg’s net when Amur established itself on the attack and unleashed a flurry of shots at Nabokov.
The home goalie found himself in an unusual incident late in the frame. Metallurg had a delayed penalty and Nabokov, as expected, headed to the bench to allow a sixth skater onto the ice. However, after he crossed halfway, he inadvertently played the puck and took one of hockey’s less frequently seen penalties as a result.
In the third period, Amur finally got one past Nabokov in the 51st minute. Jan Drozg claimed a power play goal and gave the visitor hope in the closing stages. Magnitka spent several shifts on the defensive, but time was always in the home team’s favor and Nabokov was solid between the pipes. Late in the game, Ignat Korotkikh’s penalty undermined Amur’s efforts to save the game and helped Metallurg move ahead 3-2 in the series.
SKA marches into second round
SKA St. Petersburg 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 0 (1-0, 1-0, 1-0)
SKA wins the series 4-1
SKA booked its place in the second round after reeling off a fourth successive victory over Torpedo. After losing the opening game of this match-up, the Petersburg club enjoyed progressively more straightforward wins to advance to the last eight.
Today, Nikita Serebryakov made 17 saves to record his first post season shut-out, helped by 15 blocked shots from his team-mates. At the other end, a goal in each period was enough to put the home team on top.
The first period was a surprisingly cagey affair. Although Torpedo has a reputation for trying to play enterprising hockey, the visitor knew that today it could ill afford to be gung-ho and invite SKA onto the offensive. For much of the opening frame, the goalies were virtual spectators and the teams produced just seven shots on goal between them. However, in the 17th minute, Sergei Tolchinsky emerged from the penalty box to put SKA in front. He raced onto a Stepan Falkovsky feed and hared down the left channel before beating Ivan Kulbakov from close range.
Late in the frame, Torpedo was close to tying the game, but Nikolai Kovalenko’s wrister rebounded off the post to safety and SKA took its lead to the intermission.
As the players left the ice, a scuffle between Bobby Lynch and Emil Galimov saw both men begin the second period in the box. Once again, the teams tended towards caution. However, as the frame went on, SKA began to create the more dangerous chances. Mikhail Vorobyov and Marat Khairullin created an odd-man rush on the PK, but Kulbakov’s glove robbed Khairullin of a short-handed goal. Then the same PK saw Zakhar Bardakov burst clear before shooting narrowly wide of the target.
As the second intermission approached, a home power play brought a second goal. It was a big moment for 20-year-old Grigory Kuzmin, whose KHL experience to date has been entirely in this playoff series. Today he got his first goal in the big league, neatly converting a Khairullin feed.
Midway through the third period, Torpedo had the puck in Serebryakov’s net when Lynch banged in a shot that was deflected into the path of Nikita Artamonov. His follow-up shot beat the goalie, but not a bench challenge from Roman Rotenberg. Offside was the verdict, and SKA kept its two-goal lead.
Late on, with Kulbakov already replaced by a sixth skater, Torpedo got a penalty and had Serebryakov spinning around like a hamster in its wheel to keep his goal intact. However, when the play broke down, Artyom Sergeyev grabbed possession and found the empty net to seal the game and the series for SKA.
