Road wins to start round two. March 16 playoffs
The second round of KHL playoff action began with two road wins. Lokomotiv edged past Avangard in the second period of overtime before Traktor’s first-period blitz sank Dynamo Moscow.
Loko ends Omsk hoodoo, strikes first blow in series
Avangard Omsk 1 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 2OT (1-0, 0-0, 0-1, 0-0, 0-1)
Lokomotiv leads the series 1-0
The history books made uncomfortable reading for the Railwaymen as they headed to Omsk for their second round playoff. No team from Yaroslavl had won here in 14 years, a record that would need to change fast if Lokomotiv was to advance to this year’s final four.
When the Hawks took a first-period lead, it seemed that history was on its way to repeating itself. This time, though, the visitor found the answers. Maxim Shalunov tied the game, then Maxim Beryozkin grabbed the winner in the second period of overtime.
Puck drop in Siberia also wrote a little piece of history: this was the first cross-Conference playoff action in KHL history (the first season’s playoffs saw teams from east and west meet, but at that time there were no conferences). Lokomotiv made just one change from the team that knocked out defending champion CSKA in the previous round: Yaroslav Likhachyov returned in place of Ivan Chekhovich. For Avangard, Ryan Spooner was absent after failing to compete yesterday’s practice. Nikolai Prokhorkin took his place on the first line while a shuffle of centers brought a first post-season appearance for Denis Vengryzhanovsky.
Prokhorkin was involved right away, helping Reid Boucher get a great chance on his first shift. However, the Canadian forward could not add to his seven playoff goals. Lokomotiv had to withstand some early pressure and when Avangard started to use its wide men more effectively, the visitor began to struggle. Boucher forced Martin Gernat into a foul midway through the opening frame and that power play brought the opening goal. Ivan Nikolishin was the scorer, jumping on a rebound and seeing his shot deflect into the net off a defenseman’s skate.
With Gernat back in the game, Lokomotiv finally created a good look of its own. However, Pavel Khomchenko was not buying anything that Denis Alexeyev tried to sell him and subsequent attempts to tie the game in the opening frame lacked the imagination to unpick the Avangard defense.
After the intermission the home team again made a bright start. Tomas Jurco might have increased the lead, while Loko was once again left to rely on individual flashes of brilliance rather than coherent teamwork. The visitor got its first power play of the game in the 26th minute and used its advantage to test Khomchenko more than once without finding a way past the home goalie.
As the second period progressed, Lokomotiv posed a greater threat. Alexander Yelesin tested Khomchenko, then a double minor penalty saw the visiting PP get another great chance to press the home defense. There was no change in the scoreline, but there was a sense that the game was starting to tilt in the visitor’s favor.
That sense was confirmed early in the third when Maxim Shalunov made it 1-1. Avangard’s play broke down in center ice, enabling Shalunov and Artur Kayumov to head off on an odd-man rush that punished the home error. A couple of minutes later, Khomchenko was beaten again when Kayumov batted an airborne puck into the net from close range. This time, though, the Avangard bench called foul and the challenge was upheld: goalie interference was the call and the game remained deadlocked.
That verdict did not immediately calm home nerves, and Lokomotiv had more opportunities to grab a legitimate second goal before Avangard got back on its game. Even though the home team lived less dangerously in the latter stages of the third period, it could not generate many chances to settle the outcome inside 60 minutes and the teams went to overtime with the visitor looking the likelier winner.
Loko looked even likelier when Boucher took an O-zone penalty for high sticking at the start of the extras. That invited Lokomotiv to attack, but the Railwaymen could not steamroller their way to victory despite one incident that required a video review to establish whether Avangard had kept the puck out of the net. Later, the home team also had a power play chance, but the first period of OT was inconclusive.
The game was settled midway through the second additional stanza. At one end, Semyon Chistyakov dinged the piping. Then Pavel Kraskovsky tripped Vladimir Tkachyov, giving Avangard a power play. However, Lokomotiv survived that penalty and won it 20 seconds after returning to full strength. Bogdan Kiselevich tumbled to the ice in his own zone and Beryozkin jumped on the loose puck to score the winning goal.
Triple salvo sets Traktor on road to victory
Dynamo Moscow 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 4 (1-3, 1-1, 0-0)
Traktor leads the series 1-0
Traktor, the lowest ranked team remaining in this year’s KHL playoffs, grabbed a shock verdict against regular season leader Dynamo at the start of the teams’ second round series. Three quick goals late in the first period paved the way for a road win that threatens to blow this match-up wide open.
This series brings a repeat of the 2013 Gagarin Cup final. On that occasion, Dynamo won it 4-2. Today, Traktor began proceedings with a victory by the same 4-2 scoreline.
Dynamo defenseman Andrei Mironov is the only player from that series who is still involved with either club. Now the 29-year-old is the club captain and brings vital experience to the team. The defenseman is not the only Gagarin Cup winner on the Blue-and-White roster, though: Nikita Gusev was back on the first line, and back to playing a full role after he managed just 7:46 against Dinamo Minsk in last week’s series decider.
For Traktor, leading defenseman Sergei Telegin missed out. His place was taken by Ilya Nikolayev, who made his first appearance of post season in an otherwise unchanged line-up.
The home team was expected to dominate, and the early exchanges saw Dynamo on top. Midway through the first period, Maxim Dzhioshvili put the Blue-and-Whites ahead when he put away the rebound from Artyom Ilyenko’s effort.
However, that goal did not settle any nerves among the Muscovites. Instead, it encouraged Traktor to come forward and play its way back into the game. The tying goal came in the 15th minute when Alexander Sharov banged his shot into the boards and Nikita Soshnikov picked up the rebound to score.
Next Maxim Shabanov created the go-ahead goal for Vladimir Tkachyov. Shibanov spun away from the boards, found himself a shooting lane and fired in an effort that caught Tkachyov in the midriff and bounced into the net. Then a penalty on Jordan Weal saw the visitor extend its lead on the power play: Shabanov was the architect once again, firing the puck to the slot for Danil Yurtaikin to divert it past Ilya Konovalov.
Traktor scored three goals in 3:27 to transform the game. Dynamo responded by sending Maxim Motorygin into the net in place of Konovalov, but the home team was not immediately able to change the game. Traktor created the first significant chance of the second period, then killed a penalty with relative ease as the Muscovites struggled to find their table-topping swagger.
One of Chelyabinsk’s key figures in this year’s playoffs is Charles Robinson. The American power forward has been notable for his fights and his goals and rarely completes a game without making some kind of impact. Today he added an assist to his stats, winning a battle on the boards and dishing off the puck for Artyom Blazhiyevsky to roast one home from the blue line. That made it 4-1 midway through the game, and left Dynamo looking like a beaten force.
True, the home team mustered some kind of response. Late in the middle frame Eric O’Dell collected a deft drop pass from Pavel Kudryavtsev to fire home a second goal for the home team. However, the host struggled to turn its possession into tangible rewards and went into the final frame with it all to do.
With a two-goal lead to protect, Traktor adopted a high press in the third period. As a result, Dynamo had a hard time getting to the danger zone. The home team had more of the puck, and was able to fire in speculative efforts on a regular basis. However, it wasn’t until the 54th minute that Zach Fucale had serious cause for alarm when Pylenkov’s diagonal feed presented Chernyshyov with an open net. However, the young forward fluffed his lines and first against the piping. The home team would get no closer, and Traktor closed out the game to take the early initiative in this series.
