Avangard revives its hopes, Traktor goes up 3-0 on Dynamo. March 20 playoffs
After replacing Mikhail Kravets in mid-series, Avangard got an instant reward. Interim head coach Sergei Zvyagin led his team to an overtime victory in Yaroslavl, bringing the Hawks back to 1-2 in the second round playoff series. In Chelyabinsk, Traktor came from behind to claim a third win over Dynamo Moscow. Alexei Zavarukhin’s men can complete a sweep of the regular season champion with victory on Friday.
Traktor pushes Dynamo to the edge of elimination
Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Dynamo Moscow 2 (0-1, 2-1, 1-0)
Traktor leads the series 3-0
Mikhail Kotlyarevsky’s third-period goal put Traktor one game away from sweeping this year’s regular season champ. After back-to-back wins in Moscow, the Eastern conference’s sixth seed continued to defy the odds on home ice and is now well placed to reach the last four for the second time in three years.
Dynamo, meanwhile, is on the brink of elimination and seems fated to continue its record of getting no further than the second round since it last lifted the Gagarin Cup in 2013. Ironically, that year’s final was the only previous playoff meeting between the Muscovites and their current opponent.
Ahead of Wednesday’s game, Traktor welcomed back captain Sergei Kalinin, who missed the previous two weeks. He replaced Nikita Soshnikov in the only change to Alexei Zavarukhin’s line-up. For Dynamo, Yegor Petukhov returned and goalie Maxim Motorygin was given the starting role ahead of Ilya Konovalov.
The two games in Moscow saw Dynamo start well each time, converting an evident territorial advantage into a first-period goal. That happened again here, with Cedric Paquette, Nikita Gusev and Jordan Weal locking the Traktor defense into its zone and forcing an error that saw Weal break the deadlock in the 16th minute. The major difference was that on this occasion, Traktor’s counterattacks produced no reward (admittedly, only the post denied the home team on one occasion) and Dynamo got the first intermission with a lead for the first time in the series.
In the second period, the home team put things right. Early in the middle frame, Anton Burdasov and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev assisted goals for each other and by the 26th minute it was 2-1 in Traktor’s favor.
After that, Dynamo struggled to play its way back into contention. Traktor defended well and arguably deserved better than a 2-2 scoreline at the intermission: Artyom Ilyenko tied the game on a rare counterattack but could not swing the momentum back towards the visitor.
Throughout the season, Dynamo’s power play has been its trump card. Today, the Blue-and-Whites barely got a chance to play with an extra man. Traktor showed great discipline, and the visiting PP was not sighted until the start of the third period. Even then, it didn’t last long: Eric O’Dell soon followed Albert Yarullin to the box, evening up the numbers.
The winning goal came in the 46th minute when Kotlyarevsky forced a turnover in his own zone and set off on the counter with Jack Rodewald for company. Rodewald’s services were not needed, as Kotlyarevsky moved inside and ripped a shot past Motorygin to restore Traktor’s lead.
After that, Dynamo had more of the play but rarely created serious danger around the Traktor net. There was no sign of the dramatic recovery that turned 2-4 into 4-4 in the third period on Monday. Even a penalty for Kotlyarevsky with three-and-a-half minutes to play could not save the visitor, with Zach Fucale resisting that late surge to close out the win.
New coach claims vital victory
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Avangard Omsk 2 OT (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Lokomotiv leads the series 2-1
Avangard grabbed an overtime victory to revive its chances in this series. Reid Boucher’s eight post season goal settled the outcome of a tight, hard-fought game in Yaroslavl as the Hawks bounced back from a heavy loss in game two.
Lokomotiv’s 7-0 victory on Monday had far-reaching consequences. The following day, Avangard announced that it had parted company with head coach Mikhail Kravets and Sergei Zvyagin would remain in interim control until the end of the season. The former Russian international goalie, now 52, had just one KHL playoff appearance when he was with Lokomotiv in 2009. Since retiring from playing, he worked as goalie coach for Barys, Metallurg and, from 2018, Avangard.
Zvyagin welcomed back center Ryan Spooner, who missed the first two games of the series through injury. He returned to the top line, flanked by Vladimir Tkachyov and Reid Boucher. Lokomotiv made a couple of changes among its forwards, with Yegor Averin and Yaroslav Likhachyov replacing Ivan Chekhovich and Nikita Kiryanov.
The first thing Zvyagin needed to put right was his team’s lack of scoring. In the first two games of the series, Avangard managed just one goal. That came in the first period of an OT loss in game one. Today, the Hawks found a way past Daniil Isayev at last. The first power play of the game concluded with Semyon Chistyakov firing in an awesome shot from the point to give the visitor the lead.
However, Lokomotiv drew level just before the intermission. The home team quickly converted its first power play of the evening when Stepan Nikulin shot home from the left-hand circle.
After the intermission, the action slowed a little. Both teams adopted a pragmatic approach and much of the play was about halting the opposition rather than creating the decisive opening. After both power plays in the first period brought goals, Avangard stayed out of the box for the second while Lokomotiv killed the one penalty it took. Overall the home team had a slight territorial advantage without converting that into a tangible lead.
The series has been unusual: while one game ended in a blow-out, the other two went to overtime. Today’s third period was a prolongation of the intense, cautious hockey that came before it. Lokomotiv once again had slightly more of the play and got to the 60-minute mark with a 34-17 lead in shots. However, the most notable event of the frame was the 53rd minute clash between Likhachyov and Avangard’s Artyom Chmykhov which saw both players take fighting majors.
Once into OT, Avangard got an injection of energy. The visitor made a brighter start to the additional period and soon turned pressure into a winning goal. Boucher, this season’s outstanding goalscorer in the KHL, grabbed another vital tally. He stuffed the puck home from close range after Isayev made saves to deny Chistyakov and Spooner.
