Lowest seed storms into last four, Loko goes up 3-1. March 22 playoffs
Traktor, ranked sixth in the East and the lowest-rated team left in the competition, completed a sweep of regular-season champion Dynamo Moscow to become the first team to secure a place in the last four. Lokomotiv is one game away from confirming its match-up with Traktor after defeating Avangard in game four to take a 3-1 lead in the series.
Traktor’s fairytale run continues
Traktor Chelyabinsk 5 Dynamo Moscow 4 (4-1, 0-1, 1-2)
Traktor wins the series 4-0
Despite being the lowest ranked team left in the 2024 KHL playoffs, Traktor became the first to reach the final four. A 5-4 victory in Chelyabinsk completed a sweep of Dynamo Moscow.
The winner of the Avangard vs Lokomotiv series awaits Traktor in the semi-finals as Chelyabinsk prepares to contest that stage for the second time in three seasons. For Dynamo, though, despite topping the regular season standings, the wait goes on: since winning the Gagarin Cup in 2013, the Blue-and-Whites have not made it past the second round.
Friday’s game was the second time in this series that the teams shared nine goals. However, there was little evidence of that in a cautious opening to the game. Things livened up when Zach Fucale’s foul gave Dynamo the first power play of the game. The Muscovites’ PP has been compelling this season; this time Brennan Menell and Nikita Gusev combined to set up the opening goal for Cedric Paquette.
However, one of the themes of the series has been Traktor’s ability to recover after losing the first goal. Today, the home team responded with four goals in the latter half of the first period to plant one foot firmly in the next round before the first intermission. There was plenty of variety in the play. First, good fortune played a part when a Charles Robinson effort hit the bar and bounced into the net off the back of goalie Maxim Motorygin. Next, Danil Yurtaikin redirected Vladimir Tkachyov’s shot, giving his team the lead and his team-mate a 200th KHL assist. The third goal went to Anton Burdasov with a long-range effort, then Jack Rodewald outwitted replacement netminder Ilya Konovalov from close range. The four goals came in little over eight minutes, the last two on the power play.
Despite the big deficit, the gap between the teams was not as great as the scoreline suggested. However, throughout the series Dynamo has found it hard to turn chances into goals, while Traktor has enjoyed a freakishly high conversion rate. The second period brought another power play tally for the visitor, with Jordan Weal reducing the deficit early in the frame. However, enough good chances to mean that a tied game would hardly have been a travesty, the Muscovites got no closer in the middle frame.
There was a curious incident at the start of the third period when both teams were caught with too many skaters at the same time. Four-on-four soon became four-on-three when Igor Ozhiganov’s penalty left Dynamo on the defensive. However, the visitor was unwilling to sit back, even when a man down, and when the teams were back to full strength Weal’s second goal of the night – and Gusev’s third assist – set up a grandstand finish.
With 10 minutes to play, Dynamo continued to press for a game-saving (and season-saving) goal. However, when Ilya Karpukhin stripped Weal of the puck, he was able to send Maxim Shabanov away to make it 5-3 and secure some vital breathing space. The job was not quite done, and Eric O’Dell pulled a goal back in the last minute. But there was no time for Dynamo to find a late tying goal, and Traktor closed out the win to clinch its place in the next round.
Loko one step away from progress
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 Avangard Omsk 1 (1-0, 0-0, 2-1)
Lokomotiv leads the series 3-1
Lokomotiv bounced back from Wednesday’s OT loss with a 3-1 win over Avangard. The Railwaymen head back to Siberia on Monday with a 3-1 lead in the series and could finish the job at the G-Drive Arena this weekend.
Avangard breathed new life into this series with victory here on Wednesday. However, that game was overshadowed by the decision to dismiss head coach Mikhail Kravets and place Sergei Zvyagin in interim charge of the team. In game four, Lokomotiv was out to prove that the new coach bounce would be a short-lived phenomenon.
The Hawks, meanwhile, wanted to build on their win and tried to seize the early initiative. There were a couple of decent chances in the first few minutes, but Lokomotiv managed to break the deadlock in the fifth minute. Georgy Ivanov took possession in center ice, advanced down the right wing and launched a wrist shot from the circle. It didn’t seem like a major test for Pavel Khomchenko, but the visiting goalie completely misjudged it and the Railwaymen had the lead.
Khomchenko was beaten again a couple of minutes later when Denis Alexeyev capitalized on a turnover in center ice. This time, though, Zvyagin successfully challenged the play and the goal was whistled back for offside.
The game remained tight, with Avangard continuing to create some good chances. The best of them arrived just before the intermission when Reid Boucher got free at the back door in time to launch a one-timer off Vladimir Tkachyov’s feed. However, Daniil Isayev was equal to the shot and the Railwaymen held their lead to the break.
In the second period, the home team was still on top. However, despite a big chance for Artur Kayumov early in the frame, and another for Maxim Shalunov towards the end, there was no further scoring.
That suited Avangard well enough. The Hawks have struggled for goals in this series (three in three games before tonight, with two of those three going to OT. However, in a tight game, the visitor knew it always had a chance if it could generate offense in the third period.
What didn’t suit the Hawks was allowing a second goal right at the start of the final stanza. Just 73 seconds into the session, Lokomotiv had a game-breaking second goal. It started with Sergei Andronov in full-on battering ram mode, forcing the puck down the right-hand boards. Nikita Kiryanov picked it up and instantly got past Mikhail Gulyayev to release Ivan Chekhovich for a one-on-one with Khomchenko. The finish from the slot was too good for the goalie.
Avangard almost had an instant response: Tkachyov went close on the backhand, then Boucher’s venomous effort on the rebound was padded away by Isayev. At the other end, a superb Khomchenko save denied Daniil Tesanov and kept Avangard in the game. That stop looked even more important in the 54th minute when Gulyayev pulled a goal back for the visitor. However, instead of providing a springboard from which to save the game, it proved instead to be a swiftly-extinguished moment of hope: Kayumov redirected a Kiryanov shot into the net a couple of minutes later to make it 3-1.
