Motormen rally from 0-3, tie series at 2-2. April 9 playoffs
A thrilling battle in Yekaterinburg saw Avtomobilist fight back to tie this Gagarin Cup semi-final series. Despite allowing three goals in the first eight minutes, the home team rallied to win the game on a last-minute Stepan Khripunov counterattack goal.
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 5 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (2-3, 1-0, 2-0)
Series tied at 2-2
After Sunday’s OT loss, Avtomobilist made changes. Vladimir Galkin replaced usual starting goalie Evgeny Alikin, while center Curtis Valk returned after missing two games and defenseman Denis Barantsev came back after he was scratched last time. Maxim Denezhkin and Yegor Alexeyev made way, with the home team reverting to eight D and 12 forwards. Metallurg was unchanged after winning the previous game.
However, Galkin’s first appearance in this series was not destined to last long. With barely five minutes played, Alikin reclaimed his place after Metallurg jumped to a 2-0 lead. Igor Geraskin sent Nikita Grebyonkin through in the third minute to open the scoring, then Alexander Petunin doubled the lead with a power play goal on 5:07.
Alikin’s arrival did not greatly help: in the eighth minute he was beaten when Danila Yurov collected the puck behind the net and fired in a tricky shot that bounced off the goalie’s back on its way into the net.
At that point, the home team was in danger of a damagingly heavy loss. However, Avtomobilist found a reply fast. One minute later, Stephane Da Costa made it 1-3, using his skate to control Anatoly Golyshev’s pass from behind the net, then firing a wrist shot past Ilya Nabokov.
Then, late in the frame, the Motormen got back to within a single goal. Valk fired in a shot from the left-hand boards, Brooks Macek battled for possession on the slot and the puck skittered to Semyon Kizimov to make it 2-3 at the intermission. The tension clearly affected players on both teams: in the closing seconds there were two separate scuffles, resulting in five players going to the box and the home team beginning the second period on the power play.
After a high-scoring first period, the teams were less productive in the second. Metallurg regained some of the dominance it had during the early play, but this time it could not match the impressive conversion rate of those opening minutes. Avtomobilist struggled to generate the same kind of offensive intensity and managed only five shots on target in the period.
However, one of those attempts was good enough to tie the game in the 38th minute. Da Costa drove towards the net, but his advance was halted by a visiting defenseman. The puck broke for Golyshev and, even as the forward lost his balance, he was able to shoot into the top corner.
The third period followed a similar story. Again, Metallurg had more of the play. Again, Alikin proved invincible between the piping, stopping 16 shots in the final stanza. And, again, Avtomobilist got the vital goal late in the frame. This time Macek won possession on his own blue line and launched a two-on-one rush. His pass took a deflection off a defenseman’s stick and went to Stepan Khripunov, who put the Motormen in front for the first time in the game with just 67 seconds left on the clock.
Metallurg responded by calling a time-out and replacing Nabokov with a sixth skater. However, the extra man was no help. Avtomobilist won back possession and Golyshev potted his second of the game into the empty net just before the hooter. It’s all square as the teams head back to Magnitogorsk.
