Avtomobilist forces game seven showdown. April 13 playoffs
We’re going to game seven! Avtomobilist kept its Gagarin Cup semifinal series alive with a home victory over Metallurg. Anatoly Golyshev, the leading scorer in this year’s playoffs, had two assists to take him to 18 (9+9) points in post season. Danil Romantsev had three assists, and Nikita Tryamkin finished with 1+1 to lead the home team to the win. That ties it up at 3-3, so the action moves to Magnitogorsk on Monday for the deciding game. The winner will advance to face Lokomotiv in the final.
Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg 5 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 (1-0, 4-2, 0-1)
Series tied at 3-3
Magnitka, once again, was unchanged as it sought the victory that would settle this series. Avtomobilist sprang a surprise in its bid to prolong its season, leaving first-choice goalie Evgeny Alikin out of the line-up altogether. Vladimir Galkin got the start, with Vladislav Okoryak as back-up. In addition, forwards Sergei Shirokov and Semyon Kizimov missed out, with Vladimir Kuznetsov and Maxim Denezhkin replacing them.
Although Andrei Razin chose not to change his team, the visiting head coach would be forced to make adjustments during this game. Avtomobilist edged ahead in the first period, then jumped to a 3-0 lead with two quick goals in the second. That prompted Razin to replace Ilya Nabokov with back-up goalie Alexander Smolin in the 28th minute. The 20-year-old had not previously featured in this year’s playoffs.
Nabokov was chased from the goal by a strong attacking performance from the home team. The first period was evenly-matched, but Avtomobilist got the lead after five minutes through defenseman Nikita Tryamkin. He did it all himself, dumping the puck into the Metallurg zone then chasing down the rebound off the boards before beating Nabokov from close range.
Then Avto scored twice in barely a minute. The first came on 26:16 when Maxim Denezhkin won possession in center ice and drove play forwards. Danil Romantsev took play on, but skated into two opponents. The puck dropped for Artyom Kashtanov, who had a clear path to the net and placed his shot beyond the goalie’s pads.
On 27:23, the playoffs’ scoring leader Anatoly Golyshev got involved again, launching a two-on-one rush that saw Alexei Makeyev add a third goal and send Nabokov to the sidelines.
Metallurg responded quickly, with Danila Yurov pulling a goal back at the midway point. However, the change of goalie did not thwart the home offense, and Denis Barantsev made it 4-1 with a thunderbolt of a point shot over Smolin’s blocker. And a high-scoring series produced more goals late in the middle frame as the teams traded further tallies. Stephane Da Costa made it 5-1 for the home team before a well-worked combination saw Denis Zernov get one back for Metallurg before the intermission.
We’ve seen some big fightbacks in this series – not least Avtomobilist’s rally from 0-3 here last Tuesday. And when Roman Kantserov started the third period by reducing Magnitka’s arrears, there was a brief possibility of another one. This time, though, the home team managed the situation. Metallurg piled on the pressure, but in response the home team simplified its play and focussed on getting the basics right.
The stats strongly favored the visitor in the final frame, with Galkin making 16 saves in the session while his colleagues blocked a further eight efforts. Avtomobilist was limited to less than two minutes of offensive possession. However, the home team managed to take some of the sting out of the visiting attack as the period went on. Moreover, the Steelmen could not replace Smolin with an extra skater until the game was already into the final minute thanks to diligent home defense. It all added a up to a 5-3 win that takes an enthralling series into a dramatic winner-takes-all showdown next week.
