Battle of the leaders, Ak Bars wins Supergame. KHL 3x3 Round Five

Once again, Ak Bars came out on top. Round five saw Kazan win four games from six before going on to thump Metallurg 7-2 in the Supergame. Overall, that has Ak Bars and Magnitka tied on two Supergames each, while the two are out in front in the Winline and Fonbet Divisions respectively. Barys showed signs of getting to grips with the 3x3 format, picking up wins against the two leaders. Dinamo Minsk climbs to second in the Winline Division with an improved performance this weekend.

Highlight of the Round – Barys beats the favorites

Ak Bars topped the standings, then defeated Metallurg in the Supergame to claim the million-ruble bonus. But if we dig deeper, there were plenty of surprises over the four days of competition. First, we discovered that not even the Ak Bars players are machines. Like any other group, they can blow a lead and throw away a win in the final moments, just as we saw against Metallurg. They can also simply get it all wrong, and lose to an opponent they just beat 6-0, as they did against Barys. Second, we have to applaud the progress made by Dinamo Minsk and Barys. For the Belarusians, one-goal losses to Ak Bars were a huge improvement of 3-8 and 3-10 hammerings last time. Barys, meanwhile, beat both favorites -–6-1 against Metallurg and 6-3 over Ak Bars.

Game of the Round – Ak Bars 5 Metallurg 6 SO

The Kazan-Magnitogorsk rivalry is already a 3x3 classic, and the teams’ first meeting in round five was another barn burner. When Ak Bars got up 3-0 at the end of the second period, everything seemed to be under control. But Magnitka had no plans to give up: they got two goals back, then rallied again from 2-4 to tie the game. Ak Bars captain Ilya Ivanov restored his team’s lead with 25 seconds left – surely the winning goal? But no! A foul in the last second gave Metallurg a penalty shot – remember, there are no penalty boxes in 3x3 – and Dmitry Marchenkov scored to take the game to a shoot-out. That was another tense battle before Pavel Varfolomeyev gave Metallurg the verdict.

Hero of the Round – Yury Muravyov (Ak Bars)

Once again, the Ak Bars team proved highly consistent, making it difficult to single out an MVP. Goalie Alexander Lazushin posted his second shut-out of the season and did well in the Supergame, Makar Chupin had seven points in the round and added a double in the Supergame, while Vladislav Shlyakhtov and Pavel Gorokhov maintained their high standards. But, not for the first time, Yury Muravyov was the stand-out with 9 (5+4) points in the round, followed by a hat-trick on Metallurg in the Supergame.