Wilson shines for rampant Ufa, Traktor ties series

Salavat Yulaev made it 15 goals in two games, and Scott Wilson had 6 (3+3) points in today’s 8-2 win over Sibir. While that series is firmly in Ufa’s favor, the Traktor vs Admiral pairing is locked at 1-1. Traktor recovered from dropping the opening game but needed overtime to beat the eighth seed.

Blazhievsky’s OT strike ties the series for Traktor

Traktor Chelyabinsk 2 Admiral Vladivostok 1 OT (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-0)

(Series tied at 1-1)

Not many would have picked out this series as one of the most competitive in the first round of the 2025 Gagarin Cup playoffs. But Admiral, despite finishing eighth in the East and ending the regular season in miserable form, is giving Eastern Conference leader Traktor a real headache.

Leonids Tambijevs’ team pulled a shock win in the opening game in Chelyabinsk and produced a battling performance here before falling in overtime. The visitor got in front in the second period, but could not hold onto that lead. Eventually, Artyom Blazhievsky’s goal at the start of the extras proved decisive.

In the opening game, Traktor goalie Zach Fucale found life difficult. However, Benoit Groulx kept faith with the Canadian, trusting that he would swiftly return to form. Another import, Steven Kampfer, returned to the home defense. Admiral continued with an unchanged roster after Thursday’s impressive team performance.

If the opening game was marked with a cautious start, game two began with Traktor looking for the early breakthrough. The home team had two threatening attacks in the opening shifts, before Admiral Dmitry Zavgorodny got on the counter to fire in a warning shot at the other end. Nonetheless, the home team was on top through a goalless first period, firing in shots from all angles. Andrei Mishurov made 13 saves to keep his team level at the intermission, doing especially well to deny Maxim Shabanov and Vitaly Kravtsov. At the other end, the Sailors were less often able to attack but Jack Rodewald came close when he hit the piping with a breakaway chance.

Despite Traktor’s good start, Admiral opened the scoring at the start of the second period. Daniil Gutik sent the puck to the slot, and Pavel Shen finished it off. Once again, Fucale’s play raised questions as he went behind the net to retrieve the puck, only to send it straight to Gutik and fail to regain his position in time to make a save.

However, it didn’t take long for the home team to equalize. Once again, Mishurov pulled off a good save to deny Nikita Korostelyov, but this time the puck bounced loose and, after a scrimmage in front of the net, Korostelyov was able to bang it in. After that, Traktor continued to enjoy more possession but all too often promising positions came to naught as Admiral’s D-core successfully read the intentions of the home team. The best chance fell to Shabanov, who led a three-on-one break late in the frame but opted to shoot and missed the target.

At the start of the third, both teams played cautiously. In effect, it was as if overtime had started early: there was a strong sense that the next goal would prove decisive. Traktor’s fourth line produced some interesting moments and Vladimir Tkachyov earned the home team the first power play of the game. However, there was little danger to the Sailors’ penalty kill.

As the session wore on, both teams were more inclined to shoot from distance and hope for a deflection in the traffic in front of the nets. Shane Prince had a couple of genuine scoring chances for Admiral, but Fucale kept him at bay to send the game to overtime.

Those extras did not last long. After 75 seconds, Traktor finished the job when Blazhievsky joined the attack and fired home the winning goal.

Wilson leads another Ufa romp

Salavat Yulaev Ufa 8 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (2-2, 4-0, 2-0)

(Salavat Yulaev leads the series 2-0)

For the second game in a row, Salavat Yulaev romped to an emphatic victory over Sibir. Viktor Kozlov’s team is up 2-0 in the series, with an aggregate scored of 15-2 in those games.

And yet Josh Leivo is still awaiting his first goal of the playoffs. Today he had five assists, but no goals. Instead, Scott Wilson led today’s scoring with a hat-trick and contributed three assists to go with them.

Yet at the start of the contest, Sibir looked to have a solution to its problems from game one. The visitor, blanked in Thursday’s 0-7 loss, changed things up for game two. Georgy Belousov lost his place to 18-year-old forward Alexander Pershakov. Vadim Yepanchintsev also shuffled his defensive pairings and named Mikhail Reshetko as 13th forward.

The new-look Sibir quickly jumped into a 2-0 lead. Artyom Nabiyev’s penalty for goalie interference saw the KHL’s leading power play of the regular season spring into life: Trevor Murphy’s long-range effort opened the scoring. And 48 seconds later Vladislav Kara converted Valentin Pyanov’s feed to double the lead.

Yet almost immediately, Salavat Yulaev got on the power play and Alexander Chmelevski pulled one back. Then Wilson got his first of the game to tie the scores as the intermission approached.

If the opening frame suggested that Sibir was back in this series, the second swiftly returned us to the lopsided opening encounter. After a dangerous play for visiting captain Sergei Shirokov early in the session, Salavat Yulaev took complete control. Wilson snapped a 2-2 tie with his second of the game off Leivo’s feed, and soon followed it by completing the first hat-trick by a Salavat Yulaev player in the KHL. The home team scented blood, and defenseman Ildan Gazimov added a fifth in the 34th minute, chasing Denis Kostin from Sibir’s net and bringing Anton Krasotkin into the game for his 250th appearance. Within five minutes, he too was beaten as Vladislav Yefremov added a sixth goal and effectively wrapped up the contest inside 40 minutes.

The final frame brought a fight between Murphy and Sheldon Rempal. Later, Andy Andreoff tried to pick a fight with home captain Grigory Panin, who was content to let the officials sort that one out. And with good reason. The Ufa power play brought a goal for Rempal to make it 7-2. And another PP in the closing stages saw Nathan Todd complete the scoring in another dominant Salavat win.