Poturalski’s double helps Avangard to victory

Game two of this second round series saw Avangard hold on to beat CSKA 3-2. Two goals from Andrew Poturalski, plus two points from Konstantin Okulov, made the difference. The Muscovites got their first goals of the series, but it wasn’t enough.

Hawks on top after two games

Avangard Omsk 3 CSKA Moscow 2 (1-0, 1-0, 1-2)
Avangard leads the series 2-0

Despite allowing its first goals of this Gagarin Cup second-round series, Avangard held on to take a 3-2 verdict on the night and open a 2-0 lead in its contest with CSKA.

Guy Boucher had to call up Daniil Chayka from its VHL farm club to replace the injured Semyon Chistyakov on defense. Chistyakov exited the opening game early after a big hit from Klim Kostin that left the home team with just five active D-men.

However, this did not greatly weaken the Omsk defense in game two. After a shut-out in the opener, Nikita Serebryakov went two more periods without allowing a goal before Nick Ebert finally got CSKA on the board in the 44th minute.

By that time, the Muscovites were already down by two. The teams produced a hard-fought game, dominated by puck battles, but scoring chances were few and far between. CSKA, eager to recover from Wednesday’s 0-3 loss here at the G-Drive Arena, tried to force the pace and had more attacking possession and more shots on goal. However, it said much for the scarcity of scoring chances that Avangard’s 15th-minute opener came from only its third shot of the evening.

It was something of a goal out of nothing. Avangard won an attacking face-off, but had to recycle the play around the zone. When the puck came to Andrew Poturalski, high on the right-hand boards, there didn’t seem to be much on for the team’s goal leader in regular season. But he produced an unbelievable shot that ripped past the motionless Dmitry Gamzin to claim his first goal of the playoffs.

Both teams had a power play before the end of the first period, and CSKA’s continued after the intermission. The visitor took advantage, beginning the middle frame with a long spell of pressure in the Avangard zone. However, the momentum did not generate a major threat for Serebryakov. As the game unfolded, the visitor continued to create more offense, but Avangard defended well. Then, just before the second intermission, Konstantin Okulov potted his third goal of this series to double the Hawks’ lead when he put away the rebound after Giovanni Fiore’s effort on the wraparound.

CSKA badly needed a goal at the start of the third to get back into the game and snap a 100-minute goalless run. Ebert delivered on 43:11, banging home a feed from fellow defenseman Jeremy Roy. But almost immediately Avangard got a power play and Poturalski’s second of the game restored a two-goal lead for the home team. Okulov’s diagonal feed took him to 4 (3+1) points in the series. His current four-game streak is worth 8 (5+3) as he leads the post-season scoring.

The visitor responded by trying to raise the tempo once more: with 15 minutes to play, there was still hope of clawing back two goals. Nikolai Kovalenko got one of them midway through the third, when his power play effort deflected off Joseph Cecconi and into the net. For a time it seemed that momentum might carry CSKA to a tying goal, but Avangard managed to fight the fire. In the closing moments, Okulov failed to find the empty net and seal the game, giving CSKA one last chance to salvage the game. But the visitor ran out of time before it could take advantage of that miss, and the Hawks fly to Moscow with a 2-0 lead in the series.