Metallurg on the brink of exit

Ak Bars made it back-to-back 4-1 home victories over Metallurg to open a 3-1 lead in the Gagarin Cup semi-final series. Two goals in 66 seconds late in the second period opened a decisive lead for Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men.

Decisive Ak Bars takes third victory in SF

Ak Bars Kazan 4 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 (0-0, 2-0, 2-1)
Ak Bars leads the series 3-1

Metallurg head coach Andrei Razin made two changes to the team that lost 1-4 on Wednesday. Makar Khabarov was scratched, prompting a reshuffle of the defensive pairs, while Yegor Korobkin replaced 20-year-old forward Igor Nechayev.

The home team looked to carry Wednesday’s momentum into the opening exchanges and created a couple of good chances early on. Dmitrij Jaskin came closest with a counterattack, before Robin Press responded for Magnitka with a dangerous shot that brought a good save from Timur Bilyalov. Tensions soon built up, and Mikhail Fisenko and Luke Johnson came to blows. Both were handed double minors for roughing.

Metallurg did a decent job of keeping the puck around Bilyalov’s net but struggled to generate the traffic that would really unsettle the home goalie. And both teams were happy to play on the counter before a goalless opening frame ended with Ak Bars on the power play.

After the intermission, the teams tried to build longer spells of attacking pressure. Ak Bars had a couple of opportunities to pen Metallurg into its zone and managed a couple of chances to beat Ilya Nabokov. At the other end, Metallurg could not find quite the same O-zone minutes but still gave Bilyalov and his defensemen work to do.

When it came to counterattacking, Ak Bars looked more dangerous. Alexei Pustozyorov had a great chanc, Alexander Barabanov and Artyom Galimov went close with a two-on-one rush and Alexander Chmelevski almost arrived at the back door in time to open the scoring.

Metallurg almost snatched the lead against the run of play, but a foul in the build-up wiped out that effort and Ak Bars got on the power play. Barabanov exacted maximum punishment, banging the puck home after it bounced around in front of Nabokov’s net. And, lifted by that success, the home side doubled its advantage almost immediately: Grigory Denisenko’s one-timer gave some breathing space.

The host began the third on the power play, but ended up close to allowing a shorty when Korobkin and Nikita Korotkov generated a dangerous counter. At equal strength, Barabanov was denied his second of the night by a bench challenge.

The home bench was less successful when it made its first challenge of the playoff following Korobkin’s goal for Metallurg. Instead of preserving a two-goal advantage, Ak Bars found itself in a one-goal game and on the PK. But Metallurg fluffed the opportunity when Roman Kantserov was assessed a high-sticking penalty to even up the numbers. Then the home team had power play chances – four-on-three, then five-on-four – but ran into a rigorous rearguard action.

Once back at equal strength, Metallurg looked to be finding a way back into the game. A couple of golden chances came and went at one end, then at the other Kirill Semyonov and Nathan Todd combined for the Canadian to increase the lead on a counter. That brought the contest to an effective end before Jaskin’s empty-netter sealed the win.

The series returns to Magnitogorsk on Monday with the Steelmen already on the verge of elimination from this season’s playoffs.