Kuzmenko's hat-trick, Shumakov’s three points and a mass brawl in Nur-Sultan: the favorites began with confident victories in the KHL playoffs

Big victory for Barys

In the first match of the playoffs of the Gagarin Cup of the 2019/20 season, Barys and Metallurg met. Wards of Andrey Skabelka confirmed their status as a favorite and easily dealt with the seventh team of the Eastern Conference. The hosts scored four unanswered goals and went ahead in the series, and the main event was the ending of a mass brawl with representatives of both teams.

By the middle of the meeting, the second team of the Eastern Conference had a double advantage in the long run. The author of the first goal in the current draw of the tournament was Curtis Wolf, who completed a beautiful combination, after which Atte Okhtamaa was noted by a cool long-range throw. The Finnish defender at speed entered the opponent’s zone and with a powerful click left the experienced Vasily Koshechkin out of work.

At the same time, it cannot be said that the guests looked absolutely toothless and lost outright. Wards of Ilya Vorobyov 34 times disturbed Edward Pascual, but the Canadian was faultless. This confidence was transferred to field hockey players, who subsequently brought the score to a major one. First, Iiro Pakarinen sent the puck into the empty net of the enemy, and then the same Wolf helped Darren Ditz distinguish himself.

Players "foxes" did not want to put up with defeat and tried to take revenge in a fist fight. Over the past few minutes, they have repeatedly provoked vis-a-vis a fight, and the largest of them occurred immediately after a throw-in with the score 4: 0. The clash was attended by all ten field players of both teams, and fines were awarded to Evgeny Biryukov, Evgeny Timkin and Yegor Petukhov.

Three points of Shumakov and the absence of Soshnikov

At the end of the regular season, Vanguard suffered seven defeats in nine matches and dropped to third place in the Eastern Conference. In this regard, many fans might have doubts about the prospects of the “hawks” in the playoffs, but they quickly dispelled them. Bob Hartley's wards got the better of opponents from Salavat Yulaev and did so more than confidently.

In the period from the 17th to the 40th minute, Omsk hockey players upset Juhu Metsola five times, and Sergey Shumakov became one of the main characters. At the end of the first period, the ex-striker of CSKA with a spectacular touch-throw realized the majority, and then showed the skills of an assistant and helped Kirill Semenov to take a double. Another goal was scored by Andrei Stas and Valentin Pianov, and the latter was also held in unequal compositions.

In general, the “hawks” looked on the head stronger than the opponent and caused 45 shots on his goal. Ufa residents were able to answer with only 28 hits, and even star legionnaires could not save them from defeat. In the absence of their best sniper Nikita Soshnikov, Linus Umark and Temu Hartikainen tried to lead the team, but they could only upset Igor Bobkov once.

Six goals of SKA and Yokerita

The matches with the participation of the leaders of the Western Conference turned out to be even more one-sided and ended with the clear advantage of the St. Petersburg SKA and the Finnish “Jokerita”. Both meetings ended with a tennis score, but if Podolsky “Vityaz” managed to chalk up a prestige goal, then the Yaroslavl “Lokomotiv” got a “donut”.

It is noteworthy that young Russian forwards were in the lead in the army team. 24-year-old Andrei Kuzmenko scored a hat-trick, and silver medalist of the last youth championship in the Czech Republic Kirill Marchenko chalked up two accurate throws. At the same time, it was not without the help of the legionnaire in the person of Jonas Kemppainen.

As for Kuzmenko, that evening he pleased with goals for every taste. First, he designed an interception in the enemy zone and outplayed the Vityaz goalkeeper Ilya Yezhova in a full-time duel. Then he scored a click on the touch from the left face-off circle, recalling the best Russian sniper in the history of the NHL, Alexander Ovechkin, and to top it off he played on finishing.

It is worth noting that in the middle of the second game segment Yezhov in the “frame” was replaced by Igor Saprykin, and the main goalkeeper reacted very emotionally to his replacement. He went into the locker room of the team and threw the club in his hearts, and in general he behaved quite emotionally. But after all the same he managed to calm down and returned to the bench.

According to the place in the standings, “Jokerit” was considered the favorite of the duel with “Locomotive”, but the statistics of personal meetings gave the railwaymen an occasion for optimism. During the season, the teams fought with each other six times and four times the wards of Mike Pelino took over. At the same time, exactly a month ago, the Yaroslavl athletes did not leave an opponent a chance, scoring five unanswered goals.

However, this time everything happened exactly the opposite. “Lokomotiv” looked very unprepossessing in the attack and delivered only 17 shots on goal. However, in defense they acted even more unsuccessfully, as a result of which by the end of the second 20-minute they were inferior with a difference of five goals. At the same time, the score could be even larger, but the referees saw an attack on the goalkeeper in the episode with Esse Joensuu's goal.

But this did not stop the hosts to continue to pressure and end the match with a crushing score of 6-0. The leaders in performance were defender Mikko Lehtonen and striker Niklas Jensen, each of whom was noted for an accurate hit and two assists.