While many have become accustomed to the army derby within the framework of the Western Conference, the confrontation between the two Ural teams in the East is an extremely rare event.
In the entire history of Metallurg and Traktor, they have never determined the name of the Gagarin Cup finalist, and even in the KHL playoffs they crossed paths only once.
In 2010, they met in the first round, but the struggle did not really work out.
"Magnitogorsk" took the upper hand with a score of 3:1 (then three wins were enough to enter the second stage) and proceeded to the next stage, where they lost to the future champion - "Ak Bars".
However, this time it was not necessary to expect such a dominant performance from one of the teams.
Metallurg spent a lot of energy in the series with Avangard, and even lost three defenders.
In addition to Maxim Pashnin, who underwent surgery, Ilya Vorobyov could not count on two more important defense players.
Artyom Minulin and Alexei Maklyukov were injured in a duel with the Hawks, who blocked Arseniy Gritsyuk's shot at the cost of his own health.
And the head coach could not unequivocally answer the question about the timing of his return to duty: “Yesterday I was in his hospital, it’s already better.
He smiled and we talked.
God forbid, everything will be fine, we proceed from this.
Traktor did not do without losses either - however, in the attacking line.
Neither Lukas Sedlak nor Temu Pulkkinen, who replenished the infirmary during the confrontation with Salavat Yulaev, got into the application for the opening match of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Finn was injured in the final, sixth game of the series, and the Czech was eliminated even earlier.
One of the best scorers of the "bears" did not appear on the ice after the captain of Ufa, Grigory Panin, dealt him a heavy blow to the head.
Nevertheless, even in the absence of a number of stars, the matches between Metallurg and Traktor were of great interest.
And in many respects because antipode collectives met among themselves.
If Magnitogorsk approached the finals of the East in the status of the most productive team in the playoffs (3.9 goals per game on average), then Chelyabinsk - the least passing team (1.6).
And it was extremely curious what would prevail in the end - the bright attack of Vorobyov or the lined defense of Anvar Gatiyatulin.
Metallurg as the host looked very active at the start.
In the first ten minutes, the hockey players bothered Roman Villa six times and were close to opening an account, but everything was ruined by two consecutive removals.
First, Andrey Chibisov hit his opponent in the face with a stick and was punished with a double minor penalty, and after 1 minute 37 seconds, an optional foul was committed by Maxim Karpov.
The forward pushed his opponent in the center of the site and left his partners in three.
"Tractor" willingly took advantage of such a gift.
Lawrence Pilut threw at the goal, and Vitaly Kravtsov turned his stick and scored the sixth goal in the Gagarin Cup.
Puck guests did not follow from the logic of the game, and therefore became such a serious blow to the psychology of the hosts.
It took them a long time to recover and regain the initiative.
But at the end of the period, parity was still restored.
Like Alexander Popov the day before, Karpov was filled with the desire to rehabilitate himself for an unnecessary foul and got his way.
It was he who dragged the projectile into a foreign zone and passed to Nikolai Goldobin.
The transfer turned out to be not the most convenient, but the ex-forward of San Jose still managed to process it and roll it out under the throw to Artyom Zemchenko.
The defender took Will by surprise with a powerful snap.
The second period in many ways resembled the previous one, with the only difference being that Metallurg's superiority in shots was even more tangible.
In total, they bothered the opponent's goalkeeper more than three times more often (16:5), but they conceded again.
And in the most offensive way - when trying to implement the majority.
Yegor Yakovlev, without looking, passed to Brendan Leipsik, but he gaped and did not have time to leave from behind his own goal, as a result of which Alexey Byvaltsev was the first on the puck.
The Traktor striker effectively drove around the Canadian, removed Vasily Koshechkin and again brought the Chelyabinsk forward.
Vorobyov's team had no choice but to go forward with great forces.
Moments at the gates of Villa emerged one after another, but he caught the courage.
First, he managed to move from one corner to another and did not allow Philippe Maye to convert the majority, and then he dealt with Karpov in a head-to-head duel.
But if the Czech goalkeeper acted better and better under pressure, then his partners began to sin with violations more and more often.
And if the removals of Albert Yarullin and Evgeny Kulik can be called logical - both were earned in game situations, and the first one completely corrected his own mistake and did not allow the opponent to reach a rendezvous with the goalkeeper, then Nick Baylen's intemperance was absolutely out of place.
Four seconds before the siren, the American pushed Laipsik and was penalized for blocking.
In the second period, Metallurg did not have enough time to take advantage of the numerical advantage, but already in the debut of the second period they completed what they had begun.
And the defender delivered the decisive shot again.
Aleksey Potapov, in the fall, tried to interfere with Linus Hultström, but by doing so he only removed himself from the episode.
The Swede easily drove around the opponent and put the puck in the top nine.
Perked up, Vorobyov's wards continued to put pressure on him and six minutes later, for the first time in the match, they took the lead.
And although this time the striker became the author of the goal, he also cannot be called one of the main options of Magnitogorsk in attack.
Until today, Arkhip Nekolenko has taken to the ice 36 times in the KHL playoffs, but has never hit the opponent's goal.
However, with the transfer of Georgy Dronov, he did not miss.
The assistant captain of the hosts rushed into the solo passage and gave a pass to the forward of the fourth link, and he threw it exactly under the crossbar.
"Tractor" managed to organize a semblance of bulk only in the last 150 seconds of normal time.
Gatiyatulin went for broke and released the sixth field player on the ice.
And it has borne fruit.
Koshechkin, who was bored for most of the meeting, rescued his partners three times, and when he was powerless, Zemchenok came to the rescue.
The puck seeped through the goalkeeper's equipment and was already rolling over the line when the defender miraculously threw it aside.
Metallurg kept a minimal advantage and took the lead in the series.