One sensation and three defeats: how Admiral, SKA, Lokomotiv and Ak Bars took the lead in the first round series of the Gagarin Cup

The Incredible Rescue of the Admiral

The next game day of the starting round of the Gagarin Cup began with the incredible return of the Admiral.

"Salavat Yulaev" in the previous match left no chance to the opponent and made it clear that he was not going to drag out the series.

So the third meeting in Vladivostok developed according to the scenario of the favorite.

Together with this advantage, the hosts owned.

With the support of the fans, they took control of the puck.

True, the Ufa defended competently, and Ilya Yezhov was reliable at the last frontier.

And at the end of the second period, Viktor Kozlov's wards upset the opponent twice on counterattacks.

First, Artyom Pimenov did not leave Nikita Serebryakov a chance with a throw from the left circle, and then Alexander Kadeikin and Nikolai Kulemin played a neat two-move with the closure of the latter.

But in the final segment, Salavat Yulaev pressed too hard against his own goal.

It is no coincidence that Kozlov, after the final siren, complained that his team itself allowed the opponent to return to the game.

Illustrative statistics: his wards inflicted just one click on someone else's goal.

But in the composition of the hosts at a difficult moment defenders proved themselves.

First, Dinar Khamidullin, who scored only one goal in the regular season, reduced the gap to a minimum, taking advantage of a blunder of his counterpart.

And then Evgeny Lisovets restored the balance less than four minutes before the end of normal time.

In overtime, "Admiral", as in the first meeting, managed to tip the scales in their favor.

And again, the defender managed to upset Yezhov.

Moreover, Yuri Pautov scored a throw from a negative angle thanks to a rebound from the goalkeeper.

Thus, the team from the Far East again took the lead in the series.

Also in the reporting meeting, an extremely rare event for professional hockey took place - the referee did not record a single removal.

This is only the third such incident in the history of the KHL playoffs.

Important victory for Ak Bars

In another pair in the East, the struggle did not work out, although everyone expected an uncompromising battle from Neftekhimik and Ak Bars.

In Kazan, the rivals exchanged victories, and the second fight was remembered for the mass brawl provoked by Alexander Radulov.

At the same time, he did not receive additional punishment for his actions and managed to go on the ice.

Nizhnekamsk residents longed for revenge at home.

For example, defender Yevgeny Kashnikov promised that the opponents would answer for their own.

In fact, the owners clearly burned out and made a large number of gross mistakes from excessive desire.

So, in the middle of the first period, one of the wards of Oleg Leontiev carelessly threw the puck right at Dmitry Kagarlitsky.

Then Andrey Tikhomirov failed to stop the cross, and Kirill Petrov struck an empty corner.

Along the way, he became the tenth player who managed to score 30 or more goals in the Gagarin Cup.

And already with the score 1:2, the Neftekhimik hockey player in the middle zone, without looking, threw the puck back and actually brought Nikita Dynyak to his own goal.

After that, the resistance of Nizhnekamsk was broken.

Radulov also held an extremely useful meeting.

If in the previous confrontation he was remembered mainly for a fight, then this time he did not receive a single removal, but he gave an assist and hit an empty net in the end.

This allowed him to enter the top 4 most productive players of the Gagarin Cup with 93 points.

Only Sergey Mozyakin (172), Danis Zaripov (128) and Vadim Shipachyov (114) are ahead of the attacker.

He also climbed to the top spot in the number of goals on an empty target in the history of the KHL (14).

Convincing defeat of SKA

The struggle did not work out in the West either, where two major victories were recorded with the same score of 4:0.

However, the crushing defeat of Dynamo Minsk from SKA can be explained by serious personnel problems.

Due to various injuries, four leading legionnaires were not included in the application at once: Joseph Dushak, Cedric Paquette, Nick Merkley and John Gilmour.

In their absence, the Belarusian team failed to compete with the Petersburgers and already in the first period missed two unanswered goals, allowing Dmitry Yashkin and Nikita Komarov to score.

However, after the break, the hosts had a chance to return to the game.

At the 26th minute, Artyom Demkov hit the opponent's goal.

The judges considered the episode, recorded that the puck crossed the line, and counted the goal.

But the guest staff immediately took a request to interfere with Dmitry Nikolaev, and Alexei Belov, after carefully watching the replay, nevertheless recorded a violation of the rules.

It is not surprising that Dynamo mentor Craig Woodcroft called this particular episode the key one.

And so the frustrated Minskers allowed Alexander Nikishin to increase the gap in the score.

Vasily Glotov brought the matter to the rout in the final period.

But Nikolaev recorded his debut “dry” match in the KHL playoffs as an asset, reflecting all 26 shots.

Although he did not miss SKA by a miracle, because he earned almost three times more penalty minutes than his opponent - 21 against eight.

This was the only fly in the ointment for the team from the banks of the Neva.

Roman Rotenberg, after the final whistle, even complained that it was unacceptable to retire so often.

The deafening fiasco of the "Vityaz"

The meeting between Vityaz and Lokomotiv ended with a similar score.

Thus, the Yaroslavl team won the second victory in a row and took the lead in the series.

The Moscow Region hockey players, as well as the players of Neftekhimik, clearly lacked composure, as the mentor of the team Vyacheslav Butsaev said at a press conference.

This resulted in 32 penalty minutes (the opponent had eight).

And defender Jeremy Roy was completely sent off for contact with the referee.

The guests cold-bloodedly used the blots of the hosts.

In the middle of the starting segment, they managed to realize the first majority.

Rushan Rafikov left no chance to Maxim Dorozhko with a powerful click.

Soon a spectacular goal was built by Daniil Tesanov.

He ran away to the opponent's zone after the opponent's cut, beautifully beat the defender and increased the advantage of the railroad workers.

Finally, everything became clear after Denis Alekseev scored in unequal compositions at the end of the second period.

And Tesanov, who scored a double, put an end to the confrontation.

Also in the composition of Lokomotiv, Daniil Isaev should be singled out, who, like Nikolaev, scored his debut “biscuit” in the Gagarin Cup.

Moreover, unlike his colleague, he repelled more than three dozen shots - 31. The young goalkeeper is still having an excellent series, because in three matches he missed only three times and repeatedly rescued partners.