12 goals in Cherepovets and a thriller in Moscow: how CSKA crushed Severstal, and Torpedo snatched victory from Dynamo

Incredible productivity of "Vanguard"

After four rounds at the stage of the 1/8 finals of the KHL playoffs, only two nominal favorites are one step away from reaching the next round.

And if Lokomotiv leads in the series with Vityaz more or less on business, then the latest successes of Avangard look paradoxical.

During the departure to Novosibirsk, the wards of Mikhail Kravets not only never surpassed their opponents in the number of shots, but twice lost with a threefold difference.

However, this did not prevent the guests in both meetings from gaining the upper hand, and in the second - from completely inflicting a crushing defeat.

Looking at the percentage of shots saved (73.3% - 11 out of 15), we can assume that it was Anton Krasotkin's uncertain play that led to the capitulation of the "snowmen" in the fourth match of the series.

Actually it is not.

By and large, he was not to blame for any of the four missed goals.

The grossest mistake of Ilya Morozov led to the first, whose pass from the board fell exactly on Arseniy Gritsyuk.

The second was abandoned from a penny, where the owners, who were in the minority, left Korban Knight without cover.

Sergei Tolchinsky converted a one-on-one approach, and Reed Boucher completed the tempo attack with an irresistible hit.

By the way, the American and Canadian were assisted by Vladimir Tkachev, a contender for the title of shadow hero of the confrontation.

The main candidate for the role of the creator of this victory is Vasily Demchenko.

The Avangard goalkeeper, although he was forced to enter the game over and over again, was not left to the mercy of fate by his partners.

Yes, Sibir often bothered him and in total hit the target 44 times, but had no such obvious moments.

And she managed to distinguish herself only in the majority: Valentin Pyanov opened on the border of the face-off circle and “shot” exactly at the top nine in touch - 1:4.

Dronov's fatal mistakes

In favor of the guests ended and the match in Magnitogorsk.

But in this case, there were much more prerequisites for a major victory for Avtomobilist.

Wards of Nikolai Zavarukhin looked very powerful in front and could get ahead without the help of rivals, but still they could not do without it.

In the middle of the second period, the defender of the Russian national team, Grigory Dronov, faltered.

First, he made a loss in the middle zone and allowed Curtis Valk to upset Eddie Pasquale, and then unsuccessfully put the stick under Denis Barantsev's shot and sent the puck between the pads to his own goalkeeper.

And all this in three minutes.

Thanks to this, the Kazakh-Canadian striker not only extended the scoring streak to four meetings, but also took third place in the Gagarin Cup scorers race (2 + 3), which he shares with a group of other players.

It seemed that after that, Metallurg would rush forward and try with all its might to restore parity, but as such, the bulk did not work out.

Yes, the "foxes" were more aimed at the goal and repeatedly tested the vigilance of Johan Mattsson, but they failed to break into the opponents' defense, and the "shots" from a distance did not pose a serious threat.

As a result, the Swede scored a “cracker” and came in second place among the playoff participants both in terms of the percentage of shots deflected (95.2%) and the reliability coefficient (1.43), and his partners in the end completely finished off Magnitogorsk .

First, Aleksey Makeev scored with an incredible hit into the top 10, and then Oleg Li scored into an empty net - 4:0.

However, Avtomobilist should not relax, because he had previously lost the series to Metallurg twice, having an equal score after four meetings.

Moreover, in both cases, the paths of the teams crossed already in the first round of the Gagarin Cup.

In 2016, the Magnitogorsk team subsequently took the trophy, and in 2018 they completed their performance in the conference semi-finals.

Extravaganza CSKA

For CSKA, the significance of the fourth match of the series with Severstal could not be overestimated.

Over the previous eight seasons, the Muscovites have not suffered a single setback in the quarterfinals of the West, while the Cherepovites have already lost twice.

And in order not to be in a very difficult situation, the current trophy owners had to take the upper hand away.

And it is desirable to do this in a dominant manner, in order not only to gain confidence in one's own abilities, but also to demoralize the enemy.

With both tasks, the wards of Sergei Fedorov coped with five plus.

The fans who came to cheer for their team witnessed a real beating of Severstal, which continued throughout all three periods.

Although after the first one there was almost no intrigue left.

Already in the 17th minute, the hosts “burned” 0:4, and Andrey Razin began to convulsively shuffle the goalkeepers, but neither Alexander Samonov, nor Dmitry Shugaev and Artyom Narazkin were able to cool down the attacking impulse of the guests.

Moreover, constant castling only made both the defense and the goalkeepers nervous.

As a result, CSKA scored nine goals and set a team record in the playoffs.

Before reaching Ak Bars, only two accurate hits were missing.

Anton Slepyshev and Nikita Nesterov were noted for three effective actions, and Takhir Mingachev scored a double, Mikhail Grigorenko also scored two points.

Moreover, the red-blue forward not only reached the bar of six (4 + 2) points and took second place in the scorers race of the current tournament, but also climbed to fourth place in the list of the best snipers in the history of the Gagarin Cup (35).

Only Nikita Gusev (37), Danis Zaripov (57) and Sergey Mozyakin (68) have more.

In turn, the “steelworkers” still managed to catch Adam Reideborn by surprise three times, but this only slightly brightened up the impression of a failed performance (3:9).

Fedorov's team returns to the capital in excellent spirits.

Strong-willed victory "Torpedo"

The meeting at the VTB Arena, where Dynamo fought with Torpedo, turned out to be much more tense and dramatic.

By the sixth minute, Nizhny Novgorod conceded twice in the minority, and subsequently lost again in the long run, but both times bounced back, and even took the lead in the very end.

However, overtime could not be avoided.

Dmitry Rashevsky watched for a rebound on a nickel and upset Ivan Kulbakov for the fourth time.

But in the end, a more balanced team still prevailed over the opponent, who largely rode on the skill of their main stars.

If Dynamo was soloed by Jordan Weale, Eric O'Dell and Alexander Skorenov, each of whom scored three points, then four players from Nizhny Novgorod scored two points or more.

The main hero of the match was Sergei Goncharuk, who not only scored a brace, but also assisted Maxim Fedotov.

However, he did not deliver the decisive shot.

In the ninth minute of overtime, the Belarusian defender Daniil Bokun responded to Yegor Vinogradov's pass and "flashed" Ilya Konovalov - 5:4.

Like CSKA, Torpedo equalized the score in the series and thus helped the current Gagarin Cup draw to go down in history as the most competitive: to determine the eight strongest teams in the league, you will need to play at least 45 matches, which has never happened before.

From 2011 to 2014, 44 meetings were enough for this.