Akolzin's hat-trick, 26 saves by Samonov and Yan's double: Metallurg and Severstal have survived so far, Dynamo has already taken off

First hat-trick of the season

On the eve of the sixth match of the KHL playoff series with Avtomobilist, Metallurg Magnitogorsk found itself in an unenviable position.

Wards of Ilya Vorobyov lost two meetings in a row, and in one of them they lost big at home (0:4), and the score of 2-3 in the series did not leave them the right to make a mistake.

But from the very first seconds, Magnitogorsk demonstrated that they would not allow a repetition of the defeat in front of their native stands.

One of the main characters of the meeting was Pavel Akolzin, who scored the first hat-trick in the current playoff draw.

The 32-year-old striker became the author of the first goal of Magnitogorsk, hitting the gate already in the 16th second after the discount of Arkhip Nekolenko.

This puck became the fifth fastest in the history of the Gagarin Cup.

Yekaterinburg residents were not at all discouraged by such a start and already three minutes later they restored parity, having converted the majority of "5 on 3".

Nick Ebert sent the puck into the top corner of Eddie Pasquale's goal with a powerful shot.

But the hosts continued active pressure, which even before the break was embodied in the goal of Semyon Koshelev.

Andrey Chibisov gave him a spectacular pass: he unexpectedly passed from behind the gate to the near post.

The partner was not taken aback and pushed the puck under the goalkeeper's shield.

In the second period, the guests again scored in the majority, while the hosts, on the contrary, could not benefit from playing in unequal lineups, which is why the score remained equal before the final twenty minutes.

The third period was left for Metallurg, which was constantly driven forward by crowded stands.

In the very first seconds, Grigory Dronov made a solo pass to the gates of Igor Bobkov and brought the team forward.

Avtomobilist responded with a Curtis Valk goal, but then Akolzin took over the game.

He quickly returned the advantage to the owners of the ice, breaking through to the goal in the center alone, and ten minutes later he closed Maxim Karpov's cross on the patch.

At the end of the match, the Yekaterinburgers removed the goalkeeper, but the risk did not justify itself - Denis Zernov sent another puck into the empty net and set the final score - 6:3.

Thus, the series will end in the decisive, seventh match, which will be held in Yekaterinburg on March 14.

The incomparable game of Samonov

Severstal also demonstrated that two defeats in a row did not unsettle the team at all.

Cherepovites took to the ice absolutely charged to win and from the first seconds over and over again began to break through to the gates of the army.

CSKA responded with sharp counterattacks, but the hosts' goalkeeper Alexander Samonov managed to neutralize the enemy's shots.

Severstal had a great moment in the middle of the period, but Ruslan Abrosimov hit the post.

The second game segment was left for the hosts, and Daniil Pylenkov, who played the 200th anniversary match in the KHL, became its main character.

It was he who opened the scoring in the 25th minute, dragging the puck along the left flank and throwing it from under the defender into the far corner.

At the end of the period, he gave out a chic pass to Alexander Petunin under the blue line of the army team.

The forward rolled into the net and sent the puck into the net with a wrist shot.

The start of the third period turned out to be discouraging for the Muscovites.

They rushed to the attack, but did not achieve success, and Yaroslav Dyblenko also earned a removal for the bandwagon out of the blue.

The majority was confidently converted by Nikita Rozhkov, with a powerful click from the right circle of the face-off, flashing Adam Reideborn.

CSKA hockey players did not give up, Maxim Mamin and Sergey Plotnikov had good chances of scoring, but Samonov showed miracles of reaction.

He saved all 26 shots on goal and recorded the first clean sheet in the KHL playoffs.

It is interesting that the teams made an equal number of shots on each other's goal, but the guests were let down by the implementation.

In the history of Severstal, this game is only the second clean sheet in the Gagarin Cup.

Prior to this, the Cherepovites finished the match at this stage of the championship without conceded goals only in 2012 - then Atlant was defeated 4:0.

As in the previous pair, the final meeting of the confrontation will take place on Tuesday.

And with a high degree of probability there will also be a full house in the capital.

Jan's second double in a row

Dynamo also stood on the edge of the abyss before the home match with Torpedo, but, unlike Magnitogorsk and Cherepovets, they could not please their fans.

The Muscovites started the match without any hesitation, trying to put pressure on the opponent in every part of the court, but could not get any benefit from this.

Moreover, sometimes there was an impression that the Nizhny Novgorod team acted more ingeniously in attack.

In the second period, the nature of the match did not change - the rivals took turns disturbing each other's possessions, but the goalkeepers stopped any attempts to print their gates.

But in the 30th minute, Dennis Yan still managed to open an account - he turned out to be the quickest in the hustle and bustle on the patch and pushed the puck, left unattended for a second.

Dynamo bounced back in 50 seconds.

Eric O'Dell threw the puck past the defender moving towards him, threw it against Ivan Kulbakov from an uncomfortable hand and turned on the red light behind the Torpedo goal for the fifth time in this series.

A couple of minutes later, Dynamo almost conceded again: Vladislav Firstov put his stick under the puck on the heel, and she, having bounced off the goalkeeper, stopped on the ribbon.

With the next movement, Konstantin Volkov covered her with a trap, but the judges still went to watch the episode.

Fortunately for the blue and white, they did not record a goal.

In the third period, Torpedo seized the initiative and worried Konstantin Volkov three times more often than their blue and white goalkeeper.

However, the wards of Igor Larionov failed to snatch the victory in regular time and the teams had to again, as in the two previous meetings, continue to sort things out in overtime.

It lasted only 63 seconds and again remained with the Nizhny Novgorod team.

The evil genius of Dynamo was Yan, who scored a brace and led Torpedo to the second round of the Gagarin Cup for the first time since 2016.