A time of miracles in the Gagarin Cup: Dynamo was defeated in Minsk, and Metallurg missed five goals in Khabarovsk

Defeats of Dynamo and Spartak

The last playing days turned out to be unsuccessful for two capital giants.

Dynamo and CSKA suffered defeats from Dynamo Minsk and Lokomotiv, respectively.

The misfire of the current Continental Cup winners in Minsk was especially unexpected, because they won two victories at home, although they made a lot of effort.

However, this time they gave in absolutely on the matter.

Already in the second minute, Dmitry Rashevsky went to the penalty box.

The hosts were unable to convert the majority, but they distinguished themselves in equal numbers.

Roman Gorbunov literally “broke” Maxim Motorygin.

Having opened the account, Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team continued to look more interesting and active.

And the guests' advantage in shots should not be deceiving.

And when Nick Merkley doubled the advantage of the Belarusian team at the equator of the confrontation, it became alarming for the opponents.

But the intrigue was immediately revived by Cedric Paquette, who returned to duty.

The blue and white had enough time to save themselves, but in the final period they kept getting sent off after sending off and eventually spent ten minutes in the minority.

Everything finally became clear when Cody Curran, who joined the attack, made a beautiful solo run, beating a couple of defenders along the way, and passed the ball to the empty target to Merkley, who scored a double.

The army team was completely on the verge of relegation.

Their fans believed that the favorites, who had an extremely unsuccessful regular season, would come to their senses in the playoffs, but this did not happen.

They suffered a second home defeat in a row from Lokomotiv and are losing the series - 1:3.

Yaroslavl residents are able to end the confrontation on March 8th.

Moreover, everything started well for Muscovites.

They had the advantage and opened the scoring shortly before the break.

The red and blue carried out an exemplary counterattack, which was completed by Vladislav Kamenev with a powerful flick.

But CSKA again, as in the three previous meetings, failed in the second period, only this time it missed quickly.

Maxim Shalunov regained his balance already at the 36th second.

And soon the real evil genius of Sergei Fedorov’s team distinguished himself.

Denis Alekseev sent the puck almost to the center of the goal, but Ivan Fedotov was blocked by his own defender and did not help out.

It is amazing that it was this striker who scored the decisive goals in all the recent victorious matches with CSKA.

In the final period, the hosts pinned their opponents to the goal and made 15 shots, while the guests had only two.

Moreover, they spent six minutes in the power play, but were unable to upset Daniil Isaev, who made 33 saves.

Bright endings in Cherepovets and Chelyabinsk

But the other metropolitan squad “Spartak”, on the contrary, came close to reaching the quarterfinals.

In the first match in Cherepovets, the red and whites unexpectedly achieved defeat.

In the second they had to work hard, and only managed to put an end to it in overtime.

The game itself took place as if on a swing.

The red and white took the lead four times in regular time, but Andrei Kozyrev’s team each time found the strength to restore the balance.

This was largely due to the stunning actions of the leaders Danil Aimurzin and Kirill Pilipenko.

They are the ones who are doing everything possible to ensure that the modest team stays in the Gagarin Cup.

In the reporting match, Aimurzin scored a double.

Pilipenko assisted him twice, and scored on his own in the 50th minute.

Not surprisingly, both lead the scoring race with seven points each, along with Salavat Yulaev's Alexander Khmelevski and Joshua Livo.

Kirill also scored goals in all matches of the series.

For the Muscovites, the hockey players from the leading line, who had remained silent in the previous match, again came to the fore.

In the third period, Nikolai Goldobin and Pavel Poryadin played beautiful combinations in the opposing half and brought Ivan Morozov out to shoot.

However, the opponents incredibly managed to escape again, and they did it 15 seconds before the siren.

The guests were let down by Maxim Tsyplakov, who tripped up the team in the end.

The hosts also removed the goalkeeper and achieved their goal.

Egor Stepanov sent the projectile to the far corner.

Moreover, at the start of overtime, Alexei Zhamnov’s team was again in the minority, but survived.

And in the 68th minute, Michal Czajkowski, who joined in, left no chance for Alexander Samoilov with a powerful flick.

The confrontation between Traktor and Salavat Yulaev also almost ended in overtime, but the Ufa team showed character and restored equality in the series - 2:2.

At the same time, they had to win back twice.

Ivan Drozdov responded to Mikhail Kotlyarevsky's goal.

In the middle of the match, Anton Burdasov again brought the Chelyabinsk team ahead.

However, the owners were ruined by indiscipline.

They spent a significant portion of the final period in the minority, and Albert Yarullin and Vitaly Kravtsov were sent off for five minutes.

The majority showed themselves to be the leaders of the guests.

Chmielewski gave two assists, and Livo equalized.

The already mentioned Drozdov scored the decisive throw 131 seconds before the siren.

This meeting, like the previous ones, was not without fights, despite the absence of the disqualified Charles Robinson.

First, Grigory Panin and Sergei Telegin met, and then Ilya Karpukhin and Nicolas Melosh.

In both cases, the victory went to the guests.

Sensation from Amur and defeat from Ak Bars

But the main sensation of the first round is undoubtedly the results of Amur.

Initially, the Khabarovsk team, who only made it into the playoffs at the last moment, were considered clear underdogs in the duel with Metallurg.

Even one victory seemed like a good achievement for them.

But four matches are behind us, and the score is equal.

What’s most important is that Andrei Martemyanov’s team gave a fight in absolutely everything.

So, after a disappointing defeat two days earlier, they gathered and literally left no chance for their venerable opponent.

Moreover, the hosts, with the support of the filled to capacity Platinum Arena, crushed the guests already in the opening.

In the tenth minute, Egor Korshkov sent the puck into the net from the penny, and in the 14th, Alexander Khokhlachev robbed the defender behind the goal and brought Jan Drozg out to shoot.

In the second period, Magnitogorsk woke up and twice reduced the gap to a minimum.

But the “tigers” did not slow down and immediately scored in response.

In many ways, the fate of the match was decided by Viktor Baldaev’s goal a second before the break.

Andrei Razin's team made another failure in defense and allowed the opponent to organize a rapid counterattack.

And Baldaev, taking advantage of Khokhlachev’s assist, left no chance for Ilya Nabokov.

In the final period, the guests stormed the opponent's goal, but were no longer able to upset Igor Bobkov, who made 38 saves.

In the end, Magnitogorsk even took off the goalkeeper, but only conceded the fifth goal from Evgeniy Kulik, who scored three points.

Avtomobilist also surprised fans with a plus sign, winning the first three matches against Ak Bars and staying one step away from advancing to the next round.

However, finding themselves in an almost hopeless situation, the Kazan team defeated their opponents on the road and revived some semblance of intrigue.

It was as if the Ekaterinburg players didn’t go out on the ice.

Already in the debut, defenders Semyon Koshelev and Dmitry Yudin scored goals.

Moreover, Evgeniy Alikin seemed to have coped with the latter’s throw, but the puck treacherously slid into the net.

The goalkeeper himself was immediately replaced.

It is gratifying that the assist was given by Alexander Radulov, who returned after disqualification.

In the middle of the confrontation, Nikita Dynyak made a swift pass along the starboard side and sent a projectile into the far side.

And in the end, Evgeny Svechnikov scored a double, making his first appearance on the court in the current playoffs.

Also among the current finalists of the Gagarin Cup, it is necessary to highlight Mitchell Miller, who assisted his partners three times.

In the end, Yudin also scored three points, and Radulov knocked out two.

Alexander simultaneously reached 700 points in the KHL.

Only Sergei Mozyakin (928) and Vadim Shipachev (920) are ahead of him. 

Three SKA goals in 141 seconds and Lada’s first playoff victory in 15 years

But for the teams that took second place in their conferences at the end of the regular season, the game day turned out differently.

SKA left no chance for Torpedo on the road.

The Nizhny Novgorod team was considered the underdog in this pairing, but their success in the opening match gave the fans hope.

Moreover, in the next game, Igor Larionov’s team disappointingly lost in overtime, allowing the opponent to make a comeback.

It seemed that in Nagorny the fight would also go on until the last moments.

But in both cases, the favorite turned out to be head and shoulders stronger.

On March 7, the hosts completely failed the opening, conceding three times in 141 seconds.

First, Alex Galchenyuk cleverly placed his stick under Zakhar Bardakov’s throw.

Then Arseniy Gritsyuk completed Marat Khairullin's pass at the far post.

And just 17 seconds later, Bardakov scored on his own, sending the puck into the far top corner.

After that, Larionov replaced Adam Guska with Ivan Kulbakov and called a time-out.

This helped his hockey players recover and even reduce the gap.

Arseny Varlakov was the first to finish after Nikita Serebryakov's save.

However, the incident did not affect the course of the game.

In the second segment, the St. Petersburg team continued to press and took the initiative.

Only Alexander Nikishin missed several chances to score.

And only in the final game did the hosts step up and force Serebryakov to show his class several times.

Khairullin put the finishing touches on the 58th minute with a throw into an empty goal.

Avangard, on the contrary, missed the opportunity to be the first to reach the quarterfinals.

“Lada” was eager to win at least one victory at home and completed the task.

Moreover, this outcome can be called absolutely fair, because the Togliatti team surpassed the Omsk team both in the number of face-offs won and in the number of shots and violated the rules less.

The best among them was Nikita Popugaev.

In the opening period, the striker caught a rebound from the boards in the opponent's zone, beautifully beat Pavel Khomchenko and opened the scoring.

After the break, the visitors came back through the efforts of Reed Boucher, but soon conceded again when Scott Kosmachuk fired a powerful shot just short of the blue line.

The intrigue finally died when Popugaev made a tackle, ran away to rendezvous with the goalkeeper and again outwitted him.

Mikhail Kravets was forced to go all-in and remove the goalkeeper, but received only the fourth puck into an empty net.

Thus, Lada won the KHL playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

In 2009, she was twice stronger than CSKA in the first round, but was eliminated.