SKA's embarrassing fiasco
Two days ago, SKA suffered a defeat from Avtomobilist for the second time in a row, after which the head coach of the St. Petersburg team, Roman Rotenberg, announced serious changes in the lineup. And he kept his word. The third three defenders were formed by Maxim Fedotov and Mikhail Pashnin, who dropped out due to injury during the series with Torpedo. Brendan Laipsic, who has not been on the ice since March 3, also returned to the lineup. True, there was no place for the Canadian-Russian athlete in the leading ranks. He was assigned to the third group - Mikhail Vorobyov and Nikolai Polyakov.
However, these transformations did not greatly help the army team to successfully start the away match. Yes, they were more in the opponent’s zone and shot at goal more often, but it didn’t come to truly dangerous moments. The same cannot be said about Avtomobilist, who guarded his chances and stung SKA over and over again. Already in the second minute, a quick transition from defense to attack almost ended with an accurate hit by Danil Romantsev, closer to the middle of the segment, Mikhail Osipov “shot” from a lethal position, and Stepan Khripunov almost corrected it at the far post. But either the Yekaterinburg team themselves lacked precision, or Nikita Serebryakov saved them.
Everything continued in the same manner until the middle of the second period. SKA took the quantity, but there were serious problems with quality. And perhaps the most striking episode was the one with the participation of Vasily Glotov, who tried to take Evgeniy Alikin by surprise right from the throw-in. But Avtomobilist’s response, even though it happened only a few minutes later, turned out to be effective. And as in the previous match, this was led to by a blunder by the St. Petersburg team in the middle zone. Artyom Zemchenok's diagonal pass was intercepted by Anatoly Goloshev, who fired, albeit not a strong, but extremely insidious throw into the near corner. And this time Serebryakov wavered.
And SKA became even more nervous, which was confirmed by two removals in four and a half minutes. It’s all the more offensive that both were as optional as they were ambiguous. First, Valentin Zykov received a penalty for holding an opponent with his stick and did not allow his partners to play in the majority, and then Zakhar Bardakov hit the Avtomobilist goalkeeper on the arm. Fortunately, this did not lead to more dire consequences.
In the final period, SKA had no choice but to run forward with all their might and win back, because the third defeat in a row practically eliminated their chances of reaching the next stage of the KHL playoffs. Yes, at one time the St. Petersburg team already pulled out a series from 0-3, but they hardly wanted to repeat this feat. And Glotov especially tried to prevent this, delighting with his non-standard actions at the “point”. In the third segment, he repeatedly repeated his trick and “charged” right after the throw-in, but he was desperately unlucky: first he hit the crossbar, then Alikin.
Nevertheless, SKA still achieved its goal. And surprisingly, he did it right after he almost missed the second time. Serebryakov again worked a miracle and made a fantastic save, lying flat at the near post. And his partners finally thanked him for his efforts. Arseniy Gritsyuk, who had already repeatedly attacked after solo passes, again slalomed into someone else’s zone and still left Alikin out of action on the second attempt. The goalkeeper coped with the first shot, but a volley finish completed what he started.
Both teams clearly did not want to send the match into extra time, so in the end they did everything possible to score the winning goal. But first Serebryakov prevented Semyon Kizimov from distinguishing himself in an acrobatic sketch, and then Alikin did the incredible. Pavel Dedunov and Emil Galimov found themselves without guards on the nickel, but he reacted in an incredible way and did not allow the red light to turn on behind his goal.
The goalkeepers continued to work hard in overtime. Oddly enough, after 60 minutes the game opened up, and the opponents began exchanging sharp attacks. And many could decide the outcome of the meeting - from Polyakov and Gritsyuk to Khripunov and Kizimov, but the precarious balance remained. At the same time, the teams acted in an extremely disciplined manner and did not allow themselves a single penalty in 15 minutes. Although in one of the episodes the SKA defender hit the Avtomobilist forward very hard, the judges did not react to this.
In the end, everything was decided again by the mistake of the SKA defender. Three minutes before the siren, Fedotov, who had returned to the lineup, did not really hit the puck and provoked a sharp counterattack. Brooks Macek made his 100th assist in the KHL, and Curtis Valk, positioned at the post, left no chance for Serebryakov and scored the first goal in the current playoffs. Avtomobilist defeated SKA for the third time in the quarterfinal series and was one step away from advancing to the next round. And one of the main heroes was Alikin, who made 42 saves.
Revival of Spartak stars
In turn, another Western Conference team also tried to prevent a third defeat in a row. But that was Spartak’s global task for the next opposition match, and the local one - to distinguish itself for the first time in the quarterfinal series. True, for this it was necessary to take Ilya Nabokov, who had caught the courage, by surprise, and in total he had not missed a goal for 124 minutes 51 seconds.
But my native walls help. And Spartak proved this already during the first period, twice catching the 20-year-old goalkeeper by surprise. And the first to do this was Maxim Tsyplakov, who is now being actively matched in the NHL. The day before, Western media called him a tasty morsel for North American clubs and compared him to compatriot Andrei Kuzmenko, and he hastened to confirm that the attention to him did not arise out of nowhere. In the fifth minute, the forward burst into the opponent's zone and hit the top corner with a superb wrist shot.
And this success excited Spartak. Nikolai Goldobin clicked from a lethal position, Alexander Pashin almost scored in lacrosse style, but the advantage of the red and white was doubled by Ivan Morozov, who had also previously been at the forefront of the attack several times. The goal was more than funny. The 23-year-old forward tried to make a pass to his partner, but hit the stick of Magnitogorsk defender Valery Orekhov, from which the puck ricocheted into the net.
Thus, after the first period, Spartak not only led with a comfortable advantage, but also had twice as many shots on target (19:9). It seemed that everything was going perfectly for the hosts, but immediately after the break, Alexei Zhamnov’s charges were treated to a cold shower. Dmitry Nikolaev left the goal area, but Denis Zernov was ahead of him and, although not on the first try, he punished the goalkeeper for imprudent actions. And he breathed intrigue into this match, scoring already in the 15th second of the second segment.
And after that the initiative passed to Magnitogorsk. Luke Johnson had a great chance, almost finishing the cross at the back of the net; Nikita Grebenkin missed the impromptu shootout, but the Muscovites held on. And then they almost broke another unsuccessful streak. In the current playoffs, they scored only once in the power play - in the first meeting with Severstal, after which they did not use many opportunities. And although this time we were very close to it, we still failed to achieve what we wanted. When Nabokov was already played, captain Egor Yakovlev did not allow the puck to cross the line.
And already at the beginning of the third period, Spartak was punished for wastefulness. It seemed that nothing foreshadowed trouble: defender Artyom Minulin’s shot from the blue line hit the far side, but his colleague in the role, Makar Khabarov, was the first to respond to the rebound and fired as hard as he could into the far corner. Blocked by field hockey players, Nikolaev did not see the moment of the throw and could not prevent Metallurg from restoring parity. But not for long. First, Goldobin nevertheless interrupted the dry streak of five matches and again brought the red-whites ahead. And less than five minutes later, another leader of the hosts also lit up his name on the scoreboard. Pavel Poryadin corrected the puck after Dmitry Vishnevsky's long-range shot and strengthened Spartak's advantage.
Metallurg had just over eight minutes left to make a comeback and send the match into overtime. But a full-fledged assault did not happen, and the same Goldobin finally killed the intrigue, hitting an empty target. Spartak won on home ice and reduced the gap in the series - 1-2.