Hawks' comeback
On the eve of the fifth match of the series, Avangard was on the verge of elimination from the Gagarin Cup. However, acting head coach Sergei Zvyagin did not make changes to the lineup and put on the ice the same combinations as in the lost fourth meeting. According to him, the transformations concerned only the theoretical part, so it was still worth expecting certain surprises from Omsk residents. The mentor promised “confident and fearless play” from his players, but expectations and reality diverged a little. At least at the start of the confrontation.
During the first period, the “hawks” only bothered Daniil Isaev once, while Pavel Khomchenko worked tirelessly, stopping as many as 11 shots on his own goal. However, I still couldn’t cope with one. Before Reed Boucher had time to settle down on the penalty box, the railwaymen carried out a massive attack and opened the scoring in the match already in the seventh minute. The multi-move was completed by Maxim Berezkin, who turned out to be the most agile on the penny. And it took only nine seconds to realize the numerical advantage.
Apparently, during the break Zvyagin worked with the team, and a completely different Avangard took to the ice at the G-Drive Arena. Yes, Lokomotiv still spent more time in attack, but there was no talk of total dominance. Moreover, the special team of most of the owners worked at full capacity. First, Tomas Yurcho blocked Vladimir Tkachev's cross on the spot, and then Ryan Spooner shot Isaev. By the way, one of the participants in this combination was Boucher, who was rehabilitated for unnecessary removal.
But if Spooner’s goal did not raise any questions, in the case of Yurcho everything was not so clear. After all, the Slovak corrected the puck not with his stick, but with his skate. Moreover, it not only bounced off him into the net, but after the forward purposefully turned his ankle. However, the referees counted the goal, which caused dissatisfaction on the part of the Lokomotiv coaching staff, as well as the famous former referee Leonid Weisfeld, who expressed doubt about the correctness of the verdict.
And yet, these goals only allowed Avangard to restore parity. Three and a half minutes after Yurcho, Maxim Shalunov lit up his name on the scoreboard, taking advantage of the sluggishness of the opposing goalkeeper. Khomchenko, who performed miracles both before and after this, in this episode openly “fell asleep” in the corner and left half of the target unprotected. And the winner of the Gagarin Cup 2019 took advantage of this gift.
Lokomotiv had a chance to take the lead again at the very beginning of the third period. Tkachev went to serve his punishment for throwing the puck, but the Yaroslavl team could not meet the bar set by their opponents. For the first time in this match, the majority was not converted, and the Omsk team perked up so much that they not only seized the initiative, but also upset Isaev themselves. Defender Semyon Chistyakov broke from the flank into the center and caught the goalkeeper by surprise, and Spooner and Boucher, who reached 250 points in the KHL, acted as assistants.
The North American duo did not rest on this and, less than five minutes before the siren, strengthened Avangard’s advantage. This time Spooner made a lightning slalom behind the visitors' goal and cut a brilliant pass to Boucher, who consolidated his leading position in the tournament's sniper race with nine goals.
Lokomotiv found itself in a difficult situation, which was also understood by head coach Igor Nikitin, who tried to bring his players to their senses during a timeout. And to some extent it really worked. The railway workers pinned the “hawks” in their zone and provoked the removal of Damir Zhafyarov. It seemed that the mentor would take a risk and release the sixth outfield player onto the ice, but he did not dare to take this step. And I made a mistake. “Avangard” defended in the minority and did not miss its goal, largely thanks to Khomchenko, who made a total of 34 saves. Zvyagin's team won on home ice and reduced the gap in the series - 2-3.
Spartak's second success
Unlike the previous confrontation, in this one the teams had only played each other three times. And Spartak had the opportunity to equalize the score. In the previous meeting, Alexei Zhamnov’s charges literally crushed Metallurg, and their leaders in the persons of Nikolai Goldobin, Pavel Poryadin and Ivan Morozov finally came out of the shadows and pleased with a truly brilliant performance. The question was whether they would be able to produce something similar in two matches in a row, or whether the Magnitogorsk team would adapt and once again cut off the oxygen to the red-and-white stars.
Perhaps it was for this purpose that Andrei Razin shook up the links. None of the four triplets remained untouched, but there were practically no new faces. Unless Danila Kvartalnov was replaced by Maxim Mukhametov. But in the first minutes, which passed in silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, this did not help much. The Muscovites attacked dangerously and quickly surpassed the mark of five shots on target, but Ilya Nabokov acted confidently. The same can be said about Dmitry Nikolaev, who had to show his skills much more often during the second five-minute period of the starting period. It was then that Magnitogorsk began to visit foreign zones more and more often and gradually get used to Megasport.
However, everything was ruined by the removal of Yegor Korobkin at the very end of the segment, although the judges’ decision looked strange. Initially, they gave him a two-minute penalty for blocking - he flew into Michal Czajkowski, who had already parted with the puck. But after watching the video replay, they changed their minds and qualified his actions as playing with a high stick, doubling the punishment. And thus they caused bewilderment in Razin, who laughed after the verdict was announced.
But Spartak would not have been the worst team in the playoffs in terms of power plays (less than 4%) if they had not missed this great opportunity. In four minutes, the red and white created enough opportunities, but failed to score. Sometimes they were simply unlucky. For example, the same Poryadin hit the crossbar, and the magnificent Nabokov prevented Morozov from excelling. But Nikolaev did not lag behind, because it was largely thanks to him that the Muscovites survived in the minority. As a result, after 40 minutes, both goalkeepers had a total of 45 saves - Ilya had three more.
But in the third game period the dry streak finally came to an end. Magnitogorsk missed another opportunity to score on the power play and within a couple of minutes was punished for wastefulness. In this episode, Nabokov did not work perfectly. He coped with Daniil Ivanov's long-range throw and returned it right onto the stick of Ansel Galimov, who opened the scoring in the match in the 49th minute.
As usual, after the goal was scored, the game opened up, but not in the way many expected. “Spartak” clearly caught the courage and had a couple of chances to double the advantage, but Goldobin went to “rest” at the wrong time, receiving only two minutes for hitting his opponent’s face with his stick. But Metallurg did not take advantage of this opportunity either, failing to beat the impenetrable Nikolaev. And then another deletion was provoked by Tchaikovsky - this time Artyom Minulin hit him on the nose.
And it was this moment that became the key in the match. The guests miraculously fought back and prevented the hosts from scoring a second time, but lost precious time. The teams found themselves in equal compositions only 24 seconds before the siren, and this was not enough for a comeback. “Spartak” broke the resistance of “Metallurg” and equalized the series score (2-2), lifting their spirits before leaving. And Nikolaev kept a clean sheet for the first time in the current playoffs.