“Ak Bars” did not delay with the series – Newspaper Kommersant No. 61 (7506) dated 04/10/2023
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The first play-off finalist of the Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League championship was Ak Bars, which in the fifth match defeated Avangard with a score of 3:2 and thus closed the series – 4:1. Moreover, Kazan bounced back from 0:2 and scored the decisive goal in overtime. In the Gagarin Cup final they will meet with the winner of the SKA-CSKA semi-final.
The position of Avangard, which lost both Omsk matches and was inferior in the series 1:3, was practically hopeless. Even the statistics did not bode well for him. Earlier, Kazan only once in 12 cases did not finish the opponent with a score of 3:1 in their favor in the play-off series, and they won seven times in five matches and four times in six. The only misfire happened a long time ago – ten years ago, when they released the Tractor from the trap.
Ak Bars immediately got the opportunity to play in the majority, when Alexander Radulov forced Damir Sharipzyanov to foul in the first shift. The leader of Kazan could himself punish the Omsk people for violating the rules. At first, Radulov missed an empty target, and his next point-blank shot was saved by goalkeeper Vasily Demchenko. But Avangard succeeded with the first throw in the sixth minute. It was the defender Alexei Bereglazov who aptly threw from a long distance, and Korban Knight successfully screened the Kazan goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov.
Moreover, the guests realized the first numerical advantage closer to the end of the starting period. Striker Reed Boucher was at the right point in the area of the right face-off circle, where the puck bounced after Bilyalov’s save. The American in such situations usually does not miss and scored the ninth goal in the current play-off, topping the list of the best snipers.
The hosts, of course, did not expect that they would concede two goals so quickly, and were somewhat puzzled by this development.
Dmitry Voronkov even tried to cheer up the discouraged partners by initiating a couple of skirmishes at the gates of Demchenko.
Not to say that Kazan cheered up after the break. In the second period, they also looked somewhat heavy. They attacked, but without spark and zest, so Avangard fought back without any problems and had much more obvious scoring chances. What was the net exit “one to zero” by Sergei Tolchinsky worth when the hosts were saved by Bilyalov. I also remember saving the Ak Bars goalkeeper in a micro duel with Nail Yakupov, who laid a turn outside the goal.
The Kazanians gradually finally got the engine of the Radulov team, and at the end of the second twenty-minute period they even staged something similar to an assault. The guests survived and kept a comfortable difference, but only 20 seconds after the start of the third period they still conceded. Defender Dmitry Yudin copied Bereglazov’s goal, and Radulov, by the way, recorded a scoring score in his asset. The wards of Zinetula Bilyaletdinov have already truly returned to the game, which, with the score 2:1, suddenly opened up and took place in a valid mode with mutual chances for scoring. But the hosts got lucky again, and another defender – Kirill Adamchuk – hit the target from about the same place where Yudin had previously thrown.
Then the teams managed to exchange goals, which the referees did not count, and the defender of the guests Viktor Svedberg earned a disciplinary fine until the end of the match for excessive aggression and “causing bodily harm” to Ilya Safonov. Still, it was not possible to avoid overtime, and there was also quite open hockey.
However, Kazan added to the movement, increased pressure and began to increasingly lock Avangard in its zone.
For the time being, Demchenko kept the guests afloat, but when, in the 68th minute, the field players presented the puck to Vadim Shipachev, who was on duty right under the goal, he could no longer help out. The experienced striker, as in the third meeting of the series, again brought Ak Bars a victory in extra time – 3:2.
Thus, the Kazan club closed the series and made it to the Gagarin Cup final for the fifth time, where its opponent will be the winner of the Western confrontation between SKA and CSKA. So far, there is equality – 2:2, and the fifth match will take place on Monday in St. Petersburg.
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