Army men tamed Ak Bars – Newspaper Kommersant No. 69 (7514) dated 04/20/2023
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CSKA equalized the score in the final play-off series of the Fonbet KHL championship. He played the second match against Ak Bars at the site of the Kazan club much more energetically, tougher and more disciplined than the lost first one, and won with a score of 3:0.
The teams that opened the final series with a defeat are shown to change. And CSKA followed the recipe. The changes were both personnel, in almost all levels, and, more importantly, stylistic. It was not difficult to see what the army team improved in the second meeting of the final, in those aspects that are not very spectacular, but often play a decisive role in the playoffs. The army team more willingly and more effectively went into the fight at the sides, tougher accepted rivals. It took CSKA about five minutes to make Ak Bars feel constant discomfort. And then Kazan hockey ceased to be that almost flawless – solid and exceptionally correct, which in the first match inspired the idea that it was he who would definitely prevail in the final. It’s all too to the point.
Unbalanced by the peppy, refusing to take a break and slow down the pace of the army team, “Ak Bars” surprisingly often made mistakes. Sometimes – rudely and close to their own gates. Once, after a Kazan loss and a pass by Sergei Plotnikov, Konstantin Okulov shot Timur Bilyalov almost point-blank. Ak Bars got out of trouble, but as it turned out, it was a dress rehearsal for the goal.
The goal itself took place in a situation like two drops of water similar to the one from which Kazan got out thanks to its goalkeeper. Again they were forced to part with the puck at the tailgate. But now it was Okulov who gave in, and Vladislav Kamenev shot Bilyalov. He decided not to put all his power into the throw, betting on accuracy, and he was absolutely right.
Ak Bars, of course, tried to bite back. But the corrected CSKA was terribly good in terms of disrupting other people’s attacks. The most dangerous episode in the entire first twenty-minute period for Ak Bars was the one in which Alexander Radulov seemed to be running towards goalkeeper Adam Reideborn, but after a second he found himself tied hand and foot by overly attentive opponents who reacted too quickly to his jerk.
The starting period of CSKA was slightly spoiled only by the removal of Sergei Plotnikov at his end. In most Ak Bars, as usual, was good. He even scored, but Vadim Shipachev sent the puck into the army goal a moment after the siren.
Kazan after the break, it seemed, slowly climbed out of the pit. They won a little more martial arts, in which until now the army team was practically invulnerable, as if before the match they took lessons from the masters of MMA. They did a great job in the minority, not allowing CSKA to create at least one more or less distinct threat. They finally staged a sharp attack, when the two forwards are opposed by the only defender and goalkeeper. They basically added in stiffness and speed. And the Kazan fans probably decided that the worst was already behind them, that the gasoline in the army gas tank was running out, and in the economy mode, the Moscow team is by no means a monster, Ak Bars is obliged to beat it.
They were terribly wrong. CSKA did not sag and did not lose calmness, eventually waiting for their chance. Yaroslav Dyblenko proved to be a hero. One might think that the army defender, having joined the battle in the lower left corner of the Kazan zone, was stuck there tightly. But having scratched out the puck and tossed it to his partner, he rolled to his place in the opposite corner – the upper right, near the blue line, and they found him there with a pass. And Dyblenko’s click turned out to be incomparable in terms of whipping. Plus, Reideborn was blocked from seeing, and he, finding himself in such an unenviable position, could not repel the throw.
In the final period, Ak Bars had a great opportunity to fan the fire of intrigue that was fading before our eyes. After two army removals in a row, he had to play five of them against three opponents for one and a half minutes. One and a half minutes in this format is insanely long. This is something akin to how to get the right to a penalty kick in football.
Ak Bars was getting close to the goal. But the trio of army “suicide bombers”, together with Adam Reideborn, somehow managed to avert trouble every time. And having fought back, inspired by their defensive accomplishments, CSKA twice painfully pricked Ak Bars, which opened out of inertia and out of necessity: Dyblenko and Maxim Sorkin rolled out at Bilyalov in turn.
They did not finish off the Kazanians. Finished off their own hockey player. Kirill Adamchuk slashed Sergei Plotnikov in the face with his elbow, smashed him into blood and sat down on the penalty box for not two, but five minutes. And five minutes without much prospect of scoring is a sentence for a team that has about half of the period left to save.
“Ak Bars”, of course, did not escape. Mikhail Grigorenko scored the last, third puck to him when the Kazan players released the sixth field player instead of Bilyalov. Such a useless gesture of desperation.
CSKA leveled the score in a series that moves to Moscow. The third match of the final will take place at the army arena on Friday.
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