CSKA corrected the beginning – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) dated 04/11/2023
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CSKA was one step away from winning the Fonbet semi-final playoff series of the KHL championship against SKA. He took the lead in it with a score of 3:2, winning – 7:3 – the fifth match on a foreign site, despite two goals conceded at the very beginning.
This match was unlike any of the previous four played in the main Russian hockey confrontation. He threw in the heat, then in the cold and those who were worried about the SKA, and those who are dearer to his opponent.
Petersburg started in such a way that anyone rooting for them had to decide: well, CSKA has no chance today.
Hockey performed by SKA for half of the starting period looked almost perfect, one in which there is nothing to complain about, even if you really want to.
Incredibly, he simply crushed the guests, who themselves are ready to crush anyone with density and vigor. Goal was simply obliged to mature. And he matured when Alexander Nikishin, a dangerous St. Petersburg defender, very competently – from under the guardian, through a piglet stuffed with his own and other clubs and bodies – threw on goal and hit the top nine. And immediately after this, the loss of CSKA resulted in a springy attack by SKA and a subtle pass by Nikolai Prokhorkin, who returned to the base, to Emil Galimov.
In all four past matches of the series, the St. Petersburgers conceded first, then either to give the win to their opponents, or, gritting their teeth, to get out. Now they suddenly took a quick 2-0 lead. It was impossible to dream of such overclocking.
And CSKA surprisingly calmly survived the state of emergency, which seemed in vain to be sentenced so early. SKA seemed to keep the pace, was still tough and purposeful, but the guests have already coped with this toughness and purposefulness. And then they waited for the opportunity to demonstrate themselves how they can fly into counterattacks, when Igor Ozhiganov missed the puck with his skate and did not close the blue line. Anton Slepyshev, from the abundance of solutions at his disposal, chose the simplest – powerfully clicked on the gate. And he turned out to be absolutely right, because SKA goalkeeper Dmitry Nikolaev saved the puck, but – right on Andrey Svetlakov.
And after the first trouble immediately, after a few seconds, another one came. Maxim Mamin made, in principle, an uncomfortable pass to Mikhail Grigorenko – such that he had to take the puck, standing sideways to the goal. Grigorenko had no room for maneuver. And the more spectacular was the striker’s trick, deftly, as if with a scoop, hooking the puck with a club into the near upper corner.
And in the second period, SKA defended for a long time. And endured until the chance of those that are in the decisive stages worth their weight in gold.
Dmitry Yashkin, the best sniper of the regular season, who scored four dozen goals in it, but for some reason “silenced” in the Gagarin Cup semifinals, rolled out on Adam Reideborn. The CSKA goalkeeper survived.
The retribution was cruel for SKA. In the same situation as Yashkin, he found himself after a difficult pass by Slepyshev from the board, Grigorenko was already out of the fight. And he showed how to manage such moments.
And CSKA spent the final period in an exemplary way, exactly the way it should be spent in the final periods against a powerful opponent who knows how to find reserves on the edge of the abyss when you lead in the account – by no means rolling back, but, on the contrary, trying to control the puck. SKA seemed to be in a vice. He suffered, trying to escape from them, to roll, to explode. But nothing came out.
And CSKA managed to sting the Petersburgers one more time, when Sergei Plotnikov, after another interception, cut out a diagonal pass to Konstantin Okulov. Okulov got the puck at speed and getting into the corner of the goal, given that no one could help Nikolaev, was not so difficult. And then CSKA again ripped open the St. Petersburg defense, drawing an insanely clear combination, and Maxim Mamin beat Nikolaev without any problems. The goalkeeper rolled onto the bench, giving way to understudy Vladislav Podyapolsky.
However, SKA was still floundering. And Podyapolsky went to the bench so that the sixth field player appeared on the court, as if he could fix something. There was nothing to fix.
All that SKA achieved in the end was a scattering of goals in different gates. There were more empty ones.
CSKA came close to winning the series. He can win it and follow Ak Bars, who dealt with Avangard, to reach the play-off final in the next match, which will take place on Wednesday in Moscow.
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