CSKA defeated Torpedo at the KHL championship

Two matches of the next day of the Fonbet KHL championship brought together the contending clubs of the Western Conference. CSKA, which had already unexpectedly lost a lot of points, did not stumble this time, defeating Torpedo 3:2, and guaranteed itself a ticket to the play-offs. And “Spartak”, like the army team, played on their own court, lost to “Lokomotiv” fighting for the lead in the table – 1:2.

The match in the final stretch of the regular season between CSKA and Torpedo perfectly illustrated the inconsistency of these two teams – they seem to be on the favorite list, but they go through the season unevenly, with disruptions and because of their instability, which in 2024 has not gone away, They are, after all, not in the top, but in the bottom half of the Western Conference’s eight cup cups. The CSKA team, winners of the two previous editions of the Gagarin Cup, immediately made a mistake, one might say strange for a club of their status. The hosts’ defenders went to the bench for a change exactly at the moment when the Torpedo team made an interception. Such negligence was met with severe punishment from Kirill Voronin, who fled into the resulting hole on his fast legs.

And “Torpedo”, showing, as usual, very fresh, very interesting hockey, after this success they squandered potential chances, eventually finishing the game. Now Nizhny Novgorod goalkeeper Adam Guska made a mistake. Andrei Svetlakov threw, of course, cunningly – from under the defender. But the distance to the goal was, whatever one may say, not so close as to consider this throw deadly.

In the opening period, the opponents managed many times to both delight with subtle decisions and spoil the impression of them with falsehoods. “Torpedo” was closer to the goal, once even hitting the other team’s goal post.

The next twenty minutes flew by in one breath, at a sprinting pace. And its most important event happened shortly before the break. Throughout the entire period, the army team was a little more aggressive, and at the end of it they received the luck honestly deserved by this aggressiveness.

CSKA played the majority, and Torpedo, in general, fought back intelligently. Konstantin Okulov was throwing from the left side – so that it seemed as if Guska would have no problems coping with the puck. But to his misfortune, fellow defender Madison Bowie put a stick under her on the spot. And it was absolutely impossible to cope with the ricochet. Emotions flowed from the goalkeeper, who missed such an offensive goal, for a long time.

CSKA’s third goal was already quite classic. The army team carried their good spirit into the final period. And he helped Maxim Mamin break into the torpedo zone to give a convenient pass to Mikhail Grigorenko. And he demonstrated that his sniper skills have not disappeared.

In the end, Torpedo, naturally, removed the goalkeeper, and 15 seconds before the siren, Kirill Kirsanov reduced his gap to a minimum. Moreover, the remaining time was enough for the Nizhny Novgorod team to again deliver the puck to the army goal and almost bring it inside. But CSKA somehow held out and won a victory, after which a ticket to the playoffs can no longer escape it.

Another notable “Western” match of the day featured clubs that are ahead of CSKA and Torpedo in the table. And it was an exciting game, memorable, among other things, for something like an emergency that happened at the end of the second period.

After the first, Spartak led 1:0 thanks to a goal by its top scorer Nikolai Goldobin. And everything turned out well for him. He even got the opportunity to increase his safety margin thanks to the removal of Lokomotiv defender Martin Gernat. And hardly anyone could have predicted how this removal would turn out for the Spartak team.

At first, they mostly slept through the counterattack, which was famously completed by Alexander Polunin. And then, carried away by the offensive, they did not pay attention to Gernat, who had already served his fine and jumped over the side to join his team. He picked up the puck in the middle zone and dealt with Moscow goalkeeper Andrei Kareev. And the railway workers, for whom the situation had just seemed extremely difficult, suddenly took the lead.

In this match, the goalkeeper was also replaced with a sixth field player. But it didn’t help Spartak at all. After this win, Lokomotiv came close to the conference leader SKA.

Alexey Dospehov