“Dynamo” lost to “Traktor” the third match in a row in the play-offs of the Gagarin Cup
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Dynamo Moscow, having won the regular Fonbet championship of the KHL championship, unexpectedly found itself on the verge of disaster in the second round of the play-offs. “Tractor” defeated Dynamo in three matches in a row. In the third meeting, he defeated them at home with a score of 3:2. In another match, Avangard defeated Lokomotiv in overtime, 2:1, and reduced the gap in the series to a minimum.
At the beginning of the third period of the Chelyabinsk match, Traktor defender Albert Yarullin received a two-minute penalty for holding an opponent. And a seemingly ordinary event perfectly described why the Chelyabinsk club so confidently beat the winner of the regular season, although, in theory, the series did not promise anything good for it. The fact is that this was only the second removal of the hosts in the match. But in the previous period, Viktor Antipin sat on the penalty box at the same time as Dynamo’s Cedric Paquette – the consequence of a clash usual for tense matches. That is, Traktor remained in the minority for the first time after Yarullin’s violation. In the third twenty minutes. The game is generally quite tough and dense, allowing for mistakes and breakdowns. Against opponents whose attack in the regular season looked incredibly dangerous and whose trump card was precisely the majority.
In the playoffs, as we know, accuracy often weighs about as much as class. So, the degree of accuracy of “Traktor” in all matches of the series was prohibitive. And the third one was no exception in this sense.
The only thing that broke the trend was Maxim Shabanov’s overly risky, inappropriate pass when leaving his zone in the starting period. Dynamo intercepted it, and Jordan Weal opened the scoring.
The March “Traktor”, however, has one more feature – some kind of iron composure, which could not be called its distinctive feature in the regular season, but which suddenly turned into such a feature in the playoffs. Chelyabinsk residents react completely calmly to troubles: they do not rush to fix them headlong, do not panic, but look for chances with a cool head.
And in the second period, those who already thought that “Dynamo” had finally caught their luck by the tail looked with surprise at how the non-inflating pace of “Traktor” equalized the score after a touching shot by Anton Burdasov and a gorgeous diagonal transfer in the majority of Yarullin, transformed goal by Semyon Der-Arguchintsev. Then, however, Artem Ilyenko restored the balance. But could such a trifle throw Traktor off its rhythm?
He bent and bent his line, which was very correct from all points of view, without trembling. The team, which until recently seemed almost the main contender for the Gagarin Cup, faltered.
Dynamo didn’t even really take advantage of their numerical advantage after such a valuable sending off of Yarullin, because half a minute after him, his forward Eric O’Dell ran into his two-minute penalty. And soon Dynamo slept through the Chelyabinsk attack that was typical for this series – sharp and rolling. Mikhail Kotlyarevsky, putting an end to it, did not invent anything – he simply threw from under the defender and turned out to be absolutely right: goalkeeper Maxim Motorygin did not see the puck.
Dynamo coach Alexey Kudashov changed Motorygin to the sixth field player three and a half minutes before the siren. The moment, however, was right – Traktor was still in the minority again. The Dynamo six did not lose control of the puck in the opposing zone and threw it around effectively. But there was little sense in this showiness. The defenders managed to see and block everything. And if they didn’t have time, goalkeeper Zach Fucale came to the rescue, who in this series is pulling for another unconditional Chelyabinsk trump card.
Dynamo failed to get out, and found itself on the verge of being eliminated from the play-offs. Departure could take place as early as Friday – after the fourth match, which will also take place in Chelyabinsk.
From the same unpleasant situation as Dynamo’s – 0:2 after home matches – Avangard in the series with Lokomotiv tried to get out of it with the help of an exotic trick – firing coach Mikhail Kravets right in the middle of it. In the third meeting, his sudden successor Sergei Zvyagin watched the game from the bench with an anxious gaze.
The shake-up for those who, due to their love for the Omsk club, are ready to see a positive sign in every little thing, could be considered a success. Well, it’s not falling apart like in the second match, lost 0:7. But there is no getting around the fact that the terrible Omsk attacking line, its leaders Reed Bush and Vladimir Tkachev were still hobbled by the Yaroslavl team. And without their contribution it was difficult to count on an advantage. However, in overtime, into which the regular time ended with a score of 1:1, the miracle link still fired, and Boucher breathed a portion of life into Avangard.
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