Eastern Conference clubs lose competition for the trophy

In the regular championship of the Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League, matches took place with the participation of almost all teams vying for victory in the tournament. SKA, having beaten Salavat Yulaev – 2:0, strengthened its leadership in the summary table. Dynamo Moscow and Lokomotiv moved up to second and third places, taking advantage of the misfires of Metallurg and Avangard.

The match between the leader of the Eastern Conference, Metallurg, and Ak Bars, although the Kazan team is currently not participating in the fight for the Continental Cup, deserved special attention. In fact, it was Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s team that was considered the main favorite of the East, but if its unstable performance in the regular season with such and such a composition, which also grew stronger as the season progressed, was a negative surprise, then Magnitogorsk was not at all stellar, on the contrary, exceeded all expectations and surprisingly went through the championship smoothly. Ak Bars, of course, has solved the minimum task of reaching the playoffs, but it will no longer jump higher than fourth place in the conference, but Metallurg has much more ambitious goals.

The Magnitogorsk team also behaved ambitiously in Kazan, imposing their hockey on their authoritative rival.

True, being carried away by the attack, they immediately missed Dmitry Kagarlitsky’s one-to-zero escape, and so they played with an advantage. The hosts survived only thanks to Timur Bilyalov, who confirmed his reputation as one of the best goalkeepers of the current championship, leading the KHL in the percentage of saved shots and the number of clean sheets. Moreover, the Kazan team took the first period, opening the scoring shortly before the break when Semyon Koshelev, who started the season at Metallurg, corrected defender Vyacheslav Voinov’s long-range shot.

However, in the second twenty minutes the guests already caught Ak Bars, which had drilled too deep into the opponent’s zone. Nikita Grebenkin brought his namesake Mikhailis one on one with Bilyalov, and he “soaked” the driest goalkeeper in the league. Soon Bilyalov failed to cope with Robin Press’s throw, but the referees canceled this goal due to interference with the Kazan goalkeeper. And then he prevented the Steelworkers from scoring several times, especially when Denis Zernov rolled onto him. The Leopards also had their chances, but in the absence of Dmitry Yashkin, who has been injured for a long time, they are experiencing noticeable problems with execution. The Czech forward with 18 goals in 36 matches is still the club’s top sniper, and even Alexander Radulov can’t catch up with him. But Kazan still has Vadim Shipachev, and they took Riley Barber from Barys as a potential scorer.

In the third period it became completely clear that there would not be many goals in this meeting. It seems that both teams have already played through the upcoming playoffs.

More than four minutes before the end of regular time, the hosts still managed to use the majority. Radulov reached for the penny and, with the help of a ricochet from the stick of Magnitogorsk defender Artem Minulin, pushed the puck into the goal. Then the guests also gained a numerical superiority and, in addition, released a sixth field player, but their assault was ineffective.

Ak Bars won 2:1, but Metallurg retained its lead in the East with 87 points. The second-place Avangard also suffered a defeat, losing to Avtomobilist in Yekaterinburg – 2:4. Omsk led 2:1 after two periods and unexpectedly collapsed in the third. So they still have 86 points.

The leader of the Western Conference and the entire league, SKA, once again faced off against Salavat Yulaev. Recently, the army team defeated the Ufa club on its site – 4:3, after which it put out an impressive series of three victories over CSKA, Ak Bars and Avangard. However, Viktor Kozlov’s team lost to St. Petersburg again.

The hosts took the lead after Borna Rendulic converted a power play in the second period, and Stepan Starkov scored a goal in the third. 2:0 – and SKA scored 91 points, taking another step towards winning the Continental Cup.

Dynamo Moscow moved up to second place in the overall KHL table with 88 points, having achieved success in the confrontation with their Minsk teammates – 2:1. Lokomotiv reached the mark of 87 points, putting the pressure on CSKA in the brightest match of the day – 5:4. Yaroslavl was ahead 2:0, the army team equalized the score, conceded and came back again. In the 53rd minute, the score was already 4:3 in favor of the Muscovites, but 28 seconds before the end of the third period, in the minority, the railway workers escaped defeat, and then snatched victory in overtime. According to additional indicators, Lokomotiv was also ahead of Metallurg.

Alexander Ilyin