How Severstal was tempered – Newspaper Kommersant No. 43 (7488) of 03/15/2023
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The current holder of the Gagarin Cup, CSKA, nevertheless managed to avoid relegation in the starting round of the current draw, having coped in the seventh, decisive meeting of the series at home – 5:3 – with Severstal, which led 2:0 in the first twenty minutes. In another game of the day that crowned the seven-game series, Metallurg Magnitogorsk made its way to the second round of the Fonbet play-off of the KHL championship, defeating Avtomobilist in overtime – 4: 3 – on a foreign site, Avtomobilist, although shortly before the end of the final period they lost by a margin in two balls.
The Moscow match, which ended the most unexpected series of this round, very quickly made those who believed that CSKA was on the verge of collapse, having gathered, angry, smashed the impudent upstart, to curse themselves for their self-confidence. Such a simple, logical, insipid scenario had no place in the surprising confrontation. Everything was much more interesting.
CSKA, of course, tried to put pressure on them, and sometimes, looking at the ice, one might think that his opponent, who had a hard time getting out of his zone, would hardly stick together. But anyone who saw the previous matches of Severstal should have understood that the look is deceiving, that the Cherepovets team, having looked closely at the opponent, will definitely wait until it was possible to bite him.
And the guests bit the army. Terribly painful. The goal came as if from nothing – from a monotonous attack, from a seemingly harmless throw by Pavel Denisov. However, there were players in front of goalkeeper Adam Reideborn, he saw the puck too late and somehow awkwardly, like a beginner volleyball player, beat it off in front of him. And in front of Reideborn, there was already David Dumbadze, who had jumped out of the ambush, hardly expecting that his first goal in the playoffs would come out so easy.
And then the position of the army became even worse. Ruslan Abrosimov, who played in the majority of Severstal, suddenly popped a tank from behind the gate into a crowded patch. The puck soared into the air and Alexander Petunin hit it with a stick, like an experienced lumberjack with an ax. Reideborn was out of work again, and CSKA’s video review did not help. He did not find a game with a high stick.
The ability of Sergei Plotnikov to correctly take a position near someone else’s goal helped the army team. At the end of the second period, having corrected Mikhail Grigorenko’s pass, he reduced the backlog.
To gobble it up without a trace, CSKA had to suffer against the tenacious Severstal the lion’s share of the second period. The suffering, however, more than paid off. Vladislav Provolnev elegantly imitated his readiness to perform a mighty snap, and after his heroic swing he subtly rolled the puck to the post, on Vladislav Kamenev, who was hiding there. And it was already a real championship goal: it literally shone with class, sophistication.
And in the final period, Provolnev no longer imitated anything – he simply clicked on the puck as best he could. Or maybe he sends it to other people’s gates at crazy speed, so that even goalkeepers who are in good shape, like Alexander Samonov, are not able to react. Digesting the blow, Severstal missed Maxim Sorkin’s attack. But this was still not a verdict, because Severstal won back one goal, and then desperately pressed on, removing Samonov to the bench for the sake of an extra field player. However, the assault taxied to a goal in an empty net from Kamenev.
Another match, which took place on Tuesday, already in a pair of rivals of equals, seeded in the eastern bracket in the neighborhood, brought Metallurg to the next round of the Gagarin Cup, sending Avtomobilist to rest. And its plot was also drawn to live advertising of such collisions. It started quite well for the Magnitogorsk team – with a goal in the majority by Nikita Korostelev, with a bullet reflected at the end of the first period by goalkeeper Eddie Pasquale. It was the guests who controlled the situation, it was on them that I really wanted to bet.
But the Yekaterinburgers fixed everything. The same Georgy Belousov, who blundered with a bullet, avenged his failure with a chic pass to Nick Ebert, who equalized the score, and then Sergey Shirokov used the numerical advantage. In the final period, Belousov again showed remarkable assistant skills, which now allowed Aleksey Makeev to excel, and the rest of the match turned into sheer torture for Metallurg. It seems to be necessary to attack, but Avtomobilist, who no longer needs to score, is too strong, and if you burrow, he immediately touches you in response.
And it was already just stupid not to bet on the hosts – they convincingly brought the win closer. There were seven minutes left. And then Makeev hooked Nikolai Goldobin with a stick and earned a removal, and Denis Zernov, blocking the view of goalkeeper Igor Bobkov, corrected Semyon Koshelev’s powerful throw with a stick. “Metallurg”, just doomed, perked up and rushed to press his luck. And he finished it when, after a cross by Brendan Lipsik, the puck ricocheted into the net from Yegor Yakovlev.
So the match taxied to overtime, in which everything was decided by the transfer of Leipsik to Goldobin and the striker’s throw into the top nine. In the second round of the Gagarin Cup, the Magnitogorsk club will play with Avangard. In another eastern quarter-final pair, Ak Bars will meet with Admiral, and the western pairs were SKA and Torpedo, as well as CSKA and Lokomotiv.
First round of play-offs
Series up to four wins. Seventh, decisive matches
Eastern Conference. “Motorist”-“Metallurgist” 3:4 (overtime). The score in the series is 3:4.
In the 1/2 finals of the conference (a series of up to four victories) there are: “Ak Bars” – “Admiral”, “Avangard” – “Metallurg”.
Western conference
CSKA— Severstal 5:3. The score in the series is 4:3.
In the 1/2 finals of the conference (a series of up to four victories) there are: CSKA – Lokomotiv, SKA – Torpedo.
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