Metallurg beat Amur and advanced to the second round of the Gagarin Cup

In the first round of the Fonbet play-offs of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), the series between Metallurg and Amur ended. The best club in the Eastern Conference according to the results of the regular season still put the finishing touches on the Khabarovsk team in overtime of the sixth match.

Probably, based on traditional ideas, one could least of all expect that perhaps the most difficult series in the first round of the playoffs among the Eastern Conference clubs would be the series between Metallurg and Amur. Let us remind you that Magnitogorsk took first place in the East at the end of the regular season, and Khabarovsk took eighth place. And usually in such pairs, if we talk about the KHL, the favorite confidently wins.

However, “Amur” did everything to perform successfully this season when it invited Egor Korshkov, Alexander Khokhlachev, Alex Broadhurst and several other famous masters, assembling a very competitive squad. And it’s even surprising that such a team had difficulties reaching the playoffs.

On the other hand, Metallurg surprised us by finishing first in the conference, because they just got rid of a group of high-status, expensive players and noticeably dropped in the level of performers, and especially foreign players. In fact, Magnitka completely abandoned foreigners, and only the Swedish defender Robin Press really strengthened it.

But the new coach of Magnitogorsk, Andrei Razin, who came from the modest Severstal, was used to working without stars and coped with his duties brilliantly.

However, even compared to the eighth team, the current Metallurg did not have superiority in class, and the need to fly to the Far East certainly created additional difficulties for him, adding even more unpredictability to the series. First, in Magnitogorsk and Khabarovsk, the teams exchanged victories, and in three cases they won with a difference of just one goal, after which the “steelworkers” again took the lead and went to the Platinum Arena.

The sixth match also turned out to be very stubborn, with equal chances of success. The first period was left to the guests thanks to an accurate shot from Arkhip Nekolenko, although Khokhlachev hit the crossbar earlier. In the second twenty minutes there were also plenty of chances at both goals. Goalkeepers Igor Bobkov and Ilya Nabokov were at their best, and Metallurg striker Daniil Vovchenko hit the top frame. But at the end of the period, Amur captain Dmitry Shevchenko scored a return goal, taking advantage of the fact that Nabokov had opened the near corner.

The hosts could well have realized the majority in the opening of the third period of the match, if not for Nabokov, who made several saves.

Then Igor Geraskin missed the right opportunity to put Magnitogorsk ahead when he hit the post from a meter out. In the 57th minute, in much more difficult conditions, he accurately threw the puck under Bobkov’s pancake and, it would seem, decided the fate of the series. However, the “tigers” got out of this situation by replacing their goalkeeper with a sixth field player more than two minutes before the siren. Shevchenko made a brilliant pass to the nickel from behind the goal, where Broadhurst was on duty.

And yet, Amur was not destined to repeat the achievement of another Far Eastern club, Admiral, which made it past the first round of the playoffs last season. Already in the third minute of overtime, Nikita Grebenkin, who played on loan for Khabarovsk a year ago, received a pass from Luke Johnson, sent the puck into the “nine” with a wrist shot and earned a ticket to the next stage of the Gagarin Cup. Metallurg won 3:2 in the match and 4:2 in the series.

Thus, all participants in the quarterfinals have already been determined from the Eastern Conference. Earlier, Avtomobilist knocked out last year’s finalist Ak Bars from the playoffs – 4:1. “Avangard” also dealt with “Lada” in five meetings, and “Traktor” needed six matches in the confrontation with “Salavat Yulaev”. Only one series in the West remains unfinished, in which, by the way, the first and eighth teams of the conference compete – Dynamo Moscow and Minsk. The Muscovites lead 3:2, but the sixth game will take place on Tuesday in Minsk, so it is possible that it will come to the seventh here. “Lokomotiv”, “Spartak” and SKA have already returned fire, having beaten CSKA, “Severstal” and “Torpedo” with the same score 4:1, respectively.

Alexander Ilyin