Metallurg became the second finalist of the Gagarin Cup

Lokomotiv’s opponent in the final Fonbet play-off series of the KHL championship was Metallurg. To get into it, Magnitogorsk residents had to endure a very difficult test. Their confrontation with Avtomobilist stretched over a maximum distance of seven matches. In the seventh, Metallurg defeated the Ekaterinburg team on their site – 3:2.

During this play-off, a lot of big and small surprises happened. But at least the composition of its final turned out to be not too contradictory to the “paper” layouts before the start of the Gagarin Cup: stable and solid this season “Lokomotiv” against the best regular season club in the East “Metallurg”, a club with a great background that has already won the Cup twice Gagarin, and will fight for him for the fifth time. Although the grandee ate out its next final with blood.

In fact, every match of his semi-final series turned into some kind of entertaining, slightly contrary to logic, story, and the main one was no exception. Those who did not closely follow this confrontation, deciding to watch only its decisive part, quickly had to see that nothing interesting awaited them.

On the ice, the best version of “Metallurg”, light and airy, and, let’s say, far from the best, somehow too constrained – “Avtomobilist”. And events develop as they must develop when such versions collide.

Three minutes after the start of the match, you can already see how comfortable “Metallurg” feels and how “Avtomobilist” is suffering. One day, some miracle saves him from harm – the puck, hitting the post, instead of going towards the target, skips along the ribbon. But trouble, of course, ripens in that situation, which for this springy Magnitogorsk variant is an absolute ideal. The opponent hesitates at the entrance to the zone, the puck is taken from him, and the safety player of the Yekaterinburg five, Maxim Osipov, awkwardly falls, as if struck on the spot by the supersonic speed of Roman Kantserov. Then unfortunate Nikita Tryamkin tries to intercept Kantserov’s pass, but the puck still reaches Dmitry Silantiev. Magnitogorsk classic this season.

And then – the demonstrative majority of Avtomobilist. Zero chances for the guests – and the sharpest breakthrough of the same Kantserov for Metallurg, who does not notice that he has fewer hockey players than his opponents. And the Ekaterinburg residents, inarticulate in these two minutes, immediately after the Magnitogorsk team waits for Makar Khabarov to leave the penalty box, forget about Danil Yurov, who is five meters from the goal. And leaving a forward with such a shot free in front of them is like death. In general, the score is already 2:0 in favor of the hosts, and there are no hints that intrigue may arise.

Those who followed the series closely naturally sensed a catch. Well, there is no such thing in this couple that everything goes smoothly, according to the established rules. And a few seconds before the break, Avtomobilist, who had gradually gotten used to it, suddenly snapped back with a sharp attack, capped by a hit by Maxim Denezhkin.

And in the second period, there was no talk of any overwhelming advantage for Metallurg. He, however, restored the lead thanks to Denis Zernov’s successful rebound of the puck from goalkeeper Vladimir Galkin, but Avtomobilist immediately snapped back. Robin Press, a defenseman with enormous experience and in excellent shape, for some reason fumbled with the puck and gave it to Danila Romantsev, who provided Denezhkin with a double. And the exchange of bites, completely equal, continued. And it’s even strange that the number of goals scored did not increase.

In the final twenty minutes, the fact that it froze was primarily Vladimir Galkin’s fault, who actually found himself in the most important meetings at the Avtomobilist gate due to the will of circumstances.

His main goalkeeper, who gave no reason to doubt the legitimacy of his status, was Evgeniy Alikin. But before the sixth game he was injured. Meanwhile, the understudy Galkin replaced him convincingly and brilliantly. He carried pucks from the nines, deftly dealt with the mess in the area. If only his partners in charge of the attack had helped him, everything would probably have worked out as it should for Avtomobilist. But for some reason the partners fell silent. And this was, of course, a colossal achievement both for Metallurg, who managed to add density in the middle zone as a whole, and for his mentor Andrei Razin, who demonstrated how subtly he could adjust the settings. An achievement that, in terms of significance, perhaps outweighs the misfortune of the attack.

A minute and a half before the siren, Avtomobilist coach Nikolai Zavarukhin sent Galkin to the bench for the sixth field player to come out. The Ekaterinburg team pressed furiously, but Metallurg resisted and will now prepare for the final, in which a fresh and rested Lokomotiv awaits them, because they broke through there a week ago, “dry”, in four matches, having dealt with Traktor. The series will open with a meeting in Magnitogorsk on Thursday.

Alexey Dospehov