Omsk Avangard and Yaroslavl Lokomotiv will play the seventh match in the quarterfinals

The first series of the current Fonbet play-off of the KHL championship, which stretched to the maximum distance, was the one in which Avangard, which lost to Lokomotiv during the quarterfinals – 0:2 and 1:3, at some point looked doomed to failed, he was able to overtake his opponent by replacing coach Mikhail Kravets with Sergei Zvyagin. He achieved the right to play the seventh match, having beaten in the sixth Yaroslavl away – 3:2. In another series of the second round, Metallurg took the lead. In the fifth meeting he defeated “Spartak” at home – 5:3.

In the ranking of the best matches of the current playoffs, if there were such a thing, the one that Lokomotiv played with Avangard on Thursday would have taken some very honorable position – if only because of its plot. Not even a second, but tenths of a second before the end of the starting period, the connection of defender Martin Gernat brought the first goal to Yaroslavl. And two and a half minutes after the break, Maxim Shalunov added another one to it. The situation looked sad for Avangard and pleasant for its opponent. Everything was going as it should for him, the leadership seemed absolutely deserved, backed by memorized lessons from the fifth, lost match. Now the Yaroslavl club was strong and dense in the rear.

But suddenly everything turned upside down. Avangard, which had just suffered, overcame itself, went forward and scored one goal, then another… And at the end of the period, Lokomotiv managed to make a terrible, exceptional blunder. It turned out that you can simultaneously run into two deletions – a personal one for Artur Kayumov and a team one for an extra hockey player on the court. Playing five-on-three, Avangard, naturally, did not forgive the hosts, and Nikolai Prokhorkin took the lead.

And then the Omsk team demonstrated exemplary composure, guarding their tiny advantage. In reality, Lokomotiv essentially had no opportunity to devour him – even when at the flag he replaced goalkeeper Daniil Isaev with a sixth field player. On the contrary, the Yaroslavl residents were lucky not to miss it.

Everything in this series will be decided by the seventh match. In it, Avangard will host Lokomotiv on Saturday.

The game of “Spartak” in the fifth match of the series with “Metallurg” should have caused amazement for a person who became interested in what was happening in the playoffs only on Thursday. Well, come on, the team with almost the best attack in the regular season is already toothless! A person who closely followed the playoffs, of course, would not be so surprised, remembering that in the two previous Magnitogorsk matches, the opening confrontation, the Spartak team with their amazing strike line, with their luxurious set of diverse attackers, did not score a single goal. In this city, it’s as if they are forced to go out on the ice with weights on their legs and arms.

In general, Metallurg, having squandered their lead in Moscow, again had a too obvious advantage at home. And after yet another, tenth in a row, Spartak’s power play wasted in vain, Danila Yurov opened the scoring. He performed a classic, textbook wrist shot from under the defender into the far corner. Then “Metallurg” played a cool combination in which Roman Kantserov discovered tons of patience necessary in important matches. Kantserov, approaching the goal, laid the defender on the ice, magnetized Dmitry Nikolaev’s gaze to himself and waited for partner Denis Zernov to approach the open goal to receive the pass.

“Spartak,” it seemed, after these blows could no longer wait to go on a break and try to reboot. But it didn’t work out at 0:2. There was less than a minute left before the pause, when the Spartak defenders made a pass from behind the goal at Yurov. Strictly speaking, his throw didn’t work out. There was basically no shot, because the puck simply ricocheted off his skate. It didn’t fly much, but Nikolaev somehow awkwardly placed his stick under a not-so-dangerous rebound that, in fact, helped it transform into a goal. And he went to the bench, giving up his post to backup Andrey Kareev.

After resting, Kareev performed a spectacular trick – he tightly trapped Nikita Mikhailis’ throw after a clean one-on-one. And one could even decide that he cheered up Spartak. The guests, at least for a while, moved to a foreign zone. But no, none of it stuck together. “Spartak” inopportunely ran into a penalty, and German Rubtsov, a player from his minority team, inappropriately lost his stick. Metallurg scored the fourth goal.

And then Spartak finally broke through. He could not hit the goal of Metallurg in Magnitogorsk for almost a full eight periods. And for the first time he amazed them in a situation where he had to think first of all about how to save his goal – in the minority.

The chance for real intrigue was still slim. But intrigue was suddenly born, because the revived Spartak made another small breakthrough in the final period.

Rubtsov and Pavel Poryadin punished Metallurg twice in a row on the power play, in a format that has been a huge Spartak disaster in this series so far. However, it was not possible to crush the Magnitogorsk residents. “Metallurg” restored its margin of safety thanks to its skillful defender Robin Press, who entered the zone with the puck as if glued to the hook of his stick, looked around there and noticed the connection of Yegor Korobkin.

Metallurg took the lead in the series. But Spartak’s performance in the second half of the fifth match suggested that, of course, he did not intend to give up. And on his own ice on Saturday in the sixth meeting he will definitely fight.

Alexey Dospehov