Sensations in Nizhnekamsk and Minsk, two overtimes in Balashikha: how SKA and Ak Bars stumbled again, and Loko put the squeeze on Vityaz

30 saves by Serebryakov and the goal of the captain of Salavat

Unlike other giants, Salavat Yulaev was one step away from failure.

Ufa sensationally lost two out of three matches to Admiral and in the event of another defeat, they found themselves in an almost hopeless situation.

Earlier in the history of the KHL, they lost seven times in the series 1-3 and never managed to turn the tide of the confrontation.

Moreover, only twice did they manage to take over the opponent at least once and portray a semblance of a struggle for a ticket to the next round.

Understanding this, Viktor Kozlov's wards entered the ice of the arena in Vladivostok highly motivated and gave the Admiral only 19 times to disturb Ilya Yezhov, while they themselves brought down a hail of shots on the opponent's goal.

And if it wasn’t the magnificent Nikita Serebryakov in the frame, the score could well have been large.

Excellent moments had made a spectacular slalom Alexander Khmelevski and broke through to a penny Sergei Shmelev, but the goalkeeper acted beyond praise.

But still, he could not withstand the pressure of the second team of the East.

Less than six minutes before the end, Grigory Panin still took Serebryakov by surprise with a throw from the blue line.

However, in this case, it is extremely difficult to blame Nikita.

Artyom Pimenov and Danil Alalykin created traffic on the penny and prevented the goalkeeper from reacting in time.

"Admiral" flew to recoup, but even the appearance of the sixth field hockey player did not allow them to transfer the meeting from overtime.

Yezhov kept a clean sheet and equaled the playoff leaders in terms of the number of crackers.

Bilyaletdinov's achievement and the return of Neftekhimik

For the Kazan team, the away match against Neftekhimik was special for two reasons.

The record, 121st match in the Gagarin Cup was held by Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who bypassed the former Ak Bars coach Oleg Znarok in this indicator.

And Vadim Shipachyov took to the ice for the 900th time in the KHL.

Before him, this bar was submitted to only one person - the defender of "Salavat" Evgeny Biryukov (966).

All that was missing was a victory that practically decided the outcome of the series against Nizhnekamsk.

And at first everything went to the fact that success would still be achieved.

Although in the first period Alexander Sudnitsin repelled all 15 shots, but already at the beginning of the second he missed twice in 38 seconds.

First, Kirill Petrov completed what was started by the same Shipachyov and helped Vadim reach the mark of 80 assists in the playoffs, and then Stanislav Galiev flashed the Neftekhimik goalkeeper with a powerful click.

But Nizhnekamsk residents did not even think of giving up.

Even before the end of the 20-minute period, they restored equality through the efforts of Raul Yakupov and Semyon Kizimov.

Moreover, the first of them became the youngest author of a goal in the playoffs in the history of the team (18 years 259 days), surpassing the achievement of Bogdan Yakimov (21 years 145 days).

True, all this could not have happened if Timur Bilyalov had acted a little more confidently.

In the first case, the puck ricocheted off the trap and flew right over his collar, and in the second, it slipped between the shields.

In the final segment with Kazan something incredible happened.

In 20 minutes, they only bothered Sudnitsin five times, while Bilyalov had to enter the game almost three times more (12:5).

Often, the defenders literally left him to fend for himself and deservedly missed twice more.

First, Evgeny Mityakin, and then Vyacheslav Leshchenko, left the goalkeeper out of work, helped Neftekhimik win a strong-willed victory and level the score in the series - 2-2.

Canceled goal of Yashkin and extravaganza "Dynamo"

SKA stepped on the same rake as Ak Bars.

It seemed that after two victories in a row with a total score of 9:2, the Petersburgers would squeeze the demoralized Minskers and come close to winning a ticket to the second round, which they had invariably obtained over the previous 12 years.

But in the capital of Belarus, a crushing psychological blow awaited them in the form of four missed goals in 6 minutes 49 seconds.

Up to this point, the superiority of the SKA was not in doubt.

Nikita Gusev has already implemented an impromptu bullet and not only brought the guests ahead, but also strengthened himself on the first line of the scorers race with six (2 + 4) points.

And thus he proved that the canceled goal of Dmitry Yashkin did not upset the team in any way.

In the middle of the second period, the arbitrators, after a long viewing, nevertheless determined the game with a high stick from the Czech.

A little more than a quarter of an hour remained before the siren, and SKA continued to put pressure.

Looking ahead, in the last period, the army team surpassed their counterparts by almost three times both in possession and in hits on target.

Dynamo, on the other hand, endured and waited for the opponent's missteps, for which they were rewarded.

The best assistant of the regular season, Alexander Nikishin, grossly made a mistake with a pass and not only organized an attack on his own goal, but also cut off the puck in them.

But the misadventures of Nikishin and SKA have only just begun.

Subsequently, they missed three more times, and it was Alexander who was to blame for two episodes.

First, he again scored an own goal, and then gave an inaccurate pass and let Nick Merkley hit an empty target.

In the end, the wards of Roman Rotenberg managed to avoid defeat thanks to Andrey Pedan's exact hit in unequal lineups, but this was hardly a serious consolation.

As in the opening match of the series, the Petersburgers allowed the Minskers to make an incredible comeback and seriously complicate their lives.

The last time they lost twice was in the opening round of the Gagarin Cup four years ago.

Then Spartak seriously patted their nerves (4-2). 

Three power-play goals and two overtimes

The meeting in Balashikha turned out to be incredibly tense, although there were few prerequisites for this.

Two days ago, Lokomotiv did not leave a stone unturned from Vityaz, sending four unanswered goals into his goal, and was considered a clear favorite.

But the wards of Vyacheslav Butsaev did not agree with this.

In the first period, they stormed the possessions of Daniil Isaev and forced him to demonstrate his skills 18 times.

And in one of the episodes, one of the most reliable goalkeepers of the regular season gave up.

Yaroslav Busygin threw from the blue line, and Scott Wilson, who ended up on the penny, closed the goalkeeper's review and helped his partner become the team's youngest goal scorer in the playoffs (20 years 21 days).

But the lack of experience played a cruel joke on Busygin.

It was his two removals in a row that led to the fact that Lokomotiv not only restored parity, but also pulled ahead.

And all this in 91 seconds.

First, Stepan Nikulin, and then Denis Alekseev, scored in the majority, but already at the end of the third period, the Vityaz special brigade came to the fore.

This time, Wilson himself upset Isaev and turned the game into overtime.

As a result, one additional 20 minutes was not enough to determine the winner.

And for this we must thank Dmitry Shikin, who worked wonders in the frame.

In total, he repelled 62 shots - 15 more than Isaev.

But he still failed to save the Vityaz from defeat.

In the 96th minute, Rushan Rafikov nevertheless took the goalkeeper by surprise and brought Lokomotiv a third victory in the series - 3-1.