According to Hollywood patterns: how CSKA and Metallurg won back two goals and reached the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup

Strong-willed victory for Metallurg

The current playoffs of the Continental Hockey League has already gone down in history.

To determine all participants in the second round of the Gagarin Cup, 48 matches had to be played, which had never happened before.

At the same time, in two series at once, it was necessary to play the maximum possible number of meetings to determine the winner.

The last time this happened in 2014, when three pairs of rivals had to go the entire distance.

As part of one of the confrontations, Avtomobilist and Metallurg fought for a ticket to the next stage.

And although on paper Magnitogorsk seemed to be a much more experienced and stellar team, which only confirmed the status of two-time champions and current finalists of the tournament, this time they were not considered favorites.

At least for the reason that Yekaterinburg finished the regular season in a higher position and therefore had the advantage of home ice in the final, seventh match of the series.

However, it was the guests who opened the account.

And the special brigade of the majority did it, in the current playoffs it is extremely unconvincing.

On the eve of this meeting, Magnitogorsk occupied the last line in terms of the implementation of the numerical advantage, and managed to take advantage of only one chance out of 22 (4.5%).

Wards of Ilya Vorobyov stretched out the opponent's defense, and the individual skill of Nikita Korostelev helped to catch Igor Bobkov by surprise.

The forward received a pass on the goal line, broke through to the target and on the second attempt left the goalkeeper out of work.

In general, Metallurg looked better in the first period: they created more dangerous episodes and bothered the opponent's goalkeeper more often.

However, in the end, he almost allowed Avtomobilist to restore parity.

An unsuccessful attempt to press in the hosts' zone led to the fact that Anatoly Golyshev rolled out one on one with Eddie Pasquale, and it was possible to interrupt his breakthrough only with the help of a violation of the rules.

Yekaterinburg got the right to shootout, but failed to use this opportunity.

Georgy Belousov rocked the goalkeeper great, but he stopped the puck with his shield.

But already in the second segment Avtomobilist turned the match 180°.

To do this, it turned out to be enough for him only eleven minutes with a little.

The hosts began to act more actively, more often create traffic at the gates of the guests and were rewarded for this.

The second scorer of the team, Nick Ebert, with a magnificent shot from the blue line, “flashed” Pasquale, who did not see the moment of the throw due to the accumulation of players in front of him, and then Sergey Shirokov also scored.

He remained uncovered a couple of meters from the target and immediately slammed the puck into the net.

The captain of Avtomobilist was noted in the majority - Artyom Zemchenok earned an untimely removal for the delay.

And subsequently, indiscipline once again let Metallurg down.

Arkhip Nekolenko for some reason held Belousov with a club in an episode that was unlikely to threaten with serious consequences, and put his team in a difficult situation.

This time, Aleksey Makeev took advantage of the numerical superiority, completing a spectacular three-move.

He was assisted by Belousov, who had previously participated in Ebert's goal.

Magnitogorsk had almost a period to recoup and move the meeting into overtime, but initially there were no prerequisites for this.

Vorobyov's wards were unproductive in attack, made many mistakes in defense and, if not for the magnificent Pasquale, they could concede with a big score.

However, at the very end of the third segment, they did something incredible.

With a difference of 119 seconds, Magnitogorsk scored twice.

First, Denis Zernov put his stick under the throw of Semyon Koshelev, and then the captain said his weighty word.

Egor Yakovlev scored from a pass by Brendan Leipsik.

Moreover, the defender did not even have to attack the gate - the puck just successfully bounced off his skate.

Thus, the victor of the match was again determined in overtime, which has already happened twice in this series.

And in both cases, hockey players from Magnitogorsk took over, and twice they lacked one additional period.

In the second game, the winning goal was scored in the 85th minute, and in the third - as much as in the 91st.

But this time, Magnitogorsk removed all questions much earlier.

At the ninth minute of the first overtime, Nikolai Goldobin interrupted the “dry” series of five meetings and saved his team from the first ever defeat from Avtomobilist in the playoffs.

The Russian striker received a pass from Lipsik and fired irresistibly into the far nine, leaving no chance for Bobkov.

Metallurg made an incredible comeback and reached the second round of the Gagarin Cup for the 12th time.

Ekaterinburg residents can only complain about bad luck.

After all, a few seconds before the scoring episode, Alexei Vasilevsky hit the crossbar.

Incredible return of CSKA

On the same day, the fate of the second finalist of last year's Gagarin Cup was decided.

For the first time in its history, CSKA was forced to play seven games already in the first stage of the playoffs and was one step away from a sensational failure.

The last time the army team failed to reach the semi-finals of the Western Conference in 2014.

Then they lost without a fight to SKA (0-4) at the start of the championship.

But it’s one thing to lose to the Petersburgers with Ilya Kovalchuk, Artemy Panarin and Vadim Shipachyov in the composition, the other is to Severstal, who hardly made it into the top 16 of the KHL.

The beginning of the meeting turned out to be discouraging for the hosts.

David Dumbadze and Alexander Petunin, with a difference of 216 seconds, took Adam Reideborn by surprise and made an application not a sensation.

At the same time, the second goal caused controversy.

Forward Cherepovets from the summer finished off the puck into the net and forced the referees to turn to video replays.

But in the end, they did not fix the game with a high stick and pointed to the center.

Perhaps for CSKA everything would have turned out much worse if Sergey Plotnikov had not reduced the gap after only two minutes.

The hosts earned the majority, and the ex-striker of Pittsburgh reacted to Mikhail Grigorenko's well-balanced attack.

And already in the middle of the second period, Vladislav Kamenev scored in a similar vein.

True, he put the stick under the most powerful click from the blue line.

But if in the case of Metallurg the goals scored didn't always follow from the logic of the game, you can't say the same about CSKA.

In the second segment, the wards of Sergei Fedorov raised the pace and almost doubled the Cherepovites.

In addition to Kamenev, Nikita Nesterov and Vladislav Provolnev were close to success, but Alexander Samonov continued to work wonders in the frame.

In the third period, the pressure on his gate became even stronger.

Only in the first seven minutes, the army team disturbed the goalkeeper eight times (the opponents did not do this even once) and succeeded twice.

First, Provolnev nevertheless achieved his goal, and then Maxim Sorkin completed the high-speed attack with an accurate hit.

Severstal conceded four times in a row and was in a psychological knockdown, in connection with which Andrey Razin was forced to take a timeout.

Communication with the coach had a positive effect on the Severstal players.

They began to gradually “load” Reideborn, and in the middle of the segment they got an excellent opportunity to win back at least one goal.

First, Anton Slepyshev and Dmitry Moiseev earned a mutual removal, and then Matvey Guskov was punished with two minutes for tripping.

Razin took a chance and removed the goalkeeper, but the Cherepovites could not score either in a five-on-three or five-on-four game.

Still not without a tense ending.

Alexander Suvorov's puck helped Severstal get close to CSKA and gave hope for overtime, but they were crossed out by Kamenev.

13 seconds before the siren, he hit the opponent's empty net from his zone and strengthened the superiority of the army team - 5:3.