SKA – Avtomobilist – 4:5 (series score – 1-4)
St. St. Petersburg SKA unexpectedly found themselves evenly balanced in the series with Avtomobilist after just three matches, losing twice at home and once in Yekaterinburg. There it seemed that the army team managed to turn the tide of the conflict, having saved themselves at the end of normal time in the third match, but still lost in overtime (1:2 overtime). However, the team won the series against St. Louis thanks to a big win (5:2). He managed to return him to St. Petersburg.
However, the condition of Roman Rotenberg’s wards was still critical. Only once in KHL history has a series been won by a team that lost its first three games. That’s right, it was SKA who did it against CSKA in the Western Conference final in 2015 and then took the Cup.
Trying to make history once again, the home team faltered a bit at the beginning of the match, facing a number of good attacks from their opponents, and as a result, Alexey Makeev opened the scoring with a pass from Anatoly Golyshev. .
Moreover, while the army team was visibly shaking, Avtomobilist hockey players created much more serious situations, but Nikita Serebryakov literally kept the team in the game. In this regard, SKA seriously missed a number of leading defenders, led by Alexander Nikishin and Andrei Pedan.
In the 10th minute of the match, Rotenberg’s team returned to the match fully with Arseniy Gritsyuk’s accurate shot.
The game was balanced and SKA even played with an advantage, but an unnecessary dismissal in the penultimate minute of the first period resulted in another goal from Makeev, who converted the majority at the end of the period.
In the second period, the home team tried to change the course of the match. True, looking at the game Avtomobilist looked somehow more assertive and perhaps more confident, but Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team was already disappointed with their own wipeout.
In the first minority, the Urals responded, but SKA’s next rally in the 32nd minute ended with Mikhail Vorobyov’s accurate shot into the empty corner.
The visitors piled into Serebryakov’s goal, but were met with Marat Khairullin’s counter-attack and shot into the top corner. And just a few seconds after the throw-in, Gritsyuk took advantage of the defender’s mistake and gave the army team a two-goal lead!
1:2 turned into 4:2 in a few minutes, and the red-blacks replaced Evgeniy Alikin with Vladimir Galkin at the last corner. This decision of Zavarukhin was important in many respects.
Avtomobilist managed to minimize the gap even before the second break. Alexey Byvaltsev gained an indefinite majority: the striker leapt from one to nothing on the goalkeeper, and Serebryakov knocked him down with his stick. But the SKA goalkeeper hit the puck first.
“Avtomobilist” transformed the majority in a devastating way, and it was Byvaltsev who made the accurate shot.
The third period started with the guest team equalizing the score. Serebryakov made good use of Nikita Tryamkin’s shot, but unfortunately the puck bounced to Nick Ebert, who missed.
After that the crazy hockey started with lots of chances and shots. Hockey players from Yekaterinburg also found their happiness in this. In the 52nd minute after the throw-in, they brought in Andrei Obidin to take a shot, who rolled into the right circle and missed.
The ending was naturally hot. SKA almost always attacked, several times played in the majority, removed the goalkeeper, organized hockey in the “6 to 4” format, but could not get past Galkin. But most of the credit goes to the fielders; Avtomobilist’s hockey players blocked 33 shots (SKA – 8).
historical season
Originally placed sixth in the East, Avtomobilist took third place in its conference in the second round of the crossover play-offs and advanced to the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup for the first time in its history!
SKA rested after losing to Lokomotiv in the first round and handing over its championship credentials to CSKA, following the usual favorites of the East, Kazan Ak Bars and Ufa Salavat Yulaev, as well as the best team of the regular season, Dinamo Moscow. From “Traktora” The team that fell (0-4) has already reached the second round.
In the semi-finals, Avtomobilist will face the winner of the series between Magnitogorsk Metallurg and Moscow Spartak. Magnitogorsk is ahead 2-1, but the fourth match will be played in Moscow on March 26.