CSKA Preview
Why the Army Men can win it …Quality
This season, quite simply, CSKA has been head and shoulders above everyone else. Regular season? Champion at a canter. Post season? How does eight straight wins, and just one loss in 13 games grab you? That’s dominance in anyone’s book. Points are shared around the team, goalie Ilya Sorokin is rocking an incredible GAA of 1.12 and it’s hard to spot a weakness anywhere on the ice or in any of the lines. When the pressure is on, the team delivers clutch goals: witness the third period recoveries to beat Slovan three nights running and sweep the opening round while the Slovaks were left wondering how the opposition had slipped through its grasp time and again. And then there’s the Alexander Radulov factor, a player with the brilliance to break open the tightest of games. It’s a team stamped through with ‘winning’.
Defense
Heading into the Western Conference final, CSKA knew it had to close down SKA’s deadly offense, and especially the Petersburg power play. Going into the series, SKA had a 33% conversion rate when it gained a man advantage. Yet after 15 PPs in three games against CSKA it had generated a big fat zero in the ‘goals for’ column. Dmitry Kvartalnov has his team playing at a pace and intensity that defies even the finest in this league – and after freezing out SKA’s young hot-shots it’s a fair bet the Army Men will already have a plan in place to spike Metallurg’s big guns in the final. And, as we’ve seen in previous seasons, stopping Sergei Mozyakin’s line tends to mean stopping Magnitogorsk.
Strength in depth
Apart from Alexander Radulov, Nikita Zaitsev and goalie Ilya Sorokin, CSKA has rotated its roster to keep players fresh throughout the post-season. Players of the caliber of Dmitry Kugryshev, for example, have been healthy scratches on occasion as Kvartalnov prepares the best combinations for each opponent. Does that mean the head coach is unsure of his best team? Hardly. More likely, he’s confident in the abilities of every player to carry out their task effectively. So the enforced absence of forward Geoff Platt, suspended for the first three games, is hardly the blow it might have been even if the Belarusian international does have nine points from nine games. Platt played a big part in overcoming SKA, but his absence simply offers an opportunity for Stephane da Costa, Simon Hjalmarsson or the afore-mentioned Kugryshev to step back up to the plate and contribute. The personnel changes, but the machine motors on.
… and why they might not.
With most people making CSKA the hot favorite for this prize, it takes some effort to spot a weakness that Metallurg could exploit. Respected hockey pundit Sergei Gimayev summed it up by suggesting that a Magnitka win would be “heroic” and warned that the series was unlikely to be a long one. However, Metallurg’s first line, the formidable troika of Mozyakin, Kovar and Zaripov, is probably the best in the league. Its proven prowess over several seasons gives it a unique edge and understanding. The trio pose a different challenge from the off-the-cuff improvisations that made Dadonov, Shipachyov and Gusev so dangerous for so much of the season; this is a kind of ingrained gameplan at a high level and, experience shows, is far harder to bring under control. For a CSKA roster that has yet to experience the full intensity of a grand final series, that could be one challenge too far this season.
Magnitka Preview
Why Magnitka can win it …1. Experience
Metallurg has been here before. In 2014 the team won it all with a roster that remains largely intact. From goalie Vasily Koshechkin to the prolific Moyzakin-Kovar-Zaripov troika, most of the key figures from Mike Keenan’s Gagarin Cup-winning squad are available for the upcoming final. These are players with ample experience of playoff hockey who know what it takes to win in any situation. Keenan himself may have moved to a different role, but in Ilya Vorobyov the club found a ready-made replacement to step into the hot seat; the transition during the course of the season has been almost seamless.
At present, CSKA doesn’t really have that abundance of big-game know-how: contrast the difference between veteran goalie Koshechkin and hugely promising rookie Ilya Sorokin in Moscow. One has faced this challenge before, the other is on the cusp of moving from potential hero to bona fide star. In the playoff pressure cooker, that could give Magnitka a small edge.
2. Mozyakin
Already the second-highest goalscorer in the history of Russian hockey, Sergei Mozyakin remains perhaps the most complete forward in the KHL. While his opposite number in this series, Alexander Radulov, may have the greater flair, nobody can deny that when it comes to potting the clutch goals, Mozyakin is the man. The bigger the occasion in domestic competition, the bigger the contribution: he dominated the post-season scoring when Magnitka won the cup two years ago, producing an incredible 33 points, and was a leading contributor when Atlant got to the 2011 grand final. This season he already has four game-winners in the playoffs, and could be good for a few more yet. At the age of 35 this may be his last realistic chance of leading a team to the big prize – and there are few others in the game more capable of hauling a team through a storm.
3. Semin
For too long the complaint about Metallurg was the team only had one line. Even Keenan noted this during the championship season, and who are we to argue? But it’s not such an issue any more. Alexander Semin’s arrival from the NHL has, finally, brought another line to the scoring party. After gently settling back into Russian hockey during the back end of the regular season, he’s been big in these playoffs. Seven goals, seven assists, making him the third highest scorer after Mozyakin and Kovar. Throwing him into the power play has brought an extra dimension to Magnitka’s special teams, adding extra menace to a potent offense for the Steelmen.
… and why they might not
The flip side of all that experience is the simple fact that this roster isn’t getting any younger. Unable or unwilling to start evolving a new group after lifting the cup, Metallurg runs the risk of stagnating a little. There’s a feeling that, come the summer, Vorobyov will have little choice but to start refreshing his line-up regardless of the events of the coming fortnight. That, coupled with a lack of depth in the roster, could count against Magnitka.
There’s also the challenge of starting in Moscow against a fired-up CSKA while key defenseman Chris Lee sits out a suspension. With the Army Men rampant, no team can afford to give them an edge in Game 1 … but the schedule tilts the balance in favor of CSKA.
Two meetings between the two finalists earlier this season were full of intrigue – and both teams can draw positives from the results.
September 11: CSKA 1 Metallurg 3
Metallurg arrived in Moscow in disappointing form, the same stuttering progress that was about to prompt a change in coaching at the Magnitogorsk club. But this was a night when everything went right for the Ural team and high-flying CSKA went down to a rare, but deserved defeat. Initially the home team had the edge. Stephane da Costa fed Nikita Zaitsev and the young D-man opened the scoring on the power play. But Magnitka’s experienced combo of Sergei Mozyakin and Jan Kovar did the business when CSKA ran into penalty trouble of its own. Each man had a goal and an assist in the middle session to turn the game upside down and set Metallurg on the way to victory. Mozyakin wrapped it up with an empty-netter. Recalling that game, CSKA head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov admitted that little had worked for his team on the night. But he added that after reviewing the footage in the build-up to the final, he felt that his team had already demonstrated solutions to some of those early-season problems. Some of those answers were evident when the teams met again in February…
February 3: Metallurg 1 CSKA 3
This game was a big one for CSKA. Victory secured the Viktor Tikhonov Trophy as the Army Men won the Regular Season title for the second year running. Coming into the game, CSKA had 11 wins on the spin and began the game with all the confidence and aggression you’d expect from a team in that kind of form.
The first period, indeed the first 30 minutes, were almost one-way traffic. CSKA dominated the play, repeatedly rattling the frame of Vasily Koshechkin’s goal … only to fall behind to a sucker punch as Evgeny Timkin swept home a rebound from close range. The visitor replied quickly, Denis Denisov finally solving Koshechkin with a mighty effort from the blue line. But the game winner, in the last minute of the second period, was greeted with derision by the home fans. There was no argument about Stephane da Costa’s touch to deflect the puck past the goalie, but home fans were convinced that Bogdan Kiselvich allowed the puck to clear the Metallurg zone before thumping in his shot. The officials ruled no offside, and the goal stood. Alexander Radulov wrapped it up with an empty-netter, and first place in the KHL table was confirmed. So the two regular season meetings proved to be mirror images of one another. Both times the home team scored first. Both times the game was turned around. Both times it took an empty-net goal to finally secure the visitor’s victory. The evidence suggests that the up-coming final will be a close-fought affair, with small margins deciding each of the games, and perhaps that the team with the better disciplinary record is likely to prosper, given the strength of both sets of special teams on the power play in regular season.
CSKA recovered from a slow start to win the opening game in the Gagarin Cup Final Series, and in doing so underlined exactly why there is so much expectation around Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team this season. A devastating second period, with Alexander Radulov posting 1+1 to help his team to a trio of unanswered goals, overturned and early deficit and paved the way to a convincing victory. It’s been 24 long years since the Army Men last reached this stage of the national championship, and 26 since the team came away with the big prize, so the anticipation on Leningradsky Prospekt was at fever pitch. After all, CSKA’s pace had left SKA gasping for breath in the previous round and should prove too much for the veterans of Magnitogorsk. Kvartalnov’s defense, and the impressive goaltending of Ilya Sorokin, had silenced SKA’s deadly offense and seemingly had little fear from Sergei Mozyakin & co. The stage was set for the first act of a champion finale. But only for 188 seconds. That was how long it Mozyakin to serve up a timely reminder that there was still a series to contest as the captain, almost inevitably, opened Magnitka’s account in the series. He started out behind the net under intense pressure from Sergei Andronov but as he wriggled away and sent the puck to Jan Kovar, the defenseman followed into the corner. Big mistake. Mozyakin, now free to receive a return pass from his Czech teammate, waiting on the edge of the circle and had a big look at Ilya Sorokin’s net. The outcome was predictable: 1-0 Magnitka.Andronov redeemed himself at the start of the second period, tying the game when he produced an unexpected one-timer from the top of the circle off Antti Pihlstrom’s pass. Vasily Koshechkin, who may have been screened by Maxim Mamin, was beaten high on the stick side and Andronov, elated, dived into the arms of his teammates on the bench.
CSKA took the lead in the 31st minute through Alexander Radulov. As the Army Men tightened the screws on the power play, the puck emerged from the slot for Stephane da Costa and the Frenchman shaped to shoot before slipping the puck sideways where Radulov, in almost the same spot as Mozyakin found for his opening goal, picked out a wrister that gave Koshechkin no chance. And the second-period revival enabled the home team to take a two-goal lead into the second intermission when Igor Ozhiganov fired home from the deep slot, again on the power play.
The shot count underlined CSKA’s supremacy: at the time of the third goal, the Army Men were up 15-3 on shots in second period; by the hooter it was 16-5 for the middle session. In the final session Magnitka was forced to push harder on offense, but struggled to carve out clear-cut opportunities. Even a brief 5-on-3 power play didn’t enable Metallurg to really test Ilya Sorokin as the clock began to run down. Once the teams were back at full strength, CSKA wrapped it up. Nikita Zaitsev started in his own zone and went on a surge deep into Metallurg territory and found little resistance from the visiting defense. Encouraged to keep moving by his opponents’ passivity, he sliced a path between four men and rattled a shot inside the top corner under belated pressure from Alexander Osipov. Koshechkin was replaced with Ilya Samsonov, but Metallurg’s game was already over and Denis Denisov’s power play strike merely added to gloss to an intimidatingly strong CSKA performance.
The teams go again in Moscow on Saturday, with CSKA hoping to secure a dominant lead in the series to take to Magnitogorsk next week.
Game 2 - Saturday, April 09
CSKA Moscow 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 Series tied at 1-1
The sight of CSKA defenseman Grigory Panin slumped against the boards as the last 10 seconds ticked down told the story of this game. Panin’s blunder handed Metallurg its winning goal, tying the Gagarin Cup final series at 1-1 and halting CSKA’s post-season winning streak at nine games. It was only the Army Men’s second playoff loss of the year, but it was enough to ensure that the action continues in Magnitogorsk with the scores level and Metallurg looking forward to home advantage in the next two meetings.
Panin’s moment of misery came in the 42nd minute. There was little apparent danger when Alexander Bereglazov held up the puck at the point and chipped it hopefully back towards Alexander Semin, lurking at the far post. But the CSKA defenseman, alert to the danger Semin might pose, thrust out his arm to block the pass – only to look on in horror as he inadvertently swatted the puck past goalie Ilya Sorokin to put Metallurg 2-1 in front.
Following Thursday’s 5-1 defeat, Ilya Vorobyov’s team was in need of a boost. The return of Chris Lee, back on the blue line after suspension, offered hope of greater stability at the back – but initially it looked like more of the same was in store. CSKA dominated the opening period and took the lead on its first power play. Alexander Radulov held the puck at the top of the right-hand circle and lured in two defensemen before firing out a pass to Nikita Zaitsev in the left channel. Zaitsev, whose solo effort in game one was one of the highlights of CSKA’s performance, needed no second invitation to fire home his second goal in successive games. The lead lasted until the intermission but Vorobyov found the words to inspire Metallurg during the break. Barely three minutes into the second period the scores were level. Sergei Mozyakin created the move, darting behind the net and pulling the defense out of shape before teeing up the unmarked Zaripov for a close-range finish.
Then chances began to flow at both ends: Stephane da Costa lost out in a duel with Vasily Koshechkin before a quick turnover saw Mozyakin charging down the left, bamboozling Nikita Pivtsakin and testing Sorokin. Even after Magnitka got ahead, CSKA continued to press. Simon Hjalmarsson could have made more of a good position in front of the net with five minutes to play while da Costa twice went close in the dying minutes after CSKA withdrew Sorokin and went for broke. The Frenchman forced a good save out of Koshechkin in the 59th minute and then flashed a shot agonizingly wide in the 60th but could not find a way to force overtime. Metallurg weathered that storm and edged a tight verdict in a hard-fought game. Now, having demonstrated that the Army Men can be beaten, the stage is set for further epic battles in the Southern Urals on Monday and Wednesday.
Game 3 - Monday, April 11
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 CSKA Moscow 3 (1 OT)
CSKA leads the series 2-1
CSKA struck on the power play deep into the first period of overtime to complete a dramatic recovery late in the game and claim a 2-1 lead in the series. Stephane da Costa’s goal, his second of the night, gave the Army Men the triumph they thought they had secured in the closing stages of regulation until a Jan Kovar goal just 17 seconds from the hooter tied the scores at 2-2.
But once Rafael Batyrshin was given two minutes for cross checking on 17:51 of the extras, CSKA needed just 19 seconds to take advantage. CSKA held the puck out on the blue line, Nikita Zaitsev passed across the face of the net to da Costa, and the Frenchman unleashed a magnificent shot from the top of the circle, giving Vasily Koshechkin no chance as it whistled through a crowded slot.
The first 60 minutes finished in dramatic fashion with Magnitka’s last-gasp leveller. Kovar’s goal, on a 6-on-5 storm, came when Alexander Semin’s pass off the boards found the Czech free of his marker to fire in a one-timer from close range. It was greeted with anger and anguish on the CSKA bench, where Alexander Radulov loudly vented his frustrations as the home team celebrated its temporary reprieve. But Radulov’s anger turned to joy in overtime. Late revivals have been something of a feature of CSKA’s game in post season, and tonight was a throwback to the first round series against Slovan. That time three of the Moscow team’s four wins was secured after trailing in the final stanza, and on two occasions da Costa played a key role. And he was at it again in Magnitogorsk as the Army Men cancelled out Danis Zaripov’s second-period marker to turn it around in the last 10 minutes.
Da Costa’s tying goal here was unexpected and spectacular. There seemed to be little on when he collected Kirill Petrov’s pass in center ice and headed for the red line. But, barely a skate’s length inside the Metallurg half, da Costa surprised Vasily Koshechkin with a low shot that snuck inside the post to level the game. Within a couple of minutes CSKA was in front thanks to Nikita Zaitsev’s third goal in as many games. It was a move of deceptive simplicity to convert a power play. Alexander Radulov passed to Ivan Telegin on the red line; the young forward pushed the puck onto Zaitsev’s stick and the defenseman had a big chunk of Koshechkin’s goal to aim for. If, as is widely expected, Zaitsev crosses the Atlantic this summer, he is leaving CSKA with a memorable run of form in this grand final series. Earlier Zaripov gave Magnitka the lead in the 37th minute. It was a typical close-range finish from the experienced forward. Chris Lee’s backhand pass found Sergei Mozyakin in the corner; his pass to the slot saw Zaripov muscling his way in front of the defense to score on Ilya Sorokin. But a single goal was not enough to give Metallurg the edge this time and CSKA marches on, maintaining its record of not losing a single road game so far in this year’s playoffs. The pressure is on Magnitka to end that streak tomorrow or face the unenviable task of saving the series on Friday night in Moscow.
Game 4 - Wednesday, April 13
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1 CSKA Moscow 0 Series tied at 2-2
Game four of this year’s grand final was yet another hard-fought clash, and this time Metallurg came up with the big goal to claim victory and tie the series at 2-2. Tomas Filippi was the hero, breaking the deadlock midway through the third period to finally end Ilya Sorokin’s dominance of the home offense and hand his team a vital lifeline in the series. The Czech struck on the power play, getting his stick on to Viktor Antipin’s shot from the blue line and deflecting it home while Sorokin was screened by a fierce tussle playing out in front of him on the slot. His celebrations, and the roars of delight from around the arena, were testament to the problems Magnitka had faced in the course of 47 minutes of trying to solve CSKA’s young goalie. Even then, there was a slice of good fortune: Antipin snapped his stick when unleashing his slap shot and the puck, uncontrolled, squirted out of reach of the waiting defender Roman Lyubimov and wide of the goal to the lurking Filippi. On a night when both goalies were in superb form, it was perhaps inevitable that only a cruel twist of fate could blot Sorokin’s copybook.
The 20-year-old has been nerveless throughout his first ever playoff campaign and his display on the night, even in a losing cause, added yet more weight to his already impressive claims for a call up to Russia’s World Championship roster. He came up with the big stops, such as the blocker work that denied Zaripov when the veteran forward conjured a shooting chance out of nothing midway through the second period. He faced down the solo rushes, such as Filippi’s burst up the ice just before the second intermission. He came up big when, during a passage of 4-on-4 action late in the third, he swallowed up a shot from the totally open Sergei Tereshchenko, keeping CSKA in the game until the very end. And, like one of Napoleon’s much-vaunted ‘lucky generals’, when Wojtek Wolski’s shot beat him in the last minute of the first period, he watched it clang into the post rather than swish into the net.
Yet Sorokin was not alone in impressing between the piping. At the other end Vasily Koshechkin, the other outstanding candidate for a World Championship call-up, was also in fine form for the home team, setting the tone with a solid early stop to deny Semyon Koshelev and winning a duel with Stephane da Costa at the start of the second period. As Geoff Platt, back on the ice for CSKA after a four-game ban, spun to whip in a dangerous backhand effort, Koshechkin’s pad slammed down to block its path to the bottom corner. Into the final two minutes, Koshechkin was still providing a formidable barrier, hanging on to Gennady Stolyarov’s close-range effort before withstanding the final onslaught.
It was a night that was destined to frustrate forwards, and fans, as both goalies excelled. And as time wore on, the feeling that it would take a power play to break the deadlock grew ever stronger. Thus it proved: Grigory Panin was the fall guy, taking a minor penalty for tripping Sergei Mozyakin. The power play was converted and the Army Men were headed for their first post season road loss of 2016. It all means that the action continues in Moscow on Friday with the two teams still level and the series still poised to go the distance.
Game 5 - Friday, April 15
CSKA Moscow 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 (1OT)
Metallurg leads the series 3-2
Metallurg’s Captain Marvel, Sergei Mozyakin, struck two vital goals as his team came from behind to snatch a huge victory in Moscow and move to within a single game of lifting the Gagarin Cup for the second time. Mozyakin tied the scores with just over five minutes to play before grabbing the winner in overtime after CSKA’s Roman Lyubimov failed with a penalty shot on 58:18.
Once again the KHL’s all-time leading scorer was both architect and executioner of the winning goal. He won the puck in center ice, exchanged passes with Jan Kovar in the CSKA zone and then squeezed home a shot from a tight angle to beat Ilya Sorokin and send Metallurg back home to Magnitogorsk with cup glory well within its sights.That prospect seemed unlikely when Lyubimov gave CSKA the lead early in the third period. After a cagey game of attrition, with both teams determined not to offer a decisive error to the opposition, Metallurg may well question exactly what Alexander Semin thought he might achieve when he grabbed hold of Geoff Platt’s stick somewhat needlessly in center ice in the 43rd minute. Magnitka killed the penalty – Vasily Koshechkin pulled off saves to deny Ivan Telegin, Denis Denisov and Stephane da Costa – but the momentum tipped inexorably in the home team’s favor and just six seconds after Semin returned to the game, CSKA went in front.
Bogdan Kiselevich led the rush from his own blue line before slipping the puck to the unmarked Lyubimov at the top of the right-hand circle. In a single motion the forward got off a wrist shot, surprising Koshechkin with the speed of his release and finding the top corner to open the scoring. For CSKA it was the first goal in more than 100 minutes of game time. The relief around the arena was palpable, but short-lived. Within 10 minutes the ever reliable stick of Mozyakin had tied the game and plunged both teams into the agony of overtime. He started and finished a slick move, exchanging passes with Alexei Bereglazov to burst into the offensive zone and launch a wrist shot from behind a defenseman to beat Ilya Sorokin and prolong the battle between two almost inseparable opponents.
Lyubimov then had a glorious chance to win it for the home team with less than two minutes to play. Platt believed he had scored in open play, but was denied when Viktor Antipin’s flopped over the puck on the goalline. Antipin’s audition for the goalie’s job resulted in a penalty shot. Lyubimov was entrusted with the attempt, but could not find a way past Koshechkin this time and CSKA’s best hope of winning it in regulation was gone. Prior to that dramatic finale, much of game five proved to be something of a war of attrition. The teams shared just 12 shots on goal in the opening stanza, the host having the slight edge on the counter, and play was hardly more expansive until the midway mark. That was something of a testament to Metallurg’s ability to slow CSKA’s tempo: in previous playoff games the Army Men had maintained a blistering pace, and opponents had been unable to live with it. Now, though, Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team was struggling to dictate the play in the manner it liked best. Both sides would have to wait until beyond the midway mark to start creating clear chances. Metallurg was the first to show, helped by a penalty called on CSKA’s Platt in the 28th minute. The visitor took up its position in the CSKA zone and fashioned an opportunity for Danis Zaripov, only for the forward to flash a shot just wide of the far corner. Soon after Platt’s return to the fray Magnitka had an ever better look at Sorokin’s net: confusion in the home defense helped Oskar Osala pick out Wojtek Wolski, but his shot drew a fine stop from the young CSKA goalie to keep the scoreline blank.
It wasn’t one-way traffic, though. Chris Lee made a last-gasp challenge to halt Igor Makarov as he lined up a shot from a dangerous position. Then, after CSKA had killed a penalty rather more comfortably, da Costa wasted a great opportunity on the slot. Once in front, CSKA seemed able to exert greater control over the game: a penalty kill shortly after Lyubimov’s marker kept the puck well away from Sorokin’s net and the better chances were falling for da Costa and Antti Pihlstrom. But Mozyakin, as ever, had other ideas and now Metallurg has a big chance to settle the series on Sunday.
Metallurg Magnitogorsk 2 CSKA Moscow 3 (1 OT) Series tied at 3-3
The eighth edition of the Gagarin Cup is destined for a game seven decider after CSKA emerged from the furnace of Magnitogorsk with a victory that denied its host the chance to hoist the cup tonight. Two goals from Mikhail Yunkov, a Gagarin Cup winner with Metallurg in 2014, clinched an overtime triumph for the Army Men, tying the series at 3-3 and completing a rapid recovery from the blow of Friday’s late, late defeat on home ice. It took less than three minutes of overtime for Yunkov to produce the winner. CSKA came blazing out of the blocks in the extras and after applying the pressure on the Magnitogorsk net Maxim Mamin found the killer pass from the goalline back to the deep slot where Yunkov was on hand to despatch a one-timer past Vasily Koshechkin.
That takes the series back to Moscow for the final instalment of this gripping series on Tuesday, but only after CSKA survived an almighty scare in the closing stages as Metallurg clawed back a 0-2 deficit to force overtime. In a town famous for its steelworks, the Metallurg crowd was hoping to provide a furnace-like atmosphere to incinerate CSKA’s prospects, but the visitor showed a solidity of its own to overcome the challenge and keep its playoff prospects alive.
With the pressure on both teams, making a good start was always going to be crucial. CSKA began at top speed, testing Koshechkin repeatedly in the opening minutes before taking a fifth-minute lead thanks to Yunkov. The forward has been something of a bit part-player in this year’s playoffs, but he added his third vital post-season goal. He claimed it with the faintest of touches on the slot, doing just enough to take Bogdan Kiselevich’s shot past the goalie. The game remained fairly even for the rest of the opening stanza, with neither team able to create clear scoring opportunities. But early in the second period CSKA added a second goal, edging its advantage into ‘decisive’ territory. Alexander Radulov did the hard work, emerging with the puck from a scrimmage on the boards to lead an odd-man rush alongside Ivan Telegin. Telegin attacked the space and accepted Radulov’s inviting pass, finding the top shelf as Koshechkin struggled to get back in position.
Now CSKA held a clear advantage on the scoreboard and soon made that more apparent on the ice. Yunkov, Mamin, Stephane da Costa and Nikita Pivtsakin all tested Koshechkin as Magnitka struggled to find an answer. Wojtek Wolski took Danis Zaripov’s spot on the home team’s first line, but to little avail. It wasn’t until a fight between CSKA’s Artyom Sergeyev and Metallurg’s Oskar Osala disrupted the game’s flow that the home team began to show some menace around Ilya Sorokin’s net, raising the prospect of a barnstorming third period.
And that prospect was delivered in style as Metallurg roared back with two goals in the last six minutes to tie the game and take it to overtime once again.
Sergei Mozyakin, two-goal hero of Friday night’s overtime win, was back in business with two assists as Magnitka dramatically re-asserted itself to jeopardize CSKA’s hopes of saving the series. First he found the pass from behind the net to pick out Chris Lee between the hatchmarks for a rising wrist shot that found Sorokin’s top corner to halve the deficit on 54:33. Then, with 63 seconds left to play and Koshechkin benched in favor of a sixth skater, Mozyakin fired a shot into a crowded slot. Alexander Semin got an inconclusive touch; Jan Kovar got the vital one. Game tied, CSKA hurting. Behind the Metallurg bench, head coach Ilya Vorobyov allowed himself a quiet smile as the flames of jubilant celebration engulfed the arena around him.
But that joy proved premature as Yunkov’s second goal ensured that there would be no cup presentation tonight. Now the stakes rise yet another notch as, for the fifth time in eight seasons, the Grand Final goes to a do-or-die showdown. Of the previous four, three were won by the team from the East. CSKA can take heart though: three out of four were won by the team that came into the game on the back of a victory in game six. The one exception to that? Metallurg Magnitogorsk, beaten in Prague before wrapping up the series in Magnitogorsk in 2014.
CSKA Moscow 1 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3Metallurg wins the Gagarin Cup, clinching the final series 4-3
Two points from Chris Lee, two goals from Evgeny Timkin and 36 saves from Vasily Koshechkin saw Metallurg Magnitogorsk to a victory that sealed its second Gagarin Cup in three years.
The visitor weathered a storm of pressure from CSKA but delivered a fine display of counter-attacking hockey, including a goal with its first shot of the night on 12:55, to shatter the Army Men’s dreams of winning the playoffs for the first time since 1989 and completing a sweep of all three trophies up for grabs this season. Instead, Lee’s 39th-minute goal proved decisive. CSKA had tied the game just three minutes earlier, but home joy was shortlived. Lee, whose first-period assist silenced the crowd, repeated the trick when he unleashed a one-timer between the hatchings off a Jan Kovar pass from behind the net.
There was still 20 minutes of hockey to play, 20 minutes for CSKA to save its Gagarin Cup dream. But the home team found no way past Koshechkin, a veteran goalie playing out of his skin to steer his team to the big prize. He produced the saves demanded of him by Stephane da Costa, Maxim Mamin, Geoff Platt and Vladimir Zharkov before an empty-net goal from Timkin sealed the victory in the last minute. That set another clutch of Gagarin Cup records. Metallurg head coach Ilya Vorobyov, at the age of 41, becomes the youngest man to coach a team to the big prize. He is also the first person to take over behind the bench part way through a season and go on to win it all, reawakening the championship skills of the roster he inherited from Mike Keenan.
Many of that roster pick up their second winners’ medals: captain Sergei Mozyakin among them as he finished as the top post-season scorer with 25 (11+14) points. Forward Danis Zaripov, unusually out of the points in this game, gets his fourth Gagarin Cup winner’s medal. He won with Metallurg in 2014, and also helped Ak Bars to victory in the first two editions back in 2009 and 2010 (albeit only featuring once in post season in that second victorious campaign). But Metallurg’s triumph left CSKA distraught after a playoff campaign in which it seemed peerless until the final hurdle. Having lost just one game in three series to reach the final, Dmitry Kvartalnov’s team struggled with Metallurg’s ability to disrupt its play and slow the game down, and today’s first period illustrated the point more clinically than usual.
CSKA had much the better of the opening stanza, but apart from one clear shooting opportunity for Alexander Radulov after an early defensive error the home team struggled to really get inside the opposition. And then, with Magnitka forced to play on the counter, Chris Lee demonstrated how to conjure a goal out of nothing. The defenseman collected the puck in his own end and produced a sublime pass, slicing through CSKA’s skaters and opening up half the ice for Evgeny Timkin to go one-on-one with Ilya Sorokin and beat the home goalie with the first shot he faced on the night. CSKA continued to press, the shot count would read 13-2 at the first intermission, but the clearest opening fell to the lively Mikhail Yunkov off a Simon Hjalmarsson pass and the former Metallurg man saw his shot blocked by Koshechkin. In the middle session the action moved closer to Koshechkin’s net as CSKA worked harder to get the puck into the danger zone. Scrambles on the slot were commonplace: Stephane da Costa went close, Yunkov saw another shooting chance go begging, Radulov worked from behind the net to prompt an almighty scrimmage in front of the target. As the pressure mounted, the big moment came: CSKA tied the game with a goal reminiscent of the breakaway that gave Metallurg the lead. Maxim Mamin was the home team’s hero, firing home the rebound after Bogdan Kiselevich’s pass set up Geoff Platt for a shot that Koshechkin could only pad away into the danger zone.
It felt like a decisive shift to everyone in the stadium, except for the men from Magnitogorks. Parity proved short-lived: Chris Lee gave Metallurg the lead once again even before the home fans had finished celebrating their equalizer. The veteran D-man thumped home a one-timer from between the hatching off a pass from Jan Kovar behind the net. Timkin’s late marker put a ribbon on the final scoreline, and the celebrations stretching from Moscow right the way back to the southern Urals, could get underway in earnest.
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