Lada (a) 0-4 - Thursday, February 02
Still smarting over the humiliating derby defeat, Ak Bars needed a strong start to its game against Lada. In the event, it got exactly the opposite. Andrei Ivanov gave the home team the lead after 35 seconds and Anton Shenfeld added a second on 1:22 to leave the visitor in all sorts of trouble. After that, Ak Bars’ play improved, it could hardly have got much worse, and the team rattled up shots on Ilya Ezhov’s net. But the former SKA man was in impressive form, turning away 37 shots in total to frustrate the visitor. At the other end, Nikita Filatov added a third goal in the 20th minute and Georgy Belousov piled on the misery with an empty net marker in the last second. Ak Bars has now conceded 12 goals in two games, but remains secure in third place in the Eastern Conference.
Ufa (a) 1-3 - Tuesday, February 14
Nine successive defeats had put Salavat’s playoff prospects in doubt, and the team still isn’t mathematically certain of getting there, but a momentous victory against old rival Ak Bars has changed the atmosphere around the Bashkiria team. Head coach Igor Zakharkin was quick to hail his team’s unity in adversity following a vital win that puts Salavat Yulaev five points clear of ninth-placed Sibir, with its rival having just two games left to play.
“In the last few weeks I’ve found out who is a real friend of the club,” he said after the game. “I found out who panics, and who believes in us. I’m pleased by the way the team has come together during this bad run, nobody ever gave up.”
Zakharkin also noted that his team needed the win more than Ak Bars and the line-ups emphasized that point. Salavat’s whizzkid, Kirill Kaprizov, played immediately after returning from his heroics for Team Russia; his Ak Bars equivalent, Vladimir Tkachyov, was allowed time to rest.
All the scoring came in the first period, and most of it in a remarkable 85 seconds that produced three of the game’s four goals. Salavat took an early lead thanks to Igor Grigorenko, the experienced sniper’s return to scoring form after an injury-plagued season offering another boost to the team. Ten minutes later, Alexander Nesterov made it 2-0, but Atte Ohtamaa got his first goal of the season to halve the deficit. It didn’t take long for the home team to reassert itself, though, with Alexander Loginov making it 3-1 on 13:48. It remained that way to the end, despite Ak Bars getting the puck in Niklas Svedberg’s net once again early in the second period. That effort was ruled out for goalie interference, and Salavat held its opponent at arm’s length to move back up to sixth in the table. Ironically, a sixth-placed finish would bring another playoff series against Ak Bars, with the Kazan team assured of third place in the Eastern Conference.
Jokerit (a) 5-4 - Thursday, February 16
A high-scoring defeat for Jokerit did not prove terminal for the team’s playoff prospects since Ak Bars’ recovery coincided with Sochi’s defeat in Petersburg, ensuring the Finns would once again make it to post-season. But if the news from across the Gulf of Finland had been different, Jokerit might have been left cursing its failure to put away a game that it led for long periods. Charles Genoway opened the scoring on the power play and Brian O’Neill made it 2-0 on a delayed penalty, but Ak Bars responded almost immediately as Denis Golubev made it 2-1 at the first intermission. In the middle stanza Jokerit again briefly had a two-goal lead as Petteri Wirtanen and Rafael Batyrshin traded goals in the 32nd minute. The final stanza followed a different pattern, though. Penalty trouble for the host saw Ak Bars forge ahead for the first time in the game thanks to power play goals from Vasily Tokranov and Damir Musin. Jokerit tied it up, with help from the video, through Jesse Joensuu’s effort in the 49th minute but Justin Azevedo came up with a winner for Ak Bars. O’Neill hit the post in the last minute but could not save Jokerit from defeat here.
Minsk (a) 4-3 - Sunday, February 18
A rollicking end the regular season in Minsk saw Ak Bars take the points ahead of its match-up with Salavat Yulaev, while Dinamo finds itself preparing to face Lokomotiv. Atte Ohtamaa’s early goal gave Ak Bars the edge, but for a long time there was little indication of the goal flurry that was to come. It wasn’t until the 37th minute that Aaron Palushaj tied the scores and took us to the intermission at 1-1. Then things changed fast. Alexander Svitov and Mikhail Varnakov scored two goals in 30 seconds to give Ak Bars a 3-1 lead. Sergei Kostitsyn soon reduced the deficit, and inside the last five minutes Fredrik Pettersson tied it up once again. Overtime? Not this time. Andrei Popov popped up with a couple of minutes left to give Ak Bars the win.
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