Game 1 - Avangard v Admiral 2-1 3OT - Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Admiral’s post-season record, three victories, eight losses, did not give much cause for confidence ahead of its series with Avangard. Moreover, the struggle that the Vladivostok team had to claim a top-eight finish gave further reasons to fear that all was not well in the Far East. But in the event, Admiral put up a mighty fight against Avangard, taking the game into a third period of overtime and threatening to make a mockery of the seeding when James Wright hit the post in the second period of extras. Avangard prevailed, finally, thanks to a 106th-minute goal from Alexander Kucheryavenko. He fired home from close range after Anton Burdasov brought the puck out from behind the net, ending this marathon encounter and giving the home side the lead in the series. But Admiral deserves great credit for its valiant effort against an opponent that, on paper, seemed to be far stronger.
It looked like the game was going to plan when the home team opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Jonas Ahnelov. The Swede collected Vladimir Sobotka’s pass, slipped past Robert Sabolic and fired home from between the hashtags. But it wasn’t the cue for the floodgates to open. Admiral continued to focus on its game, kept things tight and began to frustrate Avangard. The middle stanza brought more of the same, but now the visitor was beginning to create more offense. That brought an equalizer midway through the session. Artyom Zemchyonok kept the puck in Avangard’s zone and passed from the point to Maxim Kazakov. The forward didn’t really hit his shot with full power, but Viktor Alexandrov was screening Dominik Furch and the Czech goalie was disappointed to be beaten from a central position. As the first period of overtime came to a close, Avangard was desperately close to winning it. Nikolai Lemtyugov’s shot was deflected into the danger zone, and amid a flurry of sticks and skates the puck hit the post and was twice swept off the goal line before Igor Bobkov finally got on top of it. The second stanza of extras also saw the goal frame jangling, at both ends of the ice. Yegor Martynov hit the post for Avangard, while Wright did the same for Admiral. But Furch and especially Bobkov were in fine form to take the game into its sixth period before Kucheryavenko delivered the final blow with the clocks showing 23:14, local time.
Game 2 - Avangard v Admiral 6-3 - Friday, February 24, 2017
Avangard took control of this series with a second successive home win over Admiral, but for the second game running the #2 seed in the East was pushed hard by its opponent. It needed a third-period flourish to bury this game, with Admiral twice leading in the early stages. Maybe the visitor was sunk by the loss of head coach Alexander Andriyevsky, who was banished from the bench after Avangard tied the scores at 3-3 with a power play goal midway through the second period. Certainly, from that moment on the game shifted decisively in the home team’s favor, and goals from Mikhail Grigoryev, Jonas Ahnelov and Mikhail Yunkov saw Avangard to victory in the third. Andriyevsky’s anger stemmed from the officials’ failure to stop play in the build-up to Avangard’s third goal. Admiral’s Robert Sabolic was dumped to the ice by Erik Gustafsson and appeared to be struggling to recover. With the visitor already on the penalty kill, Avangard took advantage of the extra space and Vladimir Sobotka fed Nikolai Lemtyugov for a well-worked goal. But Andrievsky’s grievance over the Sabolic incident left him raging at the officials … and talking his way into more trouble. Admiral rarely threatened after that, and the game got away. Earlier, though, things looked very different for Admiral. Despite the disappointment of giving up a short-handed goal to Yunkov just eight seconds into the first PP of the evening, the visitor responded to tie the game on the same power play thanks to Artyom Zemchyonok. The second penalty against Avangard led to Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev making it 2-1 at the end of the first period.
The home team quickly levelled with a power play goal of its own for Evgeny Medvedev, but Krasnoslodtsev produced a defense-splitting pass to set Maxim Kazakov away for a beautiful finish past Dominik Furch. Kazakov has two goals in two playoff games, but has yet to enjoy a victory. Four minutes after he put Admiral 3-2 up, the Sabolic incident and Lemtyugov’s goal changed the course of this game completely. The visitor barely mustered another shot as Avangard turned the screws to produce a convincing final scoreline. Sunday’s action shifts to Vladivostok with Avangard enjoying a 2-0 advantage. But the comfort of that lead does not entirely reflect how close these teams have been on the ice for much of the series.
Game 3 - Admiral v Avangard 4-3 - Sunday, February 26, 2017
Young forward Maxim Kazakov has been one of the hottest shots of this year’s playoffs, and today’s double strike put him on the winning team for the first time in this post-season. Kazakov, 23, seems to have acquired a taste for playing against his former club. The forward left Avangard for Vladivostok in the summer and is relishing the chance to show his former employer what it is missing. Two goals in two games as the series began in Omsk opened the dialogue and today’s game-winning double emphatically underlined his point. He got his first of the evening in the 32nd minute, adding to Sergei Barbashev’s first-period opener and giving Admiral a 2-0 lead. But his key contribution came with five minutes left, after Avangard had battled back to tie the game at 3-3. Damir Zhafyarov played the puck back from the corner and Kazakov fired a shot from the face-off circle that went over Dominik Furch’s shoulder. However, it took some time for the forward to claim his marker: the puck flew back into play off the camera in the back of the net, and it wasn’t until the officials had time to review the video that goal could be given. To the delight of the home crowd, it proved decisive. For Admiral, this win brought a sense of justice being served. The Vladivostok team was hugely disappointed with events in Omsk during Friday’s 3-6 defeat, in which a crucial Avangard goal was preceded by a foul that left Robert Sabolic injured. Sabolic has not been on the ice since, but head coach Alexander Andriyevsky escaped further censure for his outburst at the officials and was back behind the bench for Sunday’s encounter. He presided over a nail-biting affair. After Barbashev and Kazakov gave Admiral that 2-0 lead, Avangard fought back strongly. Vladimir Sobotka’s first playoff goal of the season halved the deficit almost immediately and despite Vadim Krasnoslobodtsev making it 3-1 with a short-handed goal in the 36th minute, the visitor struck back with goals either side of the second intermission. Valentin Pyanov and Pyotr Khokhryakov hauled Avangard back onto level terms, only for Kazakov to grab the winner. Victory for Admiral breathes new life into this series, putting the outsider on the board and ensuring that, at the very least, Avangard will have to return to Omsk to wrap up the series.
Game 4 - Admiral v Avangard 3-2 OT - Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Admiral tied this series with an overtime victory, inspired by a fantastic goal from former Avangard graduate Maxim Kazakov. The game winner, in the 72nd minute, went to James Wright, but the play of the game undoubtedly came from Kazakov when he tied the scores in the first period. The youngster, who learned his hockey in Omsk, maintained his record of scoring in every playoff game with a beauty to tie the scores in the first period. There seemed to be nothing much on when Kazakov got the puck in his own zone but the 23-year-old saw the visiting defense back off and took his chance to advance. Having reached the bottom of the circle, he then found the angle to squeeze home a shot at the near post. That was Admiral’s first highlight of an absorbing game, and Wright delivered another memorable moment in the 72nd minute to give the Sailors victory. Vladimir Tkachyov added to his earlier goal with an assist here, getting behind the net, overpowering his opponent and popping the puck out in front for Wright to put a one-timer beyond Dominik Furch and send the series back to Omsk with the scores dead level.
For Avangard, the scoring came from Anton Burdasov, recalled to the team after missing Monday’s 3-4 defeat. It was a successful return for the player, but not for his team. In regular season, Burdasov’s 25 points from 35 games gave him the best strike rate of any Avangard forward, and today he opened his post-season goal tally with two markers, putting the visiting in front twice in the early part of the game. The 25-year-old opened the scoring in the ninth minute, firing home a Nikolai Lemtyugov pass, and he made it 2-1 with a goal of brutal simplicity as he smashed home Alexander Kucheryavenko’s feed from a face-off in the Admiral zone after 27 minutes. But penalty trouble saw Avangard give up that lead. A 5-on-3 advantage presented Tkachyov with the equalizer. Patient play around the Omsk net ended with Jonathon Blum’s diagonal pass to Tkachyov, who smashed the puck home from the left-hand face-off spot to tie the game. There was no further scoring in regulation, although Admiral’s Ilya Ivanov might have won it midway through the third had it not been for some brilliant last-ditch defense from Avangard. Instead the game went to overtime, and Wright delivered the win for Admiral.
Game 5 - Avangard v Admiral 6-0 - Thursday, March 02, 2017
After turning the seeding upside down to tie the series with back-to-back home wins, Admiral came crashing back down to Earth on its return to Omsk. A powerful performance from Avangard left the Sailors facing a last-chance showdown on home ice Saturday, with the second seed poised to progress to the Conference Semi-finals. The damage was done in the first period. Avangard dominated from the moment the puck was dropped, scoring three unanswered goals and allowing just three shots on Dominik Furch’s net. Vladimir Sobotka opened the scoring after six minutes, firing his shot in off the post after line-mates Nikolai Lemtyugov and Maxim Pestushko swung the puck freely around the Admiral zone. Next, Jonas Ahnelov doubled the lead, although Igor Bobkov will be disappointed to be beaten by a weak shot the bobbled in as David Booth provided the screen. Sobotka picked up an assist as Vitaly Menshikov added a third to rubber-stamp the host’s dominance; the Czech recycled the puck off the boards and set up Menshikov on the blue line. The second period offered little respite, with Booth and Ilya Mikheyev adding further goals to the tally, and the third even enabled Fyodor Kanareikin to give some ice time to understudy goalie Oleg Shilin after Danil Faizullin added a sixth to complete the scoring. On Saturday, the teams return to Vladivostok, with Admiral needing to find the resilience to bounce back from a heavy defeat immediately, or face losing out in the first round of the playoffs once again.
Game 6 - Admiral v Avangard 0-2 - Saturday, March 04, 2017
A second successive shut-out saw Avangard wrap up this series in six games, sinking Admiral and advancing to an Eastern Conference Semi-final match-up with Ak Bars. The Omsk team had lost its two previous playoff games in Vladivostok, but arrived for Saturday’s encounter buoyed by a 6-0 victory that gave it the series lead once again and moved it to within one win of progress.
That, plus an electric start to the game, ensured that the momentum swung decisively in Avangard’s favor, condemning Admiral to another first-round playoff exit. It took just 48 seconds for Avangard to open the scoring. Ilya Zubov fired the puck goalwards from the point, Valentin Pyanov deflected it across the face of the net and Ilya Mikheyev was on hand at the far post to shoot home as the target gaped in front of him. For Admiral, it was a deflating blow, subduing the home crowd before the home team even had a chance to test out Dominik Furch in the visitor’s net. With Avangard enjoying such an early lead, Admiral’s offense found itself stifled. The visitor could focus on defense, and the home team was left foundering in center ice for much of the opening stanza. Furch faced just four shots in the first period, and dealt with them comfortably. The middle period followed a similar pattern, as the Siberians continued to play cautiously even on the power play. Admiral was limited to a solitary dangerous moment for Vladimir Tkachyov; Avangard doubled its lead when Vladimir Sobotka despatched the puck after Nikolai Lemtyugov’s daring rush was hampered, but not halted, by a pair of D-men. In the final stanza, Admiral raised its game and began to test Furch more sternly. Tkachyov was once again at the heart of the home team’s best moments, but the Czech goalie was in fine form and kept his goal intact until the very end. The final major incident came at the other end, when Ilya Zubov had a penalty shot after Igor Bobkov moved the goalposts; the goalie redeemed himself by winning that duel, but Avangard eased to victory. The next game for Fyodor Kanareikin’s men will be in Omsk on March 9 when Avangard starts its series against Ak Bars in the second round of this year’s playoffs.
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