KHL - Playoffs Round 1 - CSKA v Spartak 4-0

Game 1 - March 4 - CSKA v Spartak 6-0

Spartak claimed its playoff place thanks to victory in a Moscow derby – but the difference between playing Dynamo and playing CSKA was quickly made all too clear to Vadim Yepanchintsev’s team.
This cross-city clash rarely seemed poised to produce an upset, even before Maxim Shalunov gave the Army Men an 11th-minute lead. True, Ilya Sorokin had to make a smart early save to deny the evergreen Dmitry Kalinin, but CSKA was always the more dangerous team in the opening exchanges. Shalunov’s opener, on the power play, was a sweeping move. Sorokin fielded the puck behind his net, Nikita Nesterov moved play into the neutral zone and released Shalunov who rushed straight through to finish the job himself with a lovely play to beat Nikita Bespalov.
CSKA topped the shot count 13-4 at the first intermission, but it was the middle frame that saw the home team turn its domination into goals. Mikhail Grigorenko, fresh from his Olympic exertions, got both of them to put the Army Men in command. His first came gift-wrapped after Lukas Radil coughed up possession in his own zone to present Grigorenko with the puck in front of Bespalov’s net. The second was a joint effort with Valery Nichushkin. The former Traktor man – whose own career ignited during his rookie playoff campaign – launched an attack with a pass to Grigorenko. The forward feinted a return pass, and in doing so he opened up a shooting lane to beat Bespalov once again.
Early in the third, CSKA made it 4-0 – and this was a memorable moment for rookie forward Nikita Popugayev. The 19-year-old was playing in his first playoff game, having made just 12 KHL appearances to date, and collected his first ever goal for CSKA after stuffing home the rebound from Mikhail Pashnin’s point shot. Spartak opted to rest Bespalov and give Alexander Trushkov the rest of the game, but not even a spell of 5-on-3 hockey could turn the tide in the visitor’s favor. There was more misery late on for Spartak. A power play goal from Mikhail Naumenko made it 5-0, and Shalunov joined Grigorenko on two goals in the last minute of the game. CSKA, one of the favorites to go all the way this season, began its campaign in emphatic style; Spartak has work to do to remain competitive in its first playoff series since 2011.
Game 2 - March 5 - CSKA v Spartak 1-0

There was only one goal in this game – but it was a beauty! And it all came from the instincts of Kirill Kaprizov.
The 20-year-old, rapidly maturing from talented prospect into genuine star, hunted down Ville Lajunen behind the Spartak net. After winning possession, he then conjured a pass out of nothing – no-look, on the backhand, from a position where he had little right to expect another forward to have made up the ground to threaten Nikita Bespalov’s goal. And he played it right onto Maxim Shalunov’s tape, setting up an emphatic finish worthy of settling any game.
The problem for Spartak was that it came in the sixth minute of this meeting, and frustrated any hopes of holding the Army Men at bay following yesterday’s 6-0 romp. All thoughts of playing a way back into contention in the series took a blow – now, Spartak had to look to find a way past Ilya Sorokin for the first time in post season, while still trying to silence the impressive home offense. It was a tall order, and in the end the Red-and-Whites only managed to fulfil half of it. Bespalov, that early goal notwithstanding, was impressive: 40 saves on the net ensured his team always had a chance of snatching something. At the other end, though, Spartak’s offense failed to generate anything like enough. A mere 10 efforts on Sorokin’s net in the first two periods made it hard to find a way back into the game; the final stanza was better, with nine shots at CSKA’s goalie, but there was rarely a sense that Vadim Yepanchintsev’s team could force its way back into contention. And that’s where things have to change when the action moves across Moscow on Wednesday. After 120 minutes without a goal, Spartak must start posing some serious questions of the CSKA defense if it is to make a contest of this series.
Game 3 - March 7 - Spartak v CSKA 1-3

Once again, Spartak’s offense failed to find an adequate answer to Ilya Sorokin in the CSKA goal, and the Army Men marched on to another comfortable victory. Despite conceding a goal in the 58^th minute, Sorokin & Co are now just one victory away from securing a place in the Western Conference semi-finals.
After 120 goalless minutes on Leningradsky Prospekt, the pressure was on the Red-and-Whites to change things at home. However, the opening frame showed that there was little to be done about a dominant CSKA defense. Spartak mustered just five shots on goal and fell behind to a Sergei Andronov effort in the seventh minute. That goal was a nightmare for Nikita Bespalov, who saw Andronov’s shot loop up off his pads and bounce into the net off his shoulder.
CSKA had a second goal ruled out shortly after when the officials ruled that a visiting forward had encroached on Bespalov’s crease, but the Army Men extended their lead in the second period with two further scores. First, Sergei Shumakov harried Spartak behind its own net, and when Kirill Petrov intercepted the clearance, he returned the puck to Shumakov for a close-range finish. Then, on the power play, Mikhail Grigorenko added a third. Once again, Bespalov got a big piece of the puck as Grigorenko raced onto Greg Scott’s pass, but the goalie could not keep his hand behind it and saw it bounce into the net. Bespalov was out, and midway through the game, CSKA was in complete control. Spartak’s shot-shy post season was destined to bring a third successive loss. A video review saved Spartak further embarrassment in the final frame, but its forwards were unable to make much impact on the CSKA defense until too late in the game – and perhaps the series. After 177 minutes, 32 second without a goal, Ilya Tataluyev finally broke Spartak’s duck: it was a reward for a much-improved third period, in which the Red-and-Whites succeeded in taking the game to their opponent for the first time in the series. However, it was never going to be sufficient to salvage anything.
Game 4 - March 8 - Spartak v CSKA 0-1

CSKA joins Lokomotiv in the Western Conference semi-finals after completing a sweep of Moscow rival Spartak. Once again, the Army Men ensured that the Red-and-Whites struggled to generate any offense in the game and the series concludes with Spartak managing just one goal in four games. Mat Robinson's effort was enough to win this one for CSKA, with Ilya Sorokin making 21 saves for his third playoff shut-out of the season.
Spartak, in deep trouble in its series with CSKA but lifted at last by getting a goal late in game three, rang the changes. Alexander Trushkov took over between the piping, giving Nikita Bespalov a chance to recover after two poor goals on him in Wednesday’s game. And the team brought a more aggressive attitude to the game, finally looking to go toe-to-toe with the Army Men, rather than hope to soak up pressure and grind out a result on the counter.
The new attitude almost reaped early rewards. Valery Nichushkin took a first-minute penalty for CSKA, and Spartak’s Ryan Stoa missed a golden chance to open the scoring on the power play. That proved to be the story of the opening frame: Spartak created, but could not convert. Alexander Osipov came closest, rattling Ilya Sorokin’s post late in the frame, but there was no scoring before the first intermission.
Sadly for Spartak, it never again got as close to winning this game and prolonging the series. CSKA came out for the second period with a renewed determination to attack and, midway through the frame, got its reward. Mat Robinson opened the scoring, the former Dynamo defenseman firing home from the right-hand circle as Spartak’s defense put all of its efforts into steering Nichushkin away from the net. The goal proved decisive. Spartak’s on-going problems in front of the net never found a solution, and a third-period incident when Stoa fed Lukas Radil, only for the Czech to fan his shot wide of an open net, summed up the Red-and-Whites’ failings in this series. For the third time in four games, Spartak fired blanks, and CSKA was safely into the Conference Semi-Final.