The confrontation between Avangard and Lokomotiv in the second round of the KHL playoffs was called by many the hidden final of the Gagarin Cup. And not so much because of the level of both teams, who are real contenders for the championship, but because of the level of interest in this pair. In this regard, the series from Omsk and Yaroslavl meets all expectations. Even too much. Their battle for reaching the semifinals of the tournament is not just interesting, but anomalous. From the very beginning, everything went wrong for this couple.
Lokomotiv won the first two matches in Omsk. Moreover, the second game ended with a powerful defeat at the hands of the “railroad workers”, who scored seven unanswered goals against the “hawks”, and the sensational resignation of Mikhail Kravets from the post of head coach. In the third game, Avangard, under the leadership of acting helmsman Sergei Zvyagin, won, but the course of the series, according to its logic, still led to further success for Loko — Igor Nikitin’s charges took the fourth match and were one victory away from advancing to the next round of the playoffs. off.
This should have happened already in Omsk in the fifth meeting of the series, when the “railroad workers” made a strong start and, it seemed, did not leave their opponents any chance. But Avangard, incredibly and not without a bit of luck, bounced back and extended the confrontation for one more match.
The series returned to Yaroslavl, and in front of its fans, Lokomotiv again put on a strong run in the first half of the game, making a serious bid for victory. First, Martin Gernat opened the scoring in the match, scoring the puck less than a second before the end of the first period, and then Maxim Shalunov doubled the hosts' advantage with a goal at the beginning of the second 20 minutes. There was a feeling that Avangard was close to giving up and openly swimming under the famous pressure from Nikitin’s Loko. But it was wrong.
Zvyagin's team found the strength to stage a bright comeback. Igor Martynov and Semyon Chistyakov scored a double in less than two minutes in the middle of the second period and leveled the score. Then Lokomotiv made two blunders out of the blue. At the end of the period, the Yaroslavl team received two deletions at once: for violation of the numerical strength and for tripping Artur Kayumov. And this is amazing. Nikitin’s team is known for its discipline, but in this situation the “railroad workers” betrayed themselves.
Avangard took advantage of this gift with great pleasure. Ryan Spooner charged a powerful one-timer after a pass from Vladimir Tkachev and ricocheted the puck into the net from Nikolai Prokhorkin's stick.
In the final 20 minutes, Lokomotiv again made the talk about the team's psychological problems relevant. Instead of calmly pursuing their line and finishing what they started, the Yaroslavl team panicked and fussed more, which is why they could not create anything at Pavel Khomchenko’s goal, even with an active pile-up in the end. It is significant that Avangard, having rolled back and focusing exclusively on the defense of its possessions, created an order of magnitude more scoring chances and only due to the saves of Daniil Isaev did not bring them to fruition.
In the end, the “hawks” won a brilliant and vital victory and leveled the score in a series that was buried too early. 3-3 — the score in the confrontation is equal. Everything will be decided in the seventh game, which will take place in Omsk. It’s scary to imagine how crazy and crazy the atmosphere will be in the Avangard arena.