Metallurg and Avtomobilist series in the semi-finals The Gagarin Cup clearly follows one scenario: the Magnitogorsk team comes out ahead, and the Ekaterinburg team plays the role of catching up. After the fifth meeting, in which Magnitka, through the efforts of Denis Zernov, who scored a hat-trick, continued this trend, Avto had no other options but to win. In other words, Nikolai Zavarukhin’s team had no room for error. Otherwise, “thank you for the season.”
“Avtomobilist” approached the fateful game in an original way, leaving its main goalkeeper Evgeniy Alikin not even in the reserve, but out of the lineup. Zavarukhin explained this decision by planned rotation, which looks surprising. However, I had to forget about the goalkeeper position approximately from the very debut.
The Ekaterinburg team started the game very powerfully and from the very first seconds rushed to attack Ilya Nabokov's possessions. And they achieved it! Moreover, the goal was achieved by the one from whom it was least expected. Nikita Tryamkin seemed to have forgotten that he was playing as a defender and staged a real assault on the Metallurg goal. Already in the sixth minute, he printed them out according to the “throw-rebound-finish” scheme. With all his might, the two-meter and almost 120-kilogram Avtomobilist defender outwitted Magnitka and broke into the penny, from where he threw the puck into the goal after bouncing off the boards. After this moment, Tryamkin could have distinguished himself at least twice more, but Nabokov did not allow him to do this.
However, in the second period the game ended for Metallurg's main goalkeeper. This 20-minute, in principle, turned out to be extremely illogical. “Magnitka” pressed, created more chances and dangers in other people’s possessions, attacked more often and had possession of the puck, but “Avtomobilist” scored. The Ekaterinburg residents showed phenomenal implementation. Each counterattack of the Zavarukhin gang ended in a goal: Artem Kashtanov, Alexey Makeev, Denis Barantsev and Stefan Da Costa scored in turn. Separately, it is worth highlighting Danila Romantsev, who by the end of the period already had an assist hat-trick to his credit, and, of course, Anatoly Golyshev, who took the lead in the scorer standings of this playoffs. Even the replacement of Ilya Nabokov did not help Magnitka: it was not his fault for the missed goals, but after the third goal Andrei Razin, apparently, decided to shake up his players. This was hardly a success, because the substitute, Alexander Smolin, missed twice.
Not only Nabokov was affected by Razin’s actions. Other team leaders also missed the second and third periods: captain Egor Yakovlev and Nikita Grebenkin. Yakovlev did not play a minute in both periods, and Grebenkin was given only one shift in the third. It is difficult to judge how much this benefited Metallurg. On the one hand, Magnitogorsk won back three goals through the efforts of Danila Yurov, Denis Zernov and Roman Kantserov. On the other hand, this turned out to be not enough.
The Avtomobilist hockey players successfully coped with the rest of Magnitogorsk’s attempts to return to the game and brought the matter to an important victory. The series score is again equal — 3-3. Its outcome will be determined in the seventh match, which will take place in Magnitogorsk. Yaroslavl «Lokomotiv» will have to wait a couple more days to find out their opponent in the Gagarin Cup final, which starts on April 18.