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Yaroslavl «Lokomotiv» will defend the honor of the Western Conference of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in confrontation with Chelyabinsk «Traktor», and Magnitogorsk «Metallurg» and Yekaterinburg «Avtomobilist» will meet each other in the Ural derby Sports announces the semi-final series of the Gagarin Cup — 2024.
Nikitin aims to be among the top three winners in coaches playoffs
Lokomotiv remained the only representative of the West continuing to fight for the Gagarin Cup. In the first round, the «railroad workers» defeated the champion of the last two seasons, Moscow's CSKA, in five matches, and in the second, in a dramatic struggle, they beat Omsk's Avangard in a seven-match confrontation. Yaroslavl made it to the semi-finals of the KHL playoffs for the fifth time in its history.
Lokomotiv's rival was Chelyabinsk «Traktor», which before this season had only once met with a representative of the West in the playoffs — in the 2012/13 edition, the Chelyabinsk team had a brilliant series with Dynamo Moscow in the tournament final (2-4). In the new season, Traktor again clashed with Dynamo, but already at the stage of the second round, and under the leadership of Alexei Zavarukhin they beat the regular season champions dry (4-0). The Chelyabinsk team has so far met with Lokomotiv only in the regular season and in 30 head-to-head matches they have won eight victories in regular time and two in overtime.
For Lokomotiv head coach Igor Nikitin, the series with Traktor, if successful, will become historic. He has four games to win to move into third place in wins among all coaches in KHL playoff history. The league record holder is Zinetula Bilyaletdinov (90 victories in the KHL playoffs), followed by Oleg Znarok (79), Dmitry Kvartalnov (70) and Nikitin (67).
Lokomotiv Series — » Traktor» starts on April 2 in Yaroslavl, the start of the first match is scheduled for 19:30 Moscow time.
«Avtomobilist» is preparing for revenge
Avtomobilist, like Traktor, is the author of the main sensation of the current KHL playoffs. The clubs, led by cousins Nikolai and Alexei Zavarukhin, created a lot of noise, which is why experts and journalists began to talk seriously about a possible meeting between two relatives in the final of the Gagarin Cup.
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On the way to the goal, the Ekaterinburg team defeated Kazan Ak Bars (4-1) and St. Petersburg SKA (4-1) — clubs that were among the favorites for the championship at the start of the season. Avtomobilist's next opponent will be Metallurg Magnitogorsk: the teams will meet as part of the next Ural derby. In the KHL playoffs, both clubs have played each other three times in the history of the tournament. All three are at the first round stage. Each time the victory remained with Magnitogorsk. The last time this happened was in the previous season. During the series, Avtomobilist twice took the lead, but lost the advantage and lost in overtime of the seventh match, during which it led 3:1. For Nikolai Zavarukhin's team, a new series is a chance to take revenge.
As for Metallurg, Andrei Razin, in his debut season as coach of Magnitka, reached the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup for the first time in his coaching career. Previously, his limit was the first round, but with the Magnitogorsk team he is claiming the championship. During the playoffs, Razin's team defeated Khabarovsk «Amur» (4-2) and dealt with the most productive club of the season, Moscow «Spartak» (4-2).
Series «Metallurg» — «Avtomobilist» «starts on April 3 in Magnitogorsk, the start of the meeting is scheduled for 17:00 Moscow time.