Magnitogorsk “Metallurg” in the KHL playoffs is truly surprises. No, not results. There is nothing sensational about the fact that Andrei Razin’s team is one of the main contenders for the Gagarin Cup and is confidently moving towards the goal. But Magnitka's playing style is very good.
“Metallurg” had a great run in the regular season and established itself as one of the most productive teams. You wouldn’t expect anything different from Razin in this regard. However, in the playoffs the picture changed noticeably: the Magnitogorsk team emphasized accuracy and attentiveness. Andrei Vladimirovich himself explained this at press conferences, who rightly pointed out that in the playoffs the cost of a mistake is much higher, and also talked about the key difference between a reliable defensive game and an attempt to “park the bus.”
But it is still significant that the Yaroslavl “Lokomotiv”, which many for some reason call perhaps the most boring team of the season and are criticized for their strict style of play, performs even brighter, more attractive and more effective.
However, Andrei Razin is hardly worried about this. His team passed “Amur”, with dignity accepting the test in the form of flights to the Far East, then dismantled “Spartak”, “drying out” the most scoring team in the league in three matches out of six, and now started in the semi-finals with a victory. The first game of the confrontation with Avtomobilist turned out to be extremely sparse in events. And this despite the fact that Magnitogorsk played in the “5 on 3” format in the first period, and the teams made a total of 67 shots on target between them.
The most interesting episode of the meeting was the moment that, logically, led to the first goal. It is remarkable not even because of the fact of scoring, but because of how it happened. Alexander Petunin broke through on the right side, went out onto the penny and crossed into the center. The puck ricocheted off Nikita Tryamkin's skate into the goal. In fact, there is no concept of “own goal” in hockey, so the goal was credited to Petunin.
Everything else was a matter of technique performed by Magnitogorsk. Andrei Razin's team played carefully in front of their goal, created the necessary pressure in the middle zone and successfully withstood the 4 vs 6 game, finishing with a goal into an empty net. By the way, he helped create a winning lead in the score and avoid a fiasco: less than a minute before the end of the match, Avtomobilist still hit Ilya Nabokov and deprived him of his fourth goal in this KHL playoffs.
2 :1 — “Metallurg” begins the next series of the Gagarin Cup with a victory in, perhaps, the most boring match of the entire playoffs.