The new edition of the Gagarin Cup pleased with its uncompromising struggle and intrigue with a share of sensations. Neither pair came close to ending the series 4-0 in favor of either club. However, the situation in the second round turned out differently. Drastically. In all series, after the first two matches, only one team of the pair led the score: “Lokomotiv” for Avangard, “Traktor” for Dynamo, “Metallurg” for “Spartak” and even “Avtomobilist” for SKA. At least somehow the Omsk team managed to rectify the situation: the “hawks”, after the unexpected resignation of Mikhail Kravets from the post of head coach, took the third match from Loko.
The greatest sensation in this story was presented by SKA. Roman Rotenberg's team lost twice in St. Petersburg and seriously complicated their task of reaching the next round. And its implementation following the results of the third meeting, which took place today in Yekaterinburg, was completely in doubt.
Avtomobilist head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin continues the work of his cousin Alexey, under whose leadership Traktor is one win away from winning the series against Dynamo, the best club in the KHL regular season. It is symbolic that the second best team of the regular season is now in the same situation as the blue and whites.
SKA managed to lose in the third match of the series. Moreover, the army men from the banks of the Neva did everything for this themselves. Even during the match, the St. Petersburgers had a noticeable advantage in their favor in possession of the puck, but there was no practical sense in this: control was mainly along the perimeter and without dangerous approaches to the opponent’s goal. “Avtomobilist” skillfully endured and snapped back with bright counterattacks. Every now and then Nikita Serebryakov kept SKA in the fight. But even the best goalkeeper of last season gave up when Anatoly Golyshev missed him with a shot from a tight angle. At the end of regulation time, Arseniy Gritsyuk nevertheless equalized the score and sent the game into overtime, but even here the St. Petersburgers were not successful: SKA defender Maxim Fedotov, whom Roman Rotenberg once called the “Russian Cale Makar,” made a gross mistake with a pass from his goal and gave the puck away right on the hook of Curtis Valk's stick. He beat Brooks Macek and got Avtomobilist a victory.
The series score is 3-0 in favor of the Ekaterinburg team. SKA now has no room for error. Rotenberg's team is one step away from being eliminated from the playoffs already at the second stage of the tournament.
In the entire history of the Gagarin Cup, only one case was recorded when a team, which was losing 0-3 during the series, eventually won and advanced . It’s interesting that this team was SKA. In the 2014/15 season, the St. Petersburg team beat CSKA in the Western final and eventually became the winners of the Gagarin Cup for the first time in their history. Will Rotenberg's wards be able to repeat this trick?
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