In the series against Chelyabinsk «Traktor» Yaroslavl «Lokomotiv» “We managed to achieve what Ufa’s “Salavat Yulaev” and Moscow’s “Dynamo” failed to achieve. It's not even about the final result in favor of the «railroad workers», but about how the Yaroslavl residents achieved it. Igor Nikitin's team was never embarrassed by the character, victorious spirit and ability of the Chelyabinsk team to smash the favorites on the ice. “Loko” has already gone through this over the past few seasons and pumped up its mechanism so that this armored train rushes to the goal without any obstacles.
In this regard, there is nothing to blame “Traktor” for. For example, in today's match, which ultimately became decisive in the entire series, Alexei Zavarukhin's players showed excellent hockey and looked very confident, having every chance to extend the series. But Lokomotiv simply turned out to be stronger and more skilled. The Railwaymen did not allow their opponents to lead to goals, and took advantage of their own chances with composure. And the loss of Zach Fucale, the first goalkeeper of the “black and whites” and one of the best players of the entire playoffs, was not decisive. The Canadian goalkeeper's replacement, Sergei Mylnikov, completed his job without obvious errors, but the Yaroslavl team left him out of work.
KHL uploads/2024/04/439704cafa1fb613588dcd5486b11e8f.png» />LokomotivRussia
10:38 • Martin Gernat (Ivan Chekhovich)
25:34 • Arthur Kayumov (Maxim Berezkin, Alexander Elesin)
33:27 • Sergey Andronov (Ivan Chekhovich, Dmitry Simashev)
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First, Ivan Chekhovich, who replaced Stepan Nikulir, supported the lightning-fast exit from defense to attack, entered the opponent's zone and passed to Martin Gernat, who performed a gorgeous wrist shot and sent the puck right to the far «nine». He can! For the Slovakian defender, this goal was the fifth in the current KHL playoffs.
Then in the second period, Artur Kayumov and team captain Sergei Andronov scored a double. None of the Traktor defenders noticed Kayumov on the spot, and Andronov played smartly on the rebound after a pass from Andrei Sergeev. “Everything is simple. Everything works,” this is what the KHL press service said. An excellent definition of Lokomotiv's actions, honed and trained almost to perfection.
The Yaroslavl team ended the second 20 minutes with a fourth goal, which, after a second video review, was still not counted by the judges. But the reaction of the Lokomotiv players was eloquent — they didn’t care. Not because they felt indifference, but because they understood that with more goals, there would be fewer goals, but the necessary result would be achieved.
And so it happened. As a result, 3:0 in the match and 4-0 in the series — Daniil Isaev scored the third “cracker” in this playoffs, “Lokomotiv” confidently dealt with “Traktor” and advanced to the final of the Gagarin Cup. Yaroslavl will play in the decisive stage of the KHL season for the first time since 2009. In the league's debut, the railroad workers lost to Ak Bars Kazan in the final playoff series (3-4). Now their opponent will be the winner of the pair “Metallurg” — “Avtomobilist”, where after three matches the Magnitogorsk team leads (2-1).
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