Omsk “Avangard” was unable to complete the regular championship of the Continental hockey league (KHL) the best team in the East. In the last match before the start of the playoffs, the Hawks lost to Metallurg and gave Magnitogorsk first place in the conference. Because of this, instead of the Khabarovsk “Amur”, which was convenient for Mikhail Kravets, the Omsk team received the Tolyatti “Lada” as their opponents in the first round — an extremely unpredictable opponent and capable of presenting a big surprise.
Displays before the series Tolyatti players in their first season after returning to the KHL straight away climbed into the playoffs and appeared before the entire league as a sensational club that does not recognize authorities and knows how to invent problems even for nominal favorites. In this regard, the prospects of Avangard were assessed with some doubt.
“Can the goalkeeper line of the Hawks be considered reliable?”, “Are other units capable of taking responsibility if the fire of the first three Tkachev — Spooner — Boucher suddenly goes out?”, “Has Avangard acquired the psychology of winners?” — these questions kept coming up regarding Kravets’ team on the eve of the first head-to-head meeting with Lada. Omsk residents gave answers to them promptly and convincingly.
Pavel Khomchenko, who became Avangard's first goalkeeper at the end of the regular season and conceded 21 goals in 13 games for the Omsk team, did not experience much stress in the opening game of the series with Lada and coped with the minimum amount of work. The Hawks' goalkeeper repelled 22 shots out of 23, missing only from Georgy Solyannikov when the outcome of the match was clear.
Boucher broke the unsuccessful streak. Avangard's leading trio showed themselves only in the middle of the match at the time of the power play, when Reed Boucher broke the three-week goal drought with a pass from Vladimir Tkachev. Before this, the other units gained an advantage for the “hawks”. First, Sergei Boykov scored his first goal in his career in the KHL playoffs, and then Nikolai Prokhorkin successfully completed the attack at speed. And in the middle of the meeting, Ivan Igumnov skillfully corrected the puck after a shot from Artem Chmykhov, essentially condemning Lada to defeat and showing that Avangard has someone to achieve results even if there is any crisis among the leading three.
The “hawks” also did not experience any problems with psychology. In the opening period of the match, the Omsk team withstood powerful pressure from the daring Togliatti team and did not bend against the backdrop of this forecheck. On the contrary, Mikhail Kravets' team waited for the moment and punished the opponent with the first through attack. Subsequently, Avangard only increased its advantage: both in the score and in the game.
“Lada” had less and less possession of the puck and was sent off more often, wasting energy on playing in the minority. The only thing the Omsk team had to do was not to lose their superiority, which they did successfully. The third period was indicative in this regard. Oleg Bratash, as expected, redrew the lines, and Lada immediately after returning from the break rushed into the attack. The Omsk team played competently in defense and used the first attack with Mikhail Gulyaev's most accurate shot.
Lada was not ready. At this point, the Togliatti team's attempts to make a comeback were exhausted. They succeeded only in provocation at the very end of the meeting, when Maxim Berezin roughly knocked Tkachev down and provoked the players into a mass brawl, as a result of which the penalty box was filled almost to capacity.
The ideal end to such a match was the appearance of Mark Verba on the ice. The main Omsk fighter agreed on a fist fight with Vladislav Semin and together with him had a brilliant fight.
5:1 — “Avangard” confidently took the start of the series and began the play- off with victory.
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