Kazan tie series, Omsk stay in competition

Eastern Conference seminfinals

Salavat Yualyev Ufa (5) - Ak Bars Kazan (1) 3-5

The home side from Ufa went twice in front through Stefan Ruzicka and Antti Pihlström until 22:10 with the equalizer for Kazan through Dmitry Obukhov in between. Around "half time" the favourites from Kazan not only took over the initiative but also showed all their class with extremly efficient attacks and three goals within five minutes through Niko Kapanen (2) and Vitaly Atyushov that gave the guests a 4-2 lead even before the second intermission. At 41:49 Kirill Petrov already cut this lead to the half but at 50:14 Niko Kapanen completed his hat trick in power play to decide the match for Kazan. After losing both home matches at the start of the series, Kazan came back with two wins on the road themselves and everything stays open after four matches.

Series tied 2-2

Traktor Chelyabinsk (3) - Avangard Omsk (2) 1-3

From the very begin guests Avangard made clear that they wanted to stay at least a little longer in competition. After a scoreless first period a perfect ong pass by Anssi Salmela inside the neutral zone gave Sergei Kalinin a break away in which he deked out Garnett to score with his back hand into the right bottom corner for the deserved Avangard lead at 23:42. This was the first goal for Omsk in this series after more than 200 (!) minutes. Shortly afterwards Dmitry Syomin was stopped unfair in a break way by Traktor defender Alexei Vasilchenko. He used the following penalty shot to fire the puck into the right corner past Garnett for a 2-0 lead for Omsk. Afterwards Traktor tried to increase the pressure but only were able to score late at 51:22 when Stanislav Chistov received the puck at the left post after nice passing of the Traktor power play formation! After a timeout in the second last minute of regulation Garnett left the Traktor net for an additional attacker but instead of forcing the equalizer it was Tomas Zaborsky who decided the match in favour of Avangard with his empty netter from short distance at 58:57.

Despite this win an entry into the next round for Avangard would be more like a little miracle as they still need three consecutive wins! They could get the next one on home ice in game #5 when the series continues in Omsk.

Traktor lead 3-1 in the series

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