The end for Minsk and Sikora

Amur 2-4 Avangard

The game day started in Khabarovsk where home team Amur trail 0-2 against Avangard in the series. In the second Avangard got a 2-goal lead with goals by Andrei Ivanov and Dmitry Syomin. But then Avangard goalie Alexei Kuznetsov helped the home team to tie the game with two mistakes when he tried to stop the puck with his glove. Dmitry Lugin and Mikhail Glukhov scored and sent Kuznetsov to the bench. Karri Ramo stopped all other shots from Khabarovsk's players. Alexander Nesterov in the beginning of the third scored with a tip-in goal after a nice move and backhand shot from Igor Volkov. Amur forward Sergei Plotinkov did his team more harm than good after getting double minor penalties of 4 minutes in the third. Roman Cervenka closed the game with an empty-net goal to make the score in the series 0-3. Tomorrow Avangard will have a chance to end this series with a sweep.

Barys 3-2 Metallurg Mg

Metallurg Magnitogorsk after home games wasn’t in a good position, only 1-1 and sometimes advantage in the game was at the side of Barys. At 06:08 Juhamatti Aaltonen got the pass from behind the net to open the score. Dustin Boyd made a nice pass to his partner Nigel Dawes who beat Ari Ahonen in close action. Barys grabbed a lead with Andrei Gavrilin's goal at 34:59. In the middle of the third Lasse Kukkonen got a 2 minute penalty for interference. Kamil Kreps dished a nice pass to Andrew Hutchinson who increased Barys' lead to 2 goals. Metallurg only managed to score once with a goal by Sergei Mozyakin at 57:25. Barys took a lead in this series and provided one more home game for their fans.

Yugra 6-7 Traktor

The most interesting game happened in Khanty-Mansiisk where Traktor rally from a 4-goal deficit to beat Yugra 7-6. The score this night was opened in the 5th minute when Petri Kontiola scored after a pass from Alexander Ryazantsev. Then Igor Skorokhodov and Sergei Demagin turned the game to Yugra's account. At 12:18 Andrei Popov tied the game after beating Mikhail Biryukov with a nice shot. To the end of the first Dmitry Altaryov and Sergei Demagin again scored in power-play to end the period with a 4-2 score. Traktor goalie Michael Garnett was substituted to Ilya Proskuryakov after the first 20 minutes. During a 41 second span in the middle period Igor Skorokhodov and Yevgeny Blokhin increased the lead to 6-2 for Yugra. But the third period became a real nightmare for Yugra. From 44:57 to 49:11 Traktor scored 4 times with the help from Stanislav Chistov, Vladimir Antipov twice and Dmitry Ryabikin. Yugra goalie Mikhail Buryukov had to leave for the bench. With 2:10 to play in the third Jan Bulis fed up a pass to Maxim Yakutsenya who closed the game with a 7-6 score and an unbelievable comeback for Traktor.

Salavat Yulaev 3-4 OT Ak Bars

The big green derby continued in Ufa. At 29:13 Viktor Kozlov got the puck at defensive zone's blue line, came to the Kazan zone and scored with a nice high shot. At the end of the second Alexander Svitov gifted a 5 minutes power-play chance to Ak Bars after getting 5+20 penalty minutes. Ak Bars used this chance twice, first with 32 seconds to play in the second Ilya Nikulin fired from the blue line to tie the game. Early in the third Alexei Morozov beat Erik Ersbersg’s net with a shot under the crossbar. Then Ufa used a power-play chance with a blue line shot from Jakub Nakladal. Ak Bars grabbed a lead in power-play when Morozov came behind the net and beat the left angle of Ufa net. With 53 seconds to play in the third Igor Grigorenko scored and turned the game into overtime. At 68:12 Danis Zaripov scored after a pass from Alexei Morozov to end the game with a 3-4 score in favour of Ak Bars.

CSKA 1-2 OT SKA

After coming to Moscow CSKA began to play at equal strengths as SKA and got a chance to tie the series. Dmitry Kalinin opened the scoring after the third attempt of firing from the blue line at 24:07 in power-play when Niklas Persson was at the penalty box for slashing. A ricochet helped CSKA to tie the game with 1:05 to play in the second. Nikolai Prokhorkin fired from the blue line and Sergei Shirokov redirected the puck into the net. The game deciding goal happened in overtime when the penalty of Niklas Persson came to an end. Maxim Afinogenov got a pass being near the right board and fired to make the
score in the series 1-3 for SKA.

Severstal 4-0 Atlant

Severstal scored at the fourth game more goals than in the first three alltogether to tie the series. Severstal opened the scoring at a delayed penalty Staffan Kronwall with a powerful shot beat Konstantin Barulin at 30:32. The end of the period decided the game when Severstal scored twice for a minute. Yegorshev increased a lead at delayed penalty again with the same combination at 38:08. A minute later Gennady Stolyarov added a puck to the net after a blue line shot from Staffan Kronwall to make it 3-0. Yevgeny Mons closed the game with a goal in front of the net with 4 minutes to play in the third. Severstal goalie Vasily Koshechkin earned his first play-off shutout in this season by stopping 30 shots.

Dinamo Minsk 1-3 Dynamo Moscow

Dinamo Minsk became the first team that ended the season in the first round. At 04:41 Konstantin Volkov pulled Dynamo ahead with a curious goal. Charles Linglet tied the game in the end of the first after beating the empty net of Alexander Yeryomenko. The series was decided at the end of the second by Marek Kvapil. First he added the puck into the net after Dmitry Pestunov's shot at 37:51. Then he scored a weird goal. At 39:58 Ere Karalahti got a minute penalty for roughing. Dynamo needed only a one second to win the faceoff, give a pass to Kvapil who fired and scored the final goal of the series.

“I decided to retire from Dinamo Minsk and hockey at all,” head coach Marek Sikora said Pressbol.

Dinamo Riga 1-4 Torpedo

Teams had only 20 hours to prepare for the fourth game after battling for 3,5 hours last night. At 05:27 Juso Hietanen used the first Torpedo power-play chance to open the score. Dmitry Makarov increased the away team's lead with a repeat shot on Maris Jucers net when the first was blocked by a D-man. The first 5 minutes of the second decided the winner of the game. Martin Thornberg and Kim Hirshovits scored during a 3:23 span to make the score 0-4. Dinamo Riga managed only to score once at the end of the second. Sandis Ozolins got a pass from Jamie Lundmark to close the game with a 1-4 score. Torpedo tied the score in the series and will return to Nizhny Novgorod for the fifth game.

 

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