Kazan in Conference Finals - Riga win Nadezhda Cup

Gagarin Cup Eastern Conference semifinals, day 7

Ak Bars Kazan (1) - Salavat Yulayev Ufa (5) 4-3

The game started with very aggressive hosts Ak Bars who more or less overrun Salavat Yulayev in the first period but failed to use their clear advantage in scoring opportunities. Even worse for them the guests used their only real chance to get in front completely out of the blue through Brent Sopel at 13:51 who deflected a pass from the left wing into the net from short distance at 13:51. The middle period started just as the previous one with a more active home side but this time they didn't fail. Just seconds after a tripping penalty against Ufa's Alexander Stepanov it was Danis Zaripov who used a rebound after a nice passing combination to score the equalizer into the wide open net! A harmless looking shot by Yuri Trubachyov restored the lead for Ufa just a minute later before Kirill Petrov made it 2-2 with a precise shot from the left circle when not even five minutes were over in the second period. Now a completely open game developed with back and forth hockey at its best. One of the many chances on both sides was used by Igor Mirnov to get the guests back in front from short distance after a pass from the left wing by Kirill Koltsov at 29:28. Still the scoring was not over yet and Nikolai Zherdev received a pass within the neutral zone, skated to the net and tied the match again for Kazan with a precise shot into the left top corner! Early in the third period Alexei Tereshchenko used a rebound to score the game winning 4-3 for Ak Bars when he used the rebound after a wrap-around try by Artyom Lukoyanov. The last five minutes Ufa risked everything and played with immense pressure but failed to get the match into overtime so that Kazan not only 4-3 in this match but also in the series. A series that didn't deserve a loser as it was entertaining high-class ice hockey during all seven matches!   

In the Conference finals of the East Ak Bars Kazan will now face Traktor Chelyabinsk (starting this Saturday), while SKA St. Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow play for the entry to the Gagarin Cup finals in the West (starting this Friday).

Ak Bars won the series 4-3

Nadezhda Cup finals, game 4

Amur Khabarovsk (E11) - Dinamo Riga (W14) 3-5

In front of an almost sold out arena in Khabarovsk - only 100 of the 7,200 seats stayed empty - guests Dinamo Riga from Latvia won their third match of the series to win the first ever edition of the Nadezhda Cup (engl. Cup of Hope). From the very beginining Dinamo left no doubts arise about the winner. Rodrigo Lavins and Oskars Cibulskis pathed the way for the guest win in the first period before Evgeny Orlov cut the lead to the half in power play at 19:11. In the middle period Dinamo made everything clear through Gunars Skvorcovs, Vitalijs Pavlovs and Maris Bivevskis. During the rest of the match Anton Poleshchuk and Timofei Shishkanov only were able to make the result look a little more friendly for Amur.

Interesting side fact: With Amur and Riga two of the three worst teams of the regular season and thus clear outsiders made it to the finals, showing a clearly higher motivation to finish the season well. With wins against Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, Donbass Donetsk, Dinamo Minsk and Amur Khabarovsk the Latvians went all the way from the Nadezhda Cup qualification round to the title.

Dinamo won the series 3-1

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