Magnitogorsk wins KHL

During the regular season Evgeny Timkin scored only four goals and in the playoffs he hadn’t scored one single goal in the previous 22 games. On the final day though, it was all about Timkin. He opened the scoring in the first period and scored it with an empty-netter for 3-1.

At the 1-0 goal Timkin was all alone with Ilya Sorokin in the home net after a nice opening pass from Chris Lee. CSKA put a lot of pressure towards Vasily Koshechkin in the Metallurg net and outshot the opponent 37-16. They only managed to beat him once when Maxim Mamin picked up the rebound after Geoff Platt’s shot on a quick counter-attack and put it high with a backhander.

It took only three minutes for Metallurg to take back the lead. Jan Kovar, behind the net, found Chris Lee who put it home from between the circles.

CSKA didn’t lack scoring chances but Koshechkin played terrific. Sorokin was pulled from the net at 58:29 and with 43 seconds remaining Timkin could make it 3-1 after a mistake by CSKA defender Bogdan Kiselevich.

This was Metallurg Magnitogorsk’s second KHL championship. They also won it in 2014. CSKA still awaits their first time.

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