First Gagarin Cup 2012 hat-trick, shutout and overtime

SKA 4-1 CSKA

The winner of the Western conference SKA starts its first round series against CSKA. In the first period SKA took a quick lead, first with a play by Alexander Kucheryavenko on the rebound after Dmitry Kalinin's blue line shot at 06:55. 4 minutes later Fyodor Fyodorov fed up a nice pass from behind the net to Ivan Nepryaev who beat Rastislav Stana. The Moscow based team managed to cut the lead to the end of the period when Alexei Yashin got a pass to the empty net from Nikita Filatov to make it 2-1. SKA used a power-play chance to return the 2-goal lead when Fyodorov controlled the puck about 20 seconds then fired and Yevgeny Artyukhin redirected a puck into the net at 33:27. SKA closed the game at the end of the third with Vladimir Tarasenko at a breakaway. SKA dominated on the ice most part of the time and ousthot CSKA 33-17. «Tomorrow will be the most important game of the series,” said Alexei Yashin to Sport-Express.

Torpedo 7-3 Dinamo Riga

Most goals were scored in Nizhny Novgorod where the local Torpedo faced Dinamo Riga. The first goal of teh 2011-12 Gagarin Cup playoffs was scored by Ilya Krikunov from Torpedo at 03:25. Mikelis Redlhis tied the game 5 minutes later after beating Torpedo goalie Vitaly Koval. Soon Dmitry Makarov pulled Torpedo ahead with a high wrist shot in power-play. A fast counter-attack early in the second made it 3-1, Alexei Vasilyev fed up a nice pass to Mikhail Varnakov who scored in a 2-on-1 breakaway. Janis Sprukts cut Torpedo's lead again by redirecting in front of the net in a power-play at 26:25. To the end of the second Torpedo scored again through Alexei Petrov's one-timer and Dinamo Riga returned a 1-goal Torpedo lead again after Martins Karsums' goal. But at 38:15 Varnakov made a double after 12-seconds after the power play was over. The game was decided in the end of the third. At 54:16 Juso Hietanen increased the lead for the home team and two minutes later Mikhail Varnakov made a hat-trick and closed the game at the final score of 7-3.

“The main weapon of Torpedo is efficient power-play. Torpedo showed us how to play in the play-offs,” head coach of Dinamo Riga Pekka Rautakallio said to Torpedo's official site.

Atlant 1-0 Severstal

These teams played already in the first round last year and it was a battle between teams who wanted to go to vacations earlier. This year the Severstal management decided to help their players and fired head coach Dmitry Kvartalnov before the first game of the play-offs. The game wasn’t rich on game actions. At 59:22 after a series of ricochets Nikolai Zherdev put the puck into the net and lead Atlant to the first win against Severstal. Atlant goalie Konstantin Barulin made a great job and helped a lot his team to win by stopping 39 shots and making his first play-off shutout this season.

“Two things helped us today: a great goalie and good shorthanded play,” Atlant head coach Jan Karlsson said to their official site.

Dynamo Moscow 2-1 OT Dinamo Minsk

Another game in the Moscow region didn’t have a lot of game actions. Before the end of the regular season Minsk already played in Moscow and Minsk was better that time. Tonight the score was opened only at 46:36 when Peter Podhradsky fired from the blue line in power-play. 6 minutes later another D-man Filip Novak tied the game with ricochet from the skate of one Minsk player. And a defenseman decided the game in overtime. Ilya Gorokhov took a pass on left faceoff circle in the offensive zone and fired to bring a win to Dynamo Moscow.

Tomorrow will be played the second game of the West and first on the East.

 

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