Antipov leads Traktor to the 2nd round

07 Mar 2012 | Roman Solovyev

KHL Playoffs: Traktor ended the series against Yugra. Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev save their series by beating their opponent with minimal margin.

Traktor 1-0 Yugra
In the first four games the teams scored 33 times but in the fifth game only one shot decided the fate of the teams. In the first two periods Traktor had a little advantage but couldn’t convert it to any goals as Yugra. At 50:40 Yugra forward Maxim Belyayev got a penalty for high-sticking. Vladimir Antipov needed only 21 seconds to find Yugra’s net with Edgars Masalkis down on the ice. It was the 7th Antipov goal in this play-off and he’s still the best sniper. A minute later Yugra player Vitaly Sitnikov can’t cope with his nerves and got a game-penalty for roughing. Goalie Michael Garnett stopped 25 shots and led Traktor to the second round of the play-off.

Metallurg Mg 4-3 OT Barys
The intrigue of this series could end tonight but Metallurg Magnitogorsk beat Barys in overtime to return the series to Astana. During a 1.5 minute span in the second Metallurg got a 2-goal lead with Pavel Zdunov and Tomas Rolinek goals. Soon Daniil Markov got 2 minutes for high-sticking and Lukas Kaspar with a nice wrister under the crossbar used a power-play chance. In the middle of the third Sergei Mozyakin increased the home team lead with an accurate high shot. Barys managed to tie the game! First Dustin Boyd scored after being in front of the net at 56:50. With 1:13 to play in the third Barys changed goalie Vitaly Yeremeyev with a sixth field player. 20 seconds later Andrew Hutchinson tied the game and turned it into overtime where a 3 second power-play realization helped Metallurg to save the series. Alexei Kaigorodov won the faceoff, Ville Lajunen fired from the blue line and Maxim Sushinsky added the puck to the net at 61:11.

Ak Bars 1–2 Salavat Yulaev
Salavat Yulaev wins the second time in the series in Kazan to save its chances in the play-off. In contrast to the other two games in Kazan the score was opened in the first. At 01:46 Igor Mirnov made a diagonal pass to Alexander Svitov who fired to give Salavat Yulaev a 1-goal lead. Alexei Tereshchenko tied the game in power-play. Ak Bars needed only 14 seconds to score. The game was decided in power-play when Sergei Zinovyev took a pass from Alexander Radulov to score from the sharp angle and return the series to Ufa. Ak Bars still lead 3-2 and will try to end the series in Ufa where they beat Salavat Yulaev twice.