Outsiders with wins in Cup of Hope

27 Feb 2013 | Dennis Mende

The Gagarin Cup playoffs paused on Wednesday but still there was KHL hockey - the second day of the Cup of Hope quarterfinals was played with the underdogs gaining good results.

Amur Khabarovsk also dominated the second match in the series against Metallurg Novokuznetsk and gained a solid 3-0 win. Topi Jaakola, Alexander Yunkov and Evgeny Korotkov made everything clear for the home side until "half time". Amur's Kazakh national team goalie Alexei Kuznetsov stopped all the 35 shots on goal he faced and gained a shutout. Amur now have a 2-0 lead in the series.

There was a clear difference in motivation visible when Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg received Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk for game two of this quarterfinal series. Alexei Makeyev (2) along with brothers Alexander and Vasily Streltsov gained a four-goal lead for Avtomobilist before Anton Krysanov scored the consolation goal for the guests. Kirll Dyakov even made it 4-2 at the start of the third period but Fyodor Malykhin and again Alexander Streltsov made everything clear in the last 20 minutes to give Avtomobilist a deserved 6-2 win and a 2-0 lead in the series.

Again it was a close match and again the guests won when Spartak Moscow and DInamo Minsk faced each other to continue their Cup of Hope series. Tim Stapleton and Sergei Drozd pathed the way for the Dinamo success in the first period. Although Nikolai Bushuyev scored for Spartak already at 20:28 it was again Tim Stapleton who restored the two-goal lead for the Belarussians 24 seconds later. With a power play strike at 44:31 through Jaroslav Obsut Spartak gained some hope back but despite playing with an additional skater and without their goalie during the last minute of regulation, they weren't able to tie the game anymore so that Minsk lead the series 2-0.

Just as in game #1 Dinamo Riga and Donbass Donetsk battled each other like in a real playogg match, with the better end now on the side of the Latvians who tied the series 1-1. Peter Podhradsky opend the score for Donetsk in the first 20 minutes before Roberts Bukarts and Jamie Johnson turned the result around at the start of the third period. Petteri Wirtanen and Lukas Kaspar continued to tie the match two times for Donbass but with his two goals Paul Szczechura was the decisive man for Riga to get a 4-3 win. Szczechura scored his game winner late at 56:41. For the lats 90 seconds the guests tried it without their goalie Christopher Holt but with an additional skater but without success.