KHL playoffs: Ak Bars get second win against Traktor

24 Mar 2013 | Dennis Mende

With a solid performance on home ice Ak Bars Kazan doubled their lead in the Eastern Conference final series against Traktor Chelyabinsk.

Eastern Conference finals, day 2

Ak Bars Kazan (1) - Traktor Chelyabinsk (3) 3-1

In a first period in which both teams concentrated on avoiding mistakes rather than looking for offense, the guests from Chelyabinsk had the best chance when they hit the goal post from the blue line just after the end of a penalty against Ak Bars. Just two minutes later Niko Kapanen was all alone in front of Traktor goalie Michael Garnett after he received a perfect pass from the left wing by Alexei Morozov but he was stopped by the goalie for a 0-0 after 20 minutes.

During the middle period Ak Bars took over the initiative more and more and had a first good opportunity through Kirill Petrov whose wrap-around try from the right post went just a few inches wide! Shortly afterwards the hosts had a power play which was used by Denis Kulyash for the Ak Bars lead at 32:53. First he deked out Yakutsenya and then he fired the puck into the right corner from the blue line past the surprised Garnett. Both teams failed to create any other opportunities until Danis Zaripov used a long cross-pass by Alexei Morozov from the right wing to get the puck into the left bottom corner for the 2-0!

During most parts of the last 20 minutes Traktor failed to create any danger and Ak Bars didn't want to risk more than necessary. Out of the blue though Jan Bulis cut the deficit to the half for the guests at 52:36 with a precise shot from the right circle into the left top corner! He had received a pass from the left side by Evgeny Kuznetsov who came from the netural zone and went past two defensemen. Just a minute later though Andrei Kostitsyn took a stupod tripping penalty which gave Ak Bars the chance to make everything clear in power play - and so they did! With a pass from the blue line Evgeny Medvedev found Janne Pesonen on the right circle who gave the puck towards the middle from where Jarkko Immonen fired a shot into the right bottom corner for the 3-1 for Ak Bars!

The series continues on Wednesday with game #3 in Chelyabinsk!

Ak Bars lead 2-0 in the series