Traktor make it to the Gagarin Cup finals!

04 Apr 2013 | Dennis Mende

A last minute game winner by Andrei Kostitsyn gave Traktor Chelyabinsk the decisive 4th win in KHL's Eastern Conference series against Ak Bars Kazan. Traktor are in the GC finals for the first time in their history.

Eastern Conference finals, day 7

Ak Bars Kazan (1) - Traktor Chelyabinsk (3) 1-2

As it was the 7th and last game of this series it was all or nothing for both sides. In the first 20 minutes both teams were still a bit nervous and failed to create any major opportunities. Only Kazan's Danis Zaripov once appeared in a 1-on-1 with guest goalie Michael Garnett but he was stopped in the last moment.

In the middle period the guests from Chelyabinsk had the better start when they had an early power play but failed to use their advantage. Instead Ak Bars found more and more into the game and had a good chance from short distance through Kirill Petrov. In the final seconds of a Traktor power play Deron Quint conquered the puck in the slot and gave a pass to the right to Vladimir Antipov whose shot from a half right position went in past Barulin for the surprising guest lead that came out of the blue at 31:14! In the following minutes both teams had one big chance each but were not able to use them.

The third period started extremly one-sided with Ak Bars dominating it from the very begin while Traktor tried to save their small one-goal advantage until the final whistle. The pressure by the home side increased by every minute and they were finally rewarded by Janne Pesonen who finnished a nice combination over the left wing with the equalizer from short distance, waiting at the second post! Afterwards Ak Bars even had several good opportunities to win the match in regulation but against all expactations guests Traktor had a bullet left for Kazan! With just 30 seconds left to play Andrei Kostitsyn scored from short distance, waiting at the left post, after receiving a puck from the right circle by Petri Kontiola. The hosts tried it with an additional attacker instead of their goalie during the last seconds of play but the result didn't change anymore. For Traktor it was the perfect end of a great race to catch up when they turned arounda 1-3 in this series with three consecutive wins!

Now Traktor Chelyabinsk will face Western Conference winners Dynamo Moscow - who threw out SKA St. Petersburg - in the Gagarin Cup finals that start on Sunday with game #1 in Moscow!

Traktor won the series 4-3