2024-03-26 04:03:41
KHL.ru talks regarding the most interesting moments of the game day on March 25 – Avtomobilist reached the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup for the first time in history, the Zavarukhin brothers are waiting for their opponents in the third round, and SKA was eliminated from the playoffs. Avtomobilist’s crazy comeback
The fifth match of the series between SKA and Avtomobilist took place in St. Petersburg. The start was left to the guests – they took the lead twice (Aleksey Makeev scored both times), but the St. Petersburg team invariably caught up. In the second period, the army team scored three goals in just over two minutes – Mikhail Vorobyov, Marat Khairullin and Arseniy Gritsyuk scored. The latter sent Ural goalkeeper Evgeniy Alikin to the bench with his goal, and Avtomobilist lost the previous matches that followed this scenario in this playoffs. But not this time – the team was pulled in by young goalkeeper Vladimir Galkin, and the fielders not only won back the two-goal deficit, but also scored the winning one, without going to overtime: Andrei Obidin brought victory in the match and in the series to Yekaterinburg.
Both Zavarukhin brothers are in the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup
For Avtomobilist head coach Nikolai Zavarukhin, the third round of the playoffs is the best result in his career. As for the entire team: previously the Urals had not risen above the second round of the Gagarin Cup. Nikolai Nikolaevich and his team became the second participants in the semi-finals of the 2023/2024 season. It is curious that the first to enter this stage was Traktor, led by the cousin of the Avtomobilist head coach, Alexey Zavarukhin. Moreover, for the first time in the history of the KHL, the Zavarukhins brought two teams seeded “5-8” to the semifinals – Avtomobilist finished the regular season in fifth place in the East, and Traktor in sixth. Who knows, maybe the brothers will meet in the final of the Gagarin Cup?
Nikolai Zavarukhin, head coach of Avtomobilist:
– What is common in the success of the Zavarukhin brothers at this stage? This is probably a secret for everyone (smiles). The general thing is that we reached the next round, that’s the main thing. Well, uniting the guys in a team, building a team is the main thing.
For the first time in 10 years, SKA and CSKA will not play in the third round
SKA left the Gagarin Cup this season – the last time the St. Petersburg army team failed to cross the threshold of the second round was in 2014. Since then, they have consistently played in the semi-finals, with the exception of the 2019/2020 season, when the playoffs were not completed due to the pandemic. On seven occasions over these 10 years, SKA played CSKA in the third round – and given the elimination of the Muscovites in the first round, the absence of both army teams in the semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup can be considered a historical event.
50 matches of Byvaltsev in the Gagarin Cup
For Avtomobilist forward Alexey Byvaltsev, the game in St. Petersburg was the 50th in the KHL playoffs. The forward celebrated his anniversary with a goal, and a very important one at that – at the end of the second period, Byvaltsev made up one goal in the majority and gave Yekaterinburg hope for a comeback, which eventually became a reality.
Header photo: HC “Tractor”
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