Victoria’s guests brought an overtime throw-in from their captain Alexander Radulov.
Admiral’s head coach Leonid Tambiev is true to himself. After winning the third game of the series, he claimed that he knew how to beat Ak Bars. Now his words caused fewer smiles among the skeptics than on the eve of the confrontation.
The day before in Kazan, they remembered the first championship of Ak Bars. On March 21, 1998, the team led by Yuri Moiseev defeated Dynamo Moscow 3:2 at Sport Saray and won gold medals after the results of a “no problem” tournament. It’s hard to believe now, but for the entire 1997/98 season, including the summer preparatory period, Moiseev’s wards had… three days off.
The remaining successes of Ak Bars (gold 2006, Gagarin Cups 2009, 2010, 2018) are associated with coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, who played in the second half of the 1980s for Dynamo under Moiseev.
Like Moiseev, Bill prioritizes discipline. Anyone who is immersed in the hockey theme knows this. After the failure in game number 3, he worked on the mistakes. In the first period, the guests cut 2-3 “sailors” again and again with a quick first pass and made strong attacks on the move.
From the initial head-to-head, the game went non-stop. The first save was marked in the 6th minute, when Kirill Semenov opened the scoring. Stanislav Galiev and the namesakes Panyukov and Semyonov took advantage of the positional error of the hosts’ captain, Libor Szulak, who gracefully played a wall game. The last of them did not miss the empty corner of the door.
Only in the 9th minute did Tambiev’s team upset goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov. And still formally, without creating anything memorable in the attack before the break.
“Barcelona” could increase the advantage if Artyom Lukoyanov and Galiev took advantage of the fat moments twice.
After the break, the “sailors” rebuilt. All of Primorye, together with the head of the region, who was not in the VIP box, but on the podium with ordinary fans, pushed the Admiral forward. And now Radulov rescued defender Kirill Adamchuk, who had lost the puck, and in the fall blocked a shot from Yevgeny Grachev’s patch.
Soon Alexander Gorshkov created another real threat.
And the turning point was outlined after the elimination of Panyukov, who committed a foul on Anton Berlev. Even the violation of the owners’ strength did not stop the offensive momentum from him. And five minutes before the second half time siren sounded, Shulak tied the score, redeeming himself for his stain. In a positional attack with a change of place, the Czech left Bilyalov out of work with a wrist shot to the distant nine, and with him three of his assistants at the same time, located on the shooting line and lined up a screen to the goalkeeper. . In addition, the forward Lukoyanov turned out to be the closest to him, and the defender Dmitry Yudin tried in vain to bypass Shulak.
The Mariners could well have taken a break leading the scoring. The “2 on 1” counterattack, organized in a minority (“the term” was passed by Nikolai Chebykin), was completed by Rudolf Cerveny, but he rushed with the shot and hit the goalkeeper.
The third half was spent mostly in the hosts’ zone. Lukoyanov was eager to atone for him, but the shaft of Nikita Serebryakov’s club got in the way of the puck flying into the net. Incredible salvage!
But Bilyalov also saved the gate at the decisive moment, when Berlev attacked from eight meters without interference.
In extra time, we once again remember the captain of Ak Bars Radulov. In the 6th minute, he broke into the patch and put the puck in the goal, thanking Dmitry Voronkov for the pass from Gretzky’s office.
The opponents return to Kazan for the fifth match. But whether the series will continue in Vladivostok is a question. It is unlikely that the “leopards” want to experience the hardships of the residents of Ufa on their own skin, and even more so to share their fate.
STATISTICS
Admiral (7) – Ak Bars (1) – 1:2 OT (0:1, 1:0, 0:0, 0:1). Goals: Shulak – Semenov, Radulov
Series score: 1-3 (2:3, 1:2, 1:0 OT, 1:2 OT, 24, 26*, 28*)
* If required.
