“Spartak” snatched the most important victory from “Metallurg”! It seems that he is heading towards seven games
Pavel Panyshev March 26, 2024, 22:06 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Alexei Zhamnov’s team only scored one goal.
The 2024 Gagarin Cup series between Spartak and Metallurg has been going on for a long time. The reason, unfortunately, is tragic: what happened on March 22, 2024 in the Moscow region is still difficult for me to understand. Recall that Avtomobilist closed its series with SKA the day before and is already resting, gaining strength for new battles. It is precisely with the Yekaterinburg club that Spartak or Magnitogorsk will play, which will have much less time to recover.
In the last match, the red and whites finally managed to get past goalkeeper Ilya Nabokov, who played so well in the first two matches. It was Spartak that became the most productive team in the regular season, but the playoffs are a completely different hockey.
How Spartak handled the first match in Moscow:
“Spartak” has broken through! We sent five to Metallurg and returned to the series.
“Moscow also influenced us. We arrived in such a city, there were so many spectators, of course. We are worried, worried, yes, the public is pressing,” said the Metallurg coach after the previous match. You definitely can’t deny Andrei Razin’s sense of humor.
Alexey Zhamnov, after the third match of the series with Metallurg, did not make changes to the lineup for the fourth game (Kovalchuk was again in the lineup in the trio with Rubtsov and Pashin), the guests had Mukhametov instead of Kvartalnov.
“Spartak” actively spent the first half of the first half, then Magnitogorsk equalized the game, but in the end the teams did not achieve their goals.
The red and whites had the most real chances at the end, when Korobkin received a four-minute penalty for playing with a high stick against Tchaikovsky. A laconic smile of misunderstanding appeared on Andrei Razin’s face: there is no point in convincing the judges watching the replay in such situations. In any case, the Urals knew how to counterattack and not fail.
In the second twenty minutes the spectators did not see any goals either. Both goalkeepers, Nikolaev and Nabokov, continued to keep their goals intact, maintaining maximum intrigue in the fourth game.
We had to wait until midway through the third period for the first goal. Ivanov advanced halfway and fired with his wrists; The puck, after a rebound, ended up on Galimov’s stick, who was already finishing in the near corner with the goalkeeper behind him.
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In the end, Magnitogorsk, instead of devoting all its energy to recovery, again received a two-minute penalty for hitting Tchaikovsky in the face with his cane. As a result, the Muscovites retained a minimal advantage: Metallurg won at home in the second meeting with exactly the same score. Today local goalkeeper Dmitry Nikolaev made 29 saves. This is the Spartak goalkeeper’s first shutout in the current KHL playoffs.
Now the rivals move to Magnitogorsk, but in any case they will return to Moscow for the sixth match. This series definitely won’t be short, the more spring hockey we’ll see. I wish both teams played with more joy, otherwise the 1:0 soccer score will look painfully boring on the scoreboard.
