Translated material
"Atlant" from the shoulders
The last semi-finalist of the Gagarin Cup will be determined today
Three semi-finalists of the Russian Open Championship - the championship of the Continental Hockey League - have been determined. The country's truly strongest teams will compete in the fight to reach the finals, but the defeat of Atlanta near Moscow stands apart. Fyodor Kanareikin’s team was faced with the task of winning medals, hockey players were acquired for this purpose, and despite the fact that the team performed better than last year, there is no complete satisfaction.The Ural club, having received the advantage of its ice after the victory in Mytishchi, prepared very carefully for home matches. Metallurg's head coach Valery Belousov has always been considered the strongest tactician, and he competently analyzed how Atlanta's strongest line performed, doing everything to ensure that he was not visible in the quarterfinals.
It should be noted that Fedor Kanareikin found himself in a difficult situation before the playoffs. Let us remind you that on the eve of important matches, Esa Pirnes, a first-line hockey player who actively helped Sergei Mozyakin become the best sniper of the championship, left the club. At the same time, Pirnes went home for some family reasons unrelated to hockey.
Atlanta's head coach said back in the summer that he lacked defenders, and defensive problems became key in the quarterfinals. “We are very disappointed with the outcome,” admitted the coach of the Moscow Region club in a telephone conversation with our correspondent some time after the game. — I don’t relieve myself of responsibility for what happened, but I have a lot of questions for the team leaders, who didn’t show their best hockey at the most important moment. We lost to a worthy opponent, but we had chances that we didn’t take advantage of.”
Magnitogorsk hockey players were unusually restrained in their emotions.
“It’s good that we moved on,” said team defender Vladislav Bulin. - But if you look at it, the team hasn’t won anything yet. In the locker room we congratulated each other, smiled, but immediately forgot about success. There is an equally serious series ahead, which will also go up to four victories. If we talk about Atlanta, I didn’t really like that the hockey players tried to play rough. But I don’t want to take revenge on them; we’ve already received a lot.”
Yaroslavl Lokomotiv quickly ended the series with Spartak, winning a third victory in Moscow. After the match, everyone was interested in the fate of the head coach of the “red-whites” Milos Rzhiga. Rumors about his departure to another club have been circulating for a long time. “While the matches were going on, I didn’t even raise the issue of my contract,” he said after the team’s season ended. “Now we will have two weeks to resolve all issues with management.”
The team owners are not averse to keeping Riga next year, although not everyone likes his difficult character, but the Czech specialist is warned that this summer the club will be one of the most passive players on the transfer market. The salary part of the budget will be greatly reduced, and you can’t count on major acquisitions. At the same time, it is possible that the current leaders will be released from the club. Stefan Ruzicka, Branko Radivojevic and Maxim Rybin have offers from other teams. The Czech specialist is not satisfied with this. So the main topic of negotiations will not be the amount of the specialist’s contract, but the composition of the team for the next season. The fact is that just the other day Avangard refused to consider Rzhiga as a likely contender for the position of head coach. People in Omsk were impressed by the work of Igor Nikitin.
Another club awaiting its semi-final opponent, the capital's Dynamo, beat exhausted CSKA without any problems. The army team also has an unclear future. The head of the Central Sports Club of the Army, Sergei Kushchenko, wrote a letter of resignation, the main sponsor of the team does not want to increase funding, the coaching staff has two good offers - from SKA and Salavat Yulaev.
Dynamo have gotten into very good shape and are now definitely reaching the semi-finals as the championship favorites. True, team leader Alexey Zhitnik tries not to attach labels. “Any club from the four will be a favorite,” he said after the match with CSKA. - The current championship has proven that anything can happen here. How can we say that we will have an advantage over others. The extra day of rest we get won't make any difference. You will have to work hard in every match.”
Another semi-finalist will be announced this evening. Kazan Ak Bars hosts Avangard in a good mood after winning in Omsk with a score of 11:1. However, according to our data, every training session of Zinetula Bilyaletdinov begins with a tough conversation, in which the coach urges her to forget about a major victory as quickly as possible. “You've already lost to this team twice,” he says. “And this should teach us to take them seriously.”
Results. KHL. Playoffs. Quarterfinals. Series up to three wins according to the “2-2-1” scheme. Third matches. "Spartak" - "Lokomotiv" - 4:5 (previous games - 1:3, 3:5). The series score is 0-3 . Dynamo M -- CSKA -- 5:1 (2:1, 7:0). The series score is 3-0 . Fourth matches . "Avangard" - "Ak Bars" - 1:11 (2:0, 2:3 bull., 4:2). The series score is 2-2 . "Metallurg" Mg - "Atlant" - 4:2 (1:2 OT, 4:3, 3:0). The series score is 3-1 .