Salavat Yulaev Ufa has taken a step towards retaining the Gagarin Cup with a 3-0 playoff win at former champions Ak Bars Kazan in the first game of their conference quarterfinal series.
Elsewhere on Thursday, KHL regular season champion Traktor Chelyabinsk beat Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk 3-1, while hotly tipped SKA St. Petersburg trounced CSKA Moscow 7-1.
KHL all-time assists leader Alexander Radulov added three more to his tally in Salavat Yulaev’s surprise win in Kazan, twice setting up defenseman Vitaly Proshkin before Czech defenseman Miroslav Blatak completed the win.
Both teams had underwhelmed in the regular season, with Ak Bars finishing fourth and Salavat Yulaev fifth in the Eastern Conference.
The win in Kazan was a sign of a revival for Salavat Yulaev, after defensive mistakes in recent games left goaltender Erik Ersberg exposed, wing Antti Pihlstrom said.
“We made a lot of mistakes in the preceding games, allowed our opponents to break two on one, three on one, so it wasn’t easy for Erik,” the former Nashville Predators player told RIA Novosti. “A very good match for Salavat Yulaev but we can’t rest on our laurels. Today we took our chances.”
Ak Bars coach Vladimir Krikunov blamed his team’s defeat on a poor performance by forward Josef Straka.
“We needed to convert the majority of the few chances that we had. Josef Straka made three mistakes today, and the score is 0-3. That’s too many mistakes for a game like this.”
Straka may be replaced by Lauris Darzins or Maxim Spiridonov for the second game Friday, Krikunov said.
Traktor were good value for its 1-0 series lead with a dominating performance against Yugra, which remained in contention thanks to goaltender Mikhail Biryukov, who shut out 52 shots during the game.
A goalless first period was followed by an action-packed second, as Vladimir Antipov put Traktor ahead, before Evgeny Khvostov equalized for Yugra and Stanislav Chistov scored Traktor’s second, before Andrei Popov scored Traktor’s third early in the third period.
SKA are now 2-0 ahead in their series against CSKA, with two goals apiece for Fyodor Fedorov and Vladimir Tarasenko to crush the troubled Moscow team.
Dynamo Riga evened their series with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod at 1-1 with an overtime win in Russia’s third city, Mikalis Redlihs scoring the decisive goal for the Latvian team in a 2-1 victory.
Avangard Omsk took control early on against Amur Khabarovsk with two goals in the first period, eventually running out 4-2 winners in their Eastern Conference opener.
Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana fought hard against Metallurg Magnitogorsk, but lost 3-2 to go 1-0 down in the series.
Dynamo Moscow is now 2-0 ahead in their series against Dynamo Minsk, with a 2-0 home win against the Belarusian team Thursday.
Atlant has also taken full of advantage of starting on home ice, winning 3-1 against Severstal Cherepovets to open up a 2-0 series lead.
