Dynamo Moscow emphatically sealed its qualification to the KHL conference semifinals after a 3-1 defeat of Dynamo Minsk gave the Muscovites a 4-0 series shutout.
Elsewhere Sunday, regular-season champion Traktor Chelyabinsk scored five goals in the third period to complete a spectacular 7-6 comeback win at Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk and take a 2-1 playoff series lead.
Avangard Omsk will join Dynamo Moscow in the semifinals if it beats Amur Khabarovsk on Monday.
Favorite SKA St. Petersburg suffered a scare with a 3-2 defeat to unfancied CSKA Moscow on Saturday, but replied with a 2-1 overtime win Sunday to take a 3-1 series lead.
Dynamo Minsk coach Marek Sikora announced his retirement from coaching after the 4-0 series defeat to Dynamo Moscow.
“I feel responsible for the result. The season will be remembered for how it ended. Today was my last match at Dynamo. More than that, I’m ending my career as a coach.”
Traktor, meanwhile, took an early lead through ex-Chicago Blackhawks center Petri Kontiola, but ended up 6-2 down before 30 minutes after a Yugra onslaught that saw Sergei Demnagin and Igor Skorokhodov pick up two goals apiece.
Stanislav Chistov started Traktor’s fightback in the third period with a power-play goal, before Vladimir Antipov added two, and Dmitry Ryababkin and Maxim Yakutsenya both scored to seal the win.
Traktor coach Valery Belousov said that he had only expected his team to play for pride in the third period.
“As the team went out for the third period, I said that we can lose the match, but we have to save our honor. It’s good that things worked out as they did.”
Yugra coach Sergey Shevelev said he would change the team after the defeat.
“Playing like that in the third period in front of our fans is inexcusable. Measures need to be taken against several players. There are some we can just take out,” Shevelev said on the Yugra website.
CSKA struggled throughout the regular season with financial problems and a power struggle in the management, but the team salvaged some pride with two close games in Moscow at the weekend, former player Sergey Gimaev told RIA Novosti.
“It’s important that CSKA played two games well in Moscow,” he said. “I sat in the stand with the CSKA fans, and they were just proud of their Army team. The fans weren’t embarrassed, and that’s the main thing.”
Elsewhere at the weekend, Gagarin Cup holder Salavat Yulaev Ufa fell 2-1 behind in the series with Ak Bars Kazan after Denis Zaripov scored the winner in a 4-3 overtime win for the visitors in Ufa.
Barys Astana, the KHL’s only Kazakh team, holds a 2-1 advantage over Metallurg Magnitogorsk after a 3-2 win in Astana on Sunday, sealed with a goal from 2006 Stanley Cup winner Andrew Hutchinson.
Avangard holds a 3-0 lead after defeating the Amur 4-2 away with goals from Andrey Ivanov, Dmitry Syomin, Alexander Nesterov and 2011 KHL top scorer Roman Cervenka.
Two Western Conference playoff series are poised at 2-2 ahead of games later this week, after Severstal Cherepovets beat last year’s Gagarin Cup finalists Atlant Moscow Region 4-0 at home Sunday.
Dynamo Riga carved out a 2-1 lead over Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod with a goal from Janis Sprukts in the second overtime session, but saw that advantage evaporate the next day as Torpedo drew level with a dominant 4-1 win.
Monday’s first game pits Amur against Avangard, before Yugra play Traktor, Barys face Metallurg and Salavat Yulaev take on Ak Bars.
