Ak Bars Kazan shut out Gagarin Cup holder Salavat Yulaev in a 3-0 road win to take a 3-1 series lead and move within a game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Elsewhere, Barys Astana is on the cusp of a shock win, leading Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3-1 in the series after a 4-1 victory on home ice, and regular-season champion Traktor Chelyabinsk also leads 3-1 in its series against Yugra Khanty-Mansiisk after a 6-3 victory.
Earlier, Avangard Omsk qualified for the semifinals, dominating in a 3-1 away win to shut out Amur Khabarovsk 4-0 in the series.
Salavat Yulaev recorded 40 shots against Ak Bars, but was unable to beat veteran Finnish goaltender Petri Vehanen.
Artem Lukyanov opened the scoring for the Kazan team midway through a first period characterized by nine suspensions, before Josef Straka extended the visitors’ lead with four minutes left of the second period.
Alexey Morozov sealed the win for the Tatarstan side with 30 seconds remaining with an empty-net goal.
Ak Bars can win the series with victory on home ice Wednesday.
Metallurg seized the lead against Barys after ten minutes through Daniil Markov, but was 2-1 down by the end of the second period thanks to goals from ex-Calgary Flames center Dustin Boyd and Konstantin Pushkarev.
Goals from Jonas Junland and Kevin Dallman closed out the game for the Kazakh team in the third period.
Traktor scored five in the third period against Amur on Sunday for a 7-6 comeback win and inflicted more punishment on Amur goaltender Mikhail Biryukov with a 6-3 win.
Traktor came back from 2-0 down in the first period to seize control of the match as Stanislav Chistov powered Traktor forward with two goals and an assist in a dominant win.
Avangard Omsk became the second team to reach the KHL conference semifinals after completing a 4-0 series shutout against Amur Khabarovsk on Monday.
Avangard won 3-1 away to take the series and progress to an Eastern Conference semifinal against Traktor or Yugra. Avangard took a two-goal lead in the first period, with goals from Alexander Perezhogin and 2011 KHL top scorer Roman Cervenka.
Amur pulled one back when Martin Ruzicka scored early in the second period, but Yegor Averin completed Avangard’s dominant win 16 minutes later.
