KHL: Cervenka Leads Avangard to Cusp of Final

© RIA Novosti . Alexey MolgavkoAvangard Omsk - Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Archive
Avangard Omsk - Metallurg Magnitogorsk. Archive - Sputnik International
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Two goals and two assists from Roman Cervenka put Avangard Omsk on the cusp of qualifying for the KHL Eastern Conference final after beating Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5-3 to set up a 3-1 series lead.

Two goals and two assists from Roman Cervenka put Avangard Omsk on the cusp of qualifying for the KHL Eastern Conference final after beating Metallurg Magnitogorsk 5-3 to set up a 3-1 series lead.

In Tuesday's other semifinal, Traktor Chelyabinsk also went 3-1 up in the series, beating Ak Bars Kazan 3-2 thanks to Petri Kontiola's winner two minutes from time.

In Magnitogorsk, Alexander Popov put the visitors ahead on 11 minutes after a pass from behind the goal line from Cervenka.

Avangard lost the lead less than two minutes later when Ville Lajunen played in Tomas Rolinek from the blue line on a power play.

Cervenka then struck twice in two minutes to record his seventh and eighth goals of the playoffs early in the second period, the first set up by Popov, the second a long-range solo strike.

Metallurg launched a fightback with Rolinek finding the net on 30 minutes, before Avangard's Sergey Mozyakin leveled the scores from Lajunen’s second assist of the game.

Into the third period Cervenka and Popov combined again for the latter to score.

Both teams continued to press, Metallurg recording 12 shots in the third period to Avangard’s 14, but the visitors sealed the win with Igor Volkov’s empty-net strike a minute from the end.

Metallurg coach Fyodor Kanareikin vowed to fight on and praised his team’s determination.

“Don’t doubt us. The series isn’t over,” he said on the team’s website Tuesday.

“We played well today, played from our heart. All I can say is that we scored three goals on power-plays and we worked well.”

In Kazan, regular season champion Traktor took the lead on 12 minutes through Evgeny Kuznetsov in a game which only registered 31 shots from both teams in the first two periods before bursting into life in the third.

Anton Burdasov doubled Traktor’s lead on 43 minutes before the hosts struck back with goals from Evgeny Bodrov and Evgeny Lapenkov.

Traktor’s ex-Chicago Blackhawks forward Kontiola had been off the ice for roughing when Bodrov scored, but fired in the winner two minutes from time from Konstantin Panov’s assist.

Burdasov said that Traktor’s series lead would not lead the team to change their style.

“We’ll just go out and play our game whether we’re favorites or outsiders,” he said on the team’s website Tuesday.

Wednesday sees games in the Western Conference between SKA St. Petersburg and Atlant Moscow Region, and Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod and Dynamo Moscow, before the Eastern Conference teams continue their series Thursday.

 

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