Mitch's match: Ak Bars and Lokomotiv exchanged big wins in the Gagarin Cup final

Ak Bars' victory ended the second match of the Gagarin Cup final in Yaroslavl. Anvar Gatiyatulin's team defeated Lokomotiv 5-1 and tied the series 1-1. The main hero of the match was Mitch Miller, who scored four points (3+1). Ilya Karpukhin and Nathan Todd each scored a goal. Alexander Barabanov and Artyom Galimov each scored two assists. Georgy Ivanov scored for the hosts. Now the series is moving to Kazan.

Clean and clear

After the first meeting, the Badgers had a lot to think about. On the one hand, they looked good, acted confidently and were almost on equal terms with their opponent. On the other hand, we still lost with a score of 1:3, and we conceded two goals in 46 seconds at the beginning of the second period and never recovered from the shock. This means that they have not figured out how to neutralize the main weapon of Lokomotiv — the ability to punish mistakes better than anyone else in this playoff.

In the second match, there was no trace of the previous problems with concentration: in the first period, Kazan acted cleanly and accurately. But the same could not be said about the "Locomotive" — despite the general "academic" advantage, attentiveness suffered. So, already in the middle of the period, one of the Yaroslavl hockey players presented the puck to Kazan in a harmless situation — they immediately took advantage of the opportunity and organized a quick attack, during which Ilya Karpukhin scored.

And a couple of minutes later, Lokomotiv failed to cope with the positional defense — the defender of the Leopards, Mitch Miller, punished them for this with a well-aimed long-range throw.

The second period generally followed the same scenario, but Yaroslavtsev was also let down by discipline — a couple of minutes before the break, striker Ilya Nikolaev earned a penalty. It was not the first penalty of the hosts during the game, but the most unpleasant one — in the minority, Lokomotiv missed another goal from Nathan Todd.

In the middle of the third period, the leader of Lokomotiv, Alexander Radulov, seemed tired of watching what was happening and decided to cheer up his partners. I chose a proven way to do this: I tried to arrange a brawl. But Miller, whom Radulov chose as his victim, could not reach — the brawlers were quickly pulled apart, the judges did not even issue a fine.

Radulov managed to raise the level in the game. The confrontation, which generally went on calmly for five consecutive periods, escalated in just a few minutes — soon another fight took place at the gates of Lokomotiv.

This time, the referee sent off Byron Fraz for rudeness. Considering Nikolaev's recent penalty, Bob Hartley's team had to play three for a whole minute — only Daniil Isaev's skill did not allow the Leopards to increase the score. But a few seconds later, in the 5-by-4 format, it didn't help either — Miller scored a double with a smart throw.

A lot of emotions

Lokomotiv scored a prestige goal after all — when, after the next, already the third brawl, the teams remained in the 4-on-4 format. Georgy Ivanov quickly got his bearings when finishing off. But it seems it would have been better if he hadn't done that — a minute and a half before the siren, Bob Hartley took down the goalkeeper in an attempt to save the match. Ak Bars took advantage of the opportunity perfectly — Miller scored a hat-trick. The 24-year-old hockey player became the first defenseman in the history of the league to score three goals in the Gagarin Cup final. Before that, the defenders had scored hat-tricks only in the semifinals and quarterfinals of the KHL playoffs.

"I can mention the organizational game of Ak Bars," Vladimir Plushev, former coach of the Russian national team, told Izvestia. — They were quite careful in their defense, they realized their chances — a well-deserved victory. Miller had a super match. Lokomotiv didn't do much: there were a lot of emotions, a lot of desires, but nothing came of it. Expectations for the third and fourth games? I think Kazan can please their fans at home by winning both matches.

After the siren, there was another scuffle. Four fights in half a period, five Ak Bars goals and equality in the series are an excellent poster on the eve of the Kazan part of the confrontation, which starts on May 15. The fourth game of the final series is on May 17th.