Back on track: Lokomotiv is one step away from winning the Gagarin Cup

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl's hockey players scored a convincing 4-1 victory over Ak Bars Kazan in the fifth match of the final series. The next game will be held on May 21 in Kazan, and if they win, the Railwaymen will win the Gagarin Cup for the second time in a row. The score in the decisive series is 3:2 in favor of Yaroslavl.

The loss of Yaroslavl

This year's final series is being fought equally. So during the first two meetings held in Yaroslavl, the clubs exchanged victories. At first, the success was celebrated by Lokomotiv (3:1), and then they were defeated by Ak Bars (1:5).

After that, the final moved to Kazan for two matches. There, in the third game, the Railwaymen already won big (4:1). In the fourth, they led 1-0 in the middle of the second period, but the club from the capital of Tatarstan quickly equalized, and six minutes before the end of regular time, they took the lead and won 2-1. Thus, they equalized the series and secured its return to Kazan for the sixth match in advance. But first, the opponents had to go to Yaroslavl again, for the fifth game.

It is worth noting that due to the air traffic situation, the Gagarin Cup participants deliberately overreacted and complicated their logistics in order not to risk being late for the games or arriving at them a few hours before the start. Ak Bars traveled to Yaroslavl by train for the first two matches. From there, both teams traveled to Kazan in the same way for the third and fourth games. However, they still risked flying to the fifth match. And we reached the meeting place without delay.

The key problem for Lokomotiv was the loss of central striker Georgy Ivanov, who was seriously injured in the fourth match. He was not included in the application for the fifth game. According to Sport-Express, the 27-year-old center forward will no longer help his team this season.

Georgy Ivanov is one of the long-term leaders of Lokomotiv, last spring he played in a key part of his team with Alexander Radulov and Egor Surin, becoming one of the main creators of the victory in the Gagarin Cup.

Wait, steam locomotive: Ak Bars has brought intrigue back to the Gagarin Cup final

Kazan stopped the Yaroslavl "Locomotive" in one of the most closed matches of the series

Step towards the trophy

It seemed to many experts that the loss of Ivanov would significantly complicate Yaroslavl's life and make Ak Bars the favorite for the rest of the series. However, as practice has shown, the railwaymen were able to rebuild in the face of the loss of their key player.

However, the first half of the opening period was held with the advantage of the Kazan team. But after the 10th minute, Lokomotiv picked up the pace and pinned the opponent to their goal. Goalkeeper Timur Bilyalov saved the visitors twice after shots from Ilya Nikolaev and Denis Alekseev.

But just before the break, Yaroslavl goalkeeper Daniil Isaev had to rescue his team, who deflected the puck from the top corner of his goal after a point-blank shot by Dmitry Katelevsky.

With an overall equal game, Lokomotiv managed to squeeze out the most for themselves in the middle of the second half, when Byron Fraz and Nikita Kiryanov scored a goal each within a minute and a half. Soon Richard Panik went one-on-one with Bilyalov, but the goalkeeper saved Ak Bars.

And after Artur Kayumov's throw, the puck hit the goal post of the Kazan team. But the advantage of the Railwaymen came true at the beginning of the third period, when Freize scored a double. After that, Maxim Arefyev replaced Bilyalov in goal.

Four minutes before the end of the match, he was replaced by the sixth fielder, but it worked in favor of Lokomotiv — Kayumov scored into an empty net. After that and the subsequent series of deletions, Ak Bars gained a 4-on-3 majority, replaced the goalkeeper with a field hockey player again, and Sasha Khmelevsky managed to score a goal. However, this did not affect the final result.

—Ak Bars had a good first half of the first period, they were very powerful, but Lokomotiv withstood this onslaught," Sergei Konkov, a former striker of the Yaroslavl club, shared his opinion with Izvestia. — Then the good physical training of the "railwaymen" affected. It's no coincidence that their head coach, Bob Hartley, noted after the semi-final with Avangard how well his team was moving even in overtime. Indeed, the physics of the Locomotive is one of my main impressions during this final. So the team improved well in the second period and turned out to be more efficient in micro-moments. But in general, the series is very equal, so it is possible that in the next match everything will turn in favor of Ak Bars.

The specialist noted the forward of the "railwaymen" Pavel Kraskovsky, who dropped out of the team after April 30, when Lokomotiv lost to Avangard and began to lose to the Omsk club in series 1.:3. Now Kraskovsky has been returned to the squad due to Ivanov's injury.

"Kraskovsky fitted into the game very well, taking advantage of the chance given to him," Konkov said. — It wasn't easy, because Pavel played only six games in this playoff. But it is very important when the team prepares well not only those who play, but also those who are outside the squad. As a result, we can see that Kraskovsky has kept his tone during his absence, and the Lokomotiv coaching staff has done an excellent job here. And the player was very motivated to prove himself, to take his chance. Due to this, Yaroslavl managed to offset the loss of Ivanov, although Georgy is a very important hockey player, and his injury could be fraught for the team. Nevertheless, Lokomotiv has found a way to solve this problem.

The sixth match of the final series will be held in Kazan on May 21. If they win, the Railwaymen will win the Gagarin Cup for the second year in a row and for the second time in their history. If the game remains with Ak Bars, the series will return to Yaroslavl, where the seventh match, which will be decisive, will take place on May 23.