Salavat Yulaev lost to Avangard in fourth match of KHL Eastern Final

UFA, 4 April 2019. /Bashinform News Agency, Natalia Ovcharuk/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

The fourth match of the KHL Eastern Conference finals kicked off with the full Ufa-Arena stands. In the first period, teams often made mistakes in the middle zone and failed to use a single powerplay.

After the break, Avangard began with an attack and achieved success, having thrown two goals behind the back of the Finnish goalkeeper of Salavat in 2.5 minutes. The author of the first goal was Sergey Shumakov, and the second was implemented during the powerplay by Ilya Mikheyev - 0: 2. However, the Ufa team was able quite quickly to reduce the gap in the score: the three foreign players broke the defense of the Omsk club. The hosts' attack ended with an accurate throw by Teemu Hartikainen. While “Ufa-Arena” and Salavat Yulaev celebrated a goal, the captain Grigory Panin was lying on the ice - injury. However, Peter Khokhryakov playing shorthanded successfully hit the net of Igor Bobkov.

In the 4-by-4 format, the players of Nikolai Tsulygin allowed the Omsk forward Ilya Mikheev to score a double - 2: 3. It angered Salavat even more. Toward the close of the second period, Artem Sergeev and Victor Stolberg started a fight. Both opponents received penalties: according to the protocol Salavat Yulaev had 2+5+10 minutes, Avangard 2+2 minutes.

After the second break, Salavat Yulaev looked clearly tired: the game without the two leading defenders Panin and Sergeev did not work out at all. In a minute, the home team missed the forward Denis Zernov and allowed him to throw the fourth puck into the Metsola goal. The teams return to Balashikha with a score of 1-3 in the series. The fifth match will be held on April 6.