Lokomotiv vs Metallurg. Will the railway workers be able to turn the tide of the unsuccessful series?
The final series of the Gagarin Cup moves to Yaroslavl for two matches. On Monday, April 22, hockey players from local Lokomotiv and Magnitogorsk Metallurg will take to the ice at the Arena-2000 Lokomotiv. At the moment the score in the series is 2-0 in favor of Metallurg.
Before the start of the final series, Lokomotiv, in the opinion of most hockey experts, was the favorite of the confrontation. Igor Nikitin's team played the three starting rounds of the playoffs perfectly, experiencing minor difficulties only in the quarterfinal series with Avangard, when they allowed the Omsk team to win three victories. The traditionally inconvenient capital's army team were beaten in five matches in the first round, Chelyabinsk Traktor was defeated in four matches in the semi-finals.
All the more surprising is the beginning of the final series, where Lokomotiv, in addition to losing the first two matches, is experiencing colossal problems in attack. During the current playoffs, the average performance of the Yaroslavl club is at the level of three goals per game, but the two opening matches in Magnitogorsk seriously spoiled this statistics. Only one goal was scored in 120 game minutes, so defeats in these matches are quite natural. In the first game, Lokomotiv lost 1-2, although during the third period it was leading 1-0, the second game ended in a 0-1 defeat.
Metallurg
Metallurg reached the finals along a more intricate route, having already managed to play 19 games in the three starting rounds. In the first round, Andrei Razin’s team had to fly to the Far East twice, putting the finishing touches on the unyielding Khabarovsk Amur only in the sixth match. We also had to play six matches in competition with the capital Spartak. The hero of the quarterfinal series was the young goalkeeper Ilya Nabokov, who left the ice three times without conceding a goal. In the semi-finals, everything was decided in the final, seventh game, when Metallurg achieved a 3-2 home victory over Avtomobilist from Yekaterinburg.
Ilya Nabokov, for whom the current season is his debut in the KHL, continues to be the main character in the final series. In the first two final matches, the twenty-year-old goalkeeper managed to fend off 52 shots on target, missing only once. And this takes into account the fact that the injured Egor Yakovlev, the key defender of the Magnitogorsk club, missed these matches at Metallurg. Victories are 2-1 and 1-0 and Metallurg goes to Yaroslavl with an excellent head start of two wins.
Our Expert Predictions & Analysis on Lokomotiv vs Metallurg
LokomotivBefore the start of the final series, Lokomotiv, in the opinion of most hockey experts, was the favorite of the confrontation. Igor Nikitin's team played the three starting rounds of the playoffs perfectly, experiencing minor difficulties only in the quarterfinal series with Avangard, when they allowed the Omsk team to win three victories. The traditionally inconvenient capital's army team were beaten in five matches in the first round, Chelyabinsk Traktor was defeated in four matches in the semi-finals.
All the more surprising is the beginning of the final series, where Lokomotiv, in addition to losing the first two matches, is experiencing colossal problems in attack. During the current playoffs, the average performance of the Yaroslavl club is at the level of three goals per game, but the two opening matches in Magnitogorsk seriously spoiled this statistics. Only one goal was scored in 120 game minutes, so defeats in these matches are quite natural. In the first game, Lokomotiv lost 1-2, although during the third period it was leading 1-0, the second game ended in a 0-1 defeat.
Metallurg
Metallurg reached the finals along a more intricate route, having already managed to play 19 games in the three starting rounds. In the first round, Andrei Razin’s team had to fly to the Far East twice, putting the finishing touches on the unyielding Khabarovsk Amur only in the sixth match. We also had to play six matches in competition with the capital Spartak. The hero of the quarterfinal series was the young goalkeeper Ilya Nabokov, who left the ice three times without conceding a goal. In the semi-finals, everything was decided in the final, seventh game, when Metallurg achieved a 3-2 home victory over Avtomobilist from Yekaterinburg.
Ilya Nabokov, for whom the current season is his debut in the KHL, continues to be the main character in the final series. In the first two final matches, the twenty-year-old goalkeeper managed to fend off 52 shots on target, missing only once. And this takes into account the fact that the injured Egor Yakovlev, the key defender of the Magnitogorsk club, missed these matches at Metallurg. Victories are 2-1 and 1-0 and Metallurg goes to Yaroslavl with an excellent head start of two wins.
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