Athletistic/Hockey. The Continental Hockey League playoffs continue. This weekend began the series of semi-finals of the Gagarin Cup. In the East, Ak Bars and Avangard are fighting to reach the final. In the West, SKA and CSKA met again. Recall that the St. Petersburg club beat CSKA in such a series in 2015 and then won the Gagarin Cup. In 2017, CSKA failed to reach the semi-finals, and therefore SKA also overcame the semi-finals and subsequently won the Gagarin Cup. In 2020, the KHL playoffs did not end due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, the series ended with victory for CSKA. In 2019 and 2022, the Moscow army team won the Gagarin Cup.
Today, April 2, the first game of the series between SKA and CSKA took place in St. Petersburg. The Moscow Army team took the lead in the second minute of the match. The puck was thrown by Maxim Mamin. Darren Dietz made a pass on goal, Mikhail Grigorenko moved to the center on a break and made a hidden pass to Mamin, who hit the empty corner of the opposing goal. There were no more goals in the first half.
At the start of the second period, SKA turned the score in their favor. First of all, Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov stood out. Leonid Komarov made a forward pass – Grebenshchikov rolled into the center goal and tried to beat the goalie, but the puck fell off and crawled under the goalie’s shields. After that, Alexander Nikishin led the St. Petersburg army. Nikita Gusev made concessions for Nikishin, who propelled the puck into the top nine with a hard shot. The rest of the second period was played without goals.
In the third segment of the game there were also no pucks for a long time, things were moving towards victory for SKA. However, in the 58th minute, CSKA equalized and turned the game into extra time. Nikita Nesterov received a hit from the blue line, Vladislav Kamenev put his stick on a penny and sent the puck into the opposing net.
The Gagarin Cup does not include a shootout. Teams play 20 minutes of overtime until the winning goal is scored. The first and second overtime today were dry. But in the third overtime, CSKA scored the winning goal. The red-blues won the face-off, lifted the puck to the blue line, from where Nikita Nesterov hit the corner of the opponent’s goal with a biting shot – the moving SKA goalkeeper did not hits the puck with a trap.
Thus, CSKA took the lead in the series with the score 1:0. The second game will also take place in St. Petersburg. It is scheduled for Tuesday, April 4. CSKA fans have reacted to their side’s third overtime victory today. They left their comments in the official red-blue community in Vkontakte.
Dmitry Lvov:
– Beautiful and well made! All with three victories in basketball, football and hockey!
Tatyana Molodtsova:
– GUYS, just, A BIG HUMAN THANK YOU! WITH VICTORY! Good game! We are proud!
Olga Polomoshnova:
– Beautiful, simply beautiful! Steel character. Thank you for this victory!
Ksenia Lisitsa:
– To all fans of hexoral, cough tablets and a can of beer! With the victory of the red-blues!
Ernest Tarasov:
– It was impossible to watch this game without valerian, but we won, so let’s keep winning.
Yaroslav Pyatikh, Athletistic
Source: Sport

I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.