Ak Bars' Comeback opens its doors: Torpedo first to suffer in Kazan

Yarullin back in the lineup, Fisenko out of the squad for now

A day before the game against Torpedo, Kazan's Ak Bars had already secured their spot in the Gagarin Cup playoffs. This happened after Amur lost in regulation time to Traktor (5:6). The Khabarovsk team currently sits ninth in the Eastern Conference and has lost any chance of catching up with the “Bars” in the standings. Thus, Kazan became the fourth team in the league this season to clinch a playoff berth, following Metallurg, Avangard, and Lokomotiv.

However, Ak Bars' results in recent matches had not been overly successful. Before the KHL All-Star Game break, the Kazan “Bars” had lost four out of five games, securing only one victory — against Neftekhimik (6:1). The match against Torpedo was meant to either prove the existence of a team crisis or disprove it.

Fortunately for Ak Bars, injured players began returning to the lineup. The most impressive recovery is that of defenseman Albert Yarullin. The experienced player suffered a cruciate ligament injury back on September 21 and has healed much faster than initially projected. He started training with the team before the All-Star Game and, for the first time since autumn, was included in the lineup for the game against Torpedo.

Mikhail Fisenko also returned to the main group. However, the forward did not find a place in the lineup this time. Consequently, Denis Komkov was named the center in the third line with Grigori Dvinyaninov and Dmitrij Jaskin. Artur Brovkin was left out of the lineup, replaced in the fourth line by Alexei Pustozyorov.

Last year's scenario was avoided

Torpedo also had some interesting lineup changes. Apart from former “Bars” players Daniil Zhuravlyov and Vladimir Tkachyov taking to the ice, Dmitry Dagestansky was named in goal. For the visiting goalkeeper, this was only his second career KHL match. The team's primary goaltender, Denis Kostin, was injured and unable to play in Kazan.

Dagestansky had little work in the first period. Both teams played tight defensively, resulting mostly in long-range shots. The sluggish game only ignited three minutes before the end of the first frame. A routine shot from the blue line caught Timur Bilyalov off guard, opening the scoring — 0:1 in favor of Nizhny Novgorod, with Bogdan Konyushkov netting it. Almost immediately, a second goal was scored. Ak Bars' goaltender couldn't handle Maxim Letunov's rebound — 0:2. Everything pointed towards a repeat of last year's scenario when Anvar Gatiyatulin's team lost to Torpedo 1:5.

But Kazan managed to withstand the visitors' pressure at the start of the second period. Closer to the halfway mark, they scored themselves. Pustozyorov picked up the puck in his own zone, skated to the goalie, and slid it between Dagestansky's pads — 1:2. Shortly after, Nizhny Novgorod failed to capitalize on a power play but nearly scored at even strength. After one cross, the puck hit Nikita Lyamkin's skate and fluttered towards the net like a parachute, but Bilyalov caught it with his glove, deflecting it off the crossbar.

The third period was the most thrilling of the match. First, Yegor Sokolov scored on a power play, being first to the rebound — 1:3. Then Grigori Dvinyaninov narrowed the gap, pulling a “Bobby Orr” move by going behind the net and stuffing the puck past Dagestansky — 2:3. And with just 12 seconds left on the clock, Khmelevsky tied the score — 3:3.

Having fought back from 1:3, it would have been absurd to let victory slip away, and Ak Bars saw the game through to a win. In overtime, Alexander Barabanov carried the puck into the opponent's zone, passed to Mitchell Miller, who finished the match with a precise shot — 4:3. The “Bars” comeback machine can officially be considered open just before the playoffs!

“We needed a win like this”

The victory over Torpedo was of utmost importance for Ak Bars. Besides avoiding a fifth loss in their last six games, they achieved it in a hard-fought battle. This is the kind of determination the team will need in the playoffs, which the “Bars” secured a day before the Nizhny Novgorod game. It seems that precisely this kind of character-driven win was missing last February when Ak Bars fell into a crisis after the KHL All-Star Game.

Now Gatiyatulin has a whole month to fine-tune the game to perfection. The team has a depth reserve. In the match against Torpedo, the coaching staff adjusted the attacking lines in the third period, and the players moved more actively. Specifically, Todd was moved to play with Dvinyaninov and Jaskin, and they orchestrated two goals at the end of the game. Speaking of depth, it's worth noting that as many as six KHL-level players were left out of the lineup on Thursday — Vladimir Alistrov, Stepan Falkovsky, Mikhail Fisenko, Konstantin Luchevnikov, Semyon Terekhov, and Artur Brovkin.

At the post-match press conference, Gatiyatulin reinforced these sentiments, noting that he would continue to seek the best line combinations. He also highlighted the importance of such an overtime victory for the team's psychological resilience.

— We needed a win like this — one of perseverance, of character. Because before the break, we hit a stretch where we outperformed opponents in many aspects, but things just weren't going our way. We've looked at different combinations throughout the season — injuries have been a factor, and some guys are still recovering, and Nathan Todd joined us recently. The task is clear — we need to find effective combinations so that the players can unlock their potential, — said Gatiyatulin.

Ak Bars — Torpedo — 4:3 (0:2, 1:0, 2:1, 1:0)
Goals:
0:1 — Konyushkov (Firstov, Belevich, 17:07);
0:2 — Letunov (Goncharuk, Konyushkov, 19:27);
1:2 — Pustozyorov (Marchenko, Katelevsky, 34:14);
1:3 — Sokolov (Konyushkov, Goncharuk, 44:31, PP);
2:3 — Dvinyaninov (Yarullin, Terekhov, 51:34);
3:3 — Khmelevsky (Dvinyaninov, Jaskin, 59:48, PP, 6 on 5);
4:3 — Miller (Barabanov, 60:24).

Ak Bars will play their next match on February 17th in Omsk against Avangard at 4:30 PM Moscow time. In the near future, Kazan will be playing more away games. Before the regular season ends, the “Bars” have only four games left to play in Kazan.