Season-2003/04. 20-year-old Vasily Koshechkin will make his debut in the main team of the Togliatti Lada under the leadership of Pyotr Ilyich Vorobyov. It was the start of a great career.

For 17 seasons, he collected almost everything that is possible in the collection of trophies: Olympic gold, medals of all the merits of the World Championship and two Gagarin Cups. The peak of the goalkeeper’s career fell on the period from 2014 to 2018 – the championship after a phenomenal seven-match series against the Prague “Lion”, a victory over CSKA in 2016 and, finally, the legendary Pyeongchang – he flew there almost in the status of a veteran.

Vasily Koshechkin / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Vladimir Pesnya

But everything comes to an end. His Magnitogorsk began to sink, in 2019 and 2020 the team flew out of the playoffs unusually early, in the first round. And the goalkeeper stopped helping out regularly – after all, age.

Koshechkin took the second Gagarin Cup under the guidance of the son of his first coach. Then Ilya Petrovich Vorobyov made a two-year pause in relations with Magnitogorsk, and after returning he began to raise the team from the bottom. They also had to work on the goalkeeper team: a young Finn, Juho Olkinuora, joined Vasily, who eventually ousted Koshechkin from the post of the main goalkeeper.

As a result, in the regular season 2021/2022, the Russian goalkeeper played only 14 matches. He was fully prepared for such a role – well, years do not allow pulling a higher load.

And then there was a mass departure of legionnaires for all known reasons. Metallurg did not pass this story either – Olkinuora went to Finland right during the first round. The load collapsed on the veteran.

In fairness, the last frontier did not become a strong point of Magnitogorsk. Koshechkin and Ivan Nalimov, who joined the team after the regular season, missed 15 goals in two games with Avangard, 6 in the second match with Tractor. Magnitogorsk beat rivals with other components – tactics and a powerful attack.

But at the most necessary moments, Koshechkin reincarnates himself eight years ago. So it was in the fourth and fifth games of the final of the East, and so it is now, in the series against CSKA.

Photo: © Denis Bushkovsky / Match TV

Two “crackers” in a row – a repeat of the record for the Gagarin Cup finals. Previously, Shimon Grubets did this a year ago – also in the final series against CSKA, and Ilya Sorokin in 2019 – he played just for CSKA. Both are much younger than Koshechkin.

Of course, the key to such success is not only the top game of the goalkeeper, but also the work of the outfield players. In the second period of the fourth match, CSKA kept tired Magnitogorsk players near the gate for six minutes without the right to change, but they threw it only once during this time. Nevertheless, a total of 64 shots flew to the Metallurg goal in 120 minutes – a very serious load on the goalkeeper.

Especially considering that most of the game took place in the Magnitogorsk zone. Even if the opponent did not throw, the goalkeeper was constantly in suspense, there was a minimum of time to rest. But when Metallurg took the lead 4-0 in the third game and Vorobyov offered Koshechkin to change and rest, Vasily refused and played to the end.

And now, together with Metallurg, he is one step away from the third Gagarin Cup. The next match is in Magnitogorsk. If the army team does not figure out what to do with the rivals’ redoubts, the name of the already legendary goalkeeper can be hung under the arches of the Metallurg Arena at least immediately.

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