The fifth confrontation of the final series of the Gagarin Cup between Metallurg Magnitogorsk and CSKA Moscow may decide the fate of the trophy. The meeting has already been marked by another record of Vasily Koshechkin, who at a respectable age continues to amaze the hockey audience. The Guardian of the Gates of the Urals broke Ilya Sorokin’s record for the longest dry streak in the KHL playoff finals and brought his team as close as possible to victory in the season.

And we did not take this hockey player to the Olympics?

Phenomenal Vasily

By the next campaign for the Gagarin Cup, Koshechkin found himself as the main goalkeeper of Metallurg – colleague Juho Olkinuora decided to leave the team at a difficult time. In general, Vasily was reliable – getting into the final of the tournament clearly hints that Magnitogorsk had no serious problems with the last frontier.

However, for the time being, it was also possible to indulge the public with “crackers” also infrequently. One game to zero in the series against Avangard, a similar result in the confrontation with Traktor. It would seem that it was not worth waiting for any records from an experienced hockey player.

In the opening game with CSKA, Koshechkin missed three times, in the second match, the opponents outplayed him four times. But after the series moved to Moscow, the attack of the “soldiers” had difficulties, although, perhaps, the matter is in the goalkeeper of “Metallurg”, who adapted to the game of the “red-blue”?

Two dry victories of the team of Ilya Vorobyov over CSKA in the capital became possible thanks to the actions of Koshechkin in the frame. He did not miss the world champion and the Olympics in the first period of the next match on the Magnitogorsk ice. Along the way, the phenomenal Vasily left the “soldiers” without one statistical achievement.

Former Red-Blues goalkeeper Ilya Sorokin held the record for the longest dry streak, scoring 137 minutes and 55 seconds in the 2019 Gagarin Cup final. Now a new benchmark for goaltenders in the Continental Hockey League is 155 minutes and 49 seconds. It was at this level that Koshechkin’s series froze after Konstantin Okulov’s puck.

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Recall that in the 2019 series, the Moscow team defeated Avangard with a score of 4-0. With a similar score, Metallurg will no longer be able to win the confrontation – the team of Sergei Fedorov won at least one victory. However, there is no point in drawing parallels with that series. In any case, the reliable performance of Metallurg’s goalkeeper brings the Magnitogorsk team closer to the coveted trophy. For the triumph, Vorobyov’s wards had to win one match.