See how Ruber "stole" the goal from Ila. Know full details

See how Ruber "stole" the goal from Ila.

 photo: BUSINESS Online

Ak Bars lost the first home match of the 1/4 finals of the Eastern Conference of the Gagarin Cup against Avangard (1:2 OT). Kazan had 29 shots on target. At least one of them should have been a goal, but the visitors' goalkeeper Szymon Grubec intervened.

The episode took place early in the second period. Kazan played for the majority received after the sending off of Sergei Tolchinsky for a blow with a stick. Stephen Campfer took the puck at the blue line, gave a pass to Danis Zaripov, who, after waiting for a pause, passed the puck to Jordan Wiel on the other flank. The Canadian took it straight into the stick, but procrastinated and allowed Grubec to make a spectacular save.

During the match, the Czech saved his team in the other three sending-offs that Avangard players received. So far, Grubec is as reliable as he was in the past playoffs. Then the goalkeeper played 18 games, a fantastic percentage of shots saved (95), as well as a reliability coefficient (1.45). It is worth noting that the transfer of Hrubets to Avangard was criticized. The goalkeeper came from Kunlun, in which he did not have the best statistics (91.9%, reliability coefficient of 3.31). But over time, the goalkeeper proved his worth, became the first number of the team, became the winner of the Gagarin Cup in the squad and deserved the extension of the contract (until 2023) and its increase. Grubets raised his salary from 15 to 50 million rubles.

After the match, Vanguard head coach Bob Hartley admitted that the save was the key moment of the match: "Yes, yes, yes. It's cool! It's the most important save match."

At the same time, at the tournament of the Olympics in Beijing, the goalkeeper did not play in the best way. He started in four games, but did not show a reliable game. He averaged nearly 3 goals per game and stopped just 86.52 percent of his shots. As a result, the Czechs were eliminated in the 1/8 finals, losing to Switzerland (2:4).

KHL. Gagarin Cup. Eastern Conference. 1/4 finals. 1st match

Ak Bars (Kazan) – Avangard (Omsk) – 1:2 OT (0:0, 0:0, 1:1, 0:1) 

March 2. Tatneft Arena. 

0:1 Prokhorkin (Tseglarik, 53:01)

1:1 Kagarlitsky (Kovalenko, Demers, 55:36)

1:2 Prokhorkin (Tseglarik, 63:52)

Goalkeepers: Bilyalov – Grubec