After a near-elimination in the conference finals, Metallurg Magnitogorsk today completed a four-game sweep of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in the 2024 Gagarin Cup finals, capturing their third title and first in eight years.

Following their second round sweep at the hands of Omsk last season, Metallurg was on a redemption mission this season, dispatching both Amur and Spartak in six games before being taken to the limit in the conference final by Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, in a playoffs marked with upsets. In the debut year of the “crossover” format for Eastern and Western Conference teams, Metallurg was the only higher-ranked seed out of the semifinals, with SKA Saint Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow and Avangard Omsk all upset in the second round.

In Game Four at Arena 2000 in Yaroslavl, it was Yaroslav Likhachyov’s early goal midway through the first period that held as the game winner until just before the end of the second period, when Denis Zernov notched his twelfth goal of the playoffs with just 38 seconds remaining in the second period. Then midway through the third frame, Danil Vovchenko struck on the power play, and Playoff MVP goaltender Ilya Nabokov shut out Lokomotiv for the remainder of the game to seal the sweep and the Gagarin Cup.

Our congratulations go out to the players, management and fans of Metallurg Magnitogorsk, with those on the roster that have also held the IHLC highlighted in bold:

Photo Credit: KHL – IIHF – HHOF – IOC