During the third game of a KHL series between Sibir Novosibirsk and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, goaltender Alexander Salak repeatedly punched Maxim Yakutsenya in the face with his blocked after Yakutsenya ended up in the crease. Sibir's Salak was given a five-minute major for checking to the head and kicked out of the game.
KHL goaltender ejected after repeatedly punching crease-crasher in the face with blockerNHL fans may remember goaltender Alexander Salak from the time he spent with the Florida Panthers or Chicago Blackhawks. For KHL fans, Salak can now be remembered for the time he got kicked out of a playoff game for repeatedly punching crease-crashing winger Maxim Yakutsenya in the face.
Salak, who plays for Sibir Novosibirsk, got into the altercation with Mettalurg Magnitogorsk's Yakutsenya less than halfway through the first period of the third game of the second round series between the two teams. After Yakutsenya fell into Salak's crease, the netminder began to tee off on Yakutsenya's face with his blocker. The two continued to tussle for almost half a minute before Sibir defenseman Vitali Menshikov pulled Yakutsenya off of Salak. You can watch the full wrestling match below:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpq2dqgbr6s[/embed]
The dust-up didn't come without its punishment for Salak. With two and a half periods left to play, Salak was handed a five-minute major for checking to the head and was ejected from the game. In the first ten minutes of the game, Salak had surrendered two goals and his actions may have been due to frustration. In the first two games of the series, both of which Sibir won, Salak had allowed only two goals.
Though no word has been handed down about possible suspension for Salak, it did leave Sibir without their starting goaltender for the remainder of the game. Metallurg went on to win 5-2, pulling the series to 2-1 in favor of Sibir.
Sibir and Magnitogorsk square off tomorrow for the fourth game of the best-of-seven series.