Capitals top goaltending prospect, Ilya Samsonov, suffered a rare loss Wednesday night as Metallurg Magnitogorsk fell to Avangard Omsk 5-2. It was only the 19-year-old’s second regulation loss in 22 KHL games this season.
But that doesn’t mean Samsonov didn’t have his moments. Such as seven minutes into the first period where Ilya made a series of insane, sprawling saves. Diving back and forth across the crease in a crazed effort to deflect shot after shot, the Metallurg Magnitogorsk goalie (and the post) turned away three quality scoring chances at the same time.
GIFs
After stopping a breakaway with his pad, check out how quickly the athletic Samsonov makes another save from the top of the crease back diving back to the post.
Though he may have sacrificed some grace, as well as his goalie stick, Samsonov somehow kept the game scoreless.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game did not go as well for the Caps netminder prospect: on a total of 44 shots, he let in four goals–two at even strength, and two while a man down.
On both PPGs, which Samsonov appeared to see just fine, the young goaltender seemed out of sync, as if his timing were behind by a few hundredths of a second. The second PPG, at 1:08 into the third period, was especially glaring, coming from the top of the left faceoff circle and beating Samsonov through the five hole as the netminder was still getting his pads down onto the ice.
On the season, Samsonov’s stats remain out of this world. He has a 14-2-3 record on the season with a save percentage of 93.6% and a goals against average of 2.10.
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