A hail of late goals for Traktor Chelyabinsk took the regular-season champion past Ak Bars Kazan 4-1 away on Saturday and into the KHL Eastern Conference final against Avangard Omsk.
Evgeny Kuznetsov struck twice in the third period to knock out last year's runner-up Ak Bars and seal a 4-2 series win.
The exit of Ak Bars, the 2009 and 2010 champion, guarantees that this year’s Gagarin Cup winner will be lifting the trophy for the first time, after the Kazan team knocked out holder Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the first round of the playoffs.
Konstantin Panov gave Traktor an early lead with a solo strike on 18 minutes, on an Ak Bars powerplay after Panov’s teammate Anton Burdasov was penalized for hooking.
Nineteen shots in the second period yielded no goals before Traktor sealed the win in the third.
Denis Zaripov equalized for Ak Bars early in the third period, but Kuznetsov restored the lead on his own six minutes later.
With 90 seconds remaining, Petri Kontiola made it 3-1 before Kuznetsov added an empty-netter to end Kazan's resistance.
Avangard qualified for the final by completing a 4-1 series win over Metallurg Magnitogorsk on Thursday.
In the Western Conference final, SKA St. Petersburg will take on Dynamo Moscow.
Both teams qualified with 4-2 series wins Friday, SKA beating Atlant Moscow Region, while Dynamo defeated Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
