Spirited comeback denies Dynamo!

7 September 2026

SKA had their backs against the wall at two down in the maiden Cup of the First match against Dynamo Moscow, but braces from Andrei Pedan and Sergei Plotnikov fired the hosts to a dramatic 5:3 home win.

The Muscovites appeared to be in full control midway through what turned out to be a thrilling encounter. Nevertheless, after Pedan's quickfire double had hauled SKA level, two subsequent power-play markers tallied by Plotnikov and Vasily Atanasov proved decisive.

Dynamo had initially opened the scoring in the seventh minute of play, with sloppy defending from SKA allowing Nick Merkley far too much time and space in which to pick his spot.

Our task then became doubly as difficult in the early stages of the second stanza thanks to Yegor Rimashevsky bundling in on the PP.

However, instead of caving in, SKA urgently set about righting the situation.

Pedan cut the deficit in half with an unstoppable one-timer from distance, before the same player repeated the trick nine minutes later.

And, a mere 15 seconds after Pedan's leveller, SKA took their maiden lead of the evening as the unmarked Plotnikov hammered past Maxim Motorygin on the man advantage.

Another power-play at the start of the third period paved the way for SKA to open up a two-goal cushion of their own.

When conjuring up a quite brilliant passing play together with four-point star Nikolai Goldobin, Atanasov cut through the Dynamo defence with aplomb and applied a fitting finish.

Applying an increasing amount of pressure on SKA as time ticked by, Dynamo registered their third in the 52nd minute with Rimashevsky beating Artemiy Pleshkov for the second time, but our players iced it with Plotnikov's late empty-netter.

SKA will now prepare to host Lada Tolyatti in Saint Petersburg on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Dynamo Moscow - 5:3 (0:1, 3:1, 2:1)

Goals:

0:1 Merkley (Weal, Martynov), 06.06

0:2 Rimashevsky (Sikura, Weal), 23.17 PPG

1:2 Pedan (Weissbach, Glotov), 28.14

2:2 Pedan (Goldobin), 37.11

3:2 Plotnikov (Goldobin, Chebykin), 37.26 PPG

4:2 Atanasov (Goldobin, Savikov), 44.40 PPG

4:3 Rimashevsky (Korostelyov, Ozhiganov), 51.45

5:3 Plotnikov (Goldobin), 59.51 EN