Game six. Dinamo Minsk - SKA

Game six. Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 2:4

11 March 2023

In the sixth match of the first round of the 2022/2023 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs, SKA coped with the challenge provided by Dinamo Minsk on the road, emerging victorious 4:2 to consequently clinch the series by the same score and qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition!

This is the 13th consecutive season in which SKA have successfully passed through the first phase of the playoffs.

It was certainly an eventful start to proceedings.

Vladimir Alistrov took advantage of a wicked ricochet to open the scoring for Minsk shorthanded, but Vasily Glotov conjured up an instant response with a superb individual effort after receiving an intelligent pass from Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov.

SKA opened up their maiden lead in the ninth minute.

Unmarked to the right of the slot, Mikhail Vorobyov gave a flowing play the perfect finish with home goalkeeper Alexei Kolosov caught off his line.

Our players controlled the play for the majority of the match, preventing Minsk from creating clear shooting lanes. At the start of the second stanza, Vorobyov wasted a glorious opportunity to increase our lead, as he couldn't force his wraparound in.

Despite running into severe penalty trouble with poor discipline, Dinamo drew level with yet another shorthanded goal in this series.

Under no pressure whatsoever, Andrei Pedan contrived to cough up possession to Igor Martynov, who promptly sent the onrushing Sergei Sapego through with a pinpoint pass. The latter expertly did the rest, neatly sliding the puck past Dmitry Nikolaev.

However, to our delight, Pedan atoned for his mistake a minute later.

Standing at the blue line, the tall defenseman whacked a huge one-timer into the right corner after having received an intelligent pass from the impressive Glotov.

On the counter-attack, SKA then passed up two ideal chances to double their money, as Nikita Gusev and Vorobyov both smacked the right post when skating 1-on-1.

Thankfully, SKA steadied the ship in the third period. Defending solidly, our team barely allowed Minsk to carve open any realistic scoring chances, keeping the desperate hosts at arm's length. Dinamo did indeed only register four shots on target in the stanza.

In the closing minutes, Dinamo predictably opted to swap Kolosov for the extra skater, but that only resulted in Marat Khairullin sealing SKA's progression with an empty-netter.

SKA will now wait for the schedule for the quarter-finals of the tournament to be released. Our opponents in the next stage are also yet to be confirmed.

Match protocol:

Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 2:4 (1:2, 1:1, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Alistrov, 01.26

1:1 Glotov (Grebenshchikov), 02.30

1:2 Vorobyov (Khairullin, Zhafyarov), 08.06

2:2 Sapego (Martynov), 31.20 SHG

2:3 Pedan (Glotov), 32.33

2:4 Khairullin (Komarov, Nikishin), 59.45 EN

Goalkeepers: Kolosov - Nikolaev

Shots: 55 - 64

Shots on target: 32 - 37