Dinamo Minsk - SKA

Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 3:5

8 December 2022

In a highly eventful encounter, SKA just had enough to beat Dinamo Minsk on the road in the 2022/2023 KHL regular season, claiming an exciting 5:3 victory.

Minsk took the lead in the seventh minute following a quick start. After a poor defensive mistake, the hosts were gifted a 2-on-1 opportunity, and Vadim Moroz emphatically thumped the puck past SKA goaltender Dmitry Nikolaev when receiving a pinpoint pass.

The home team were on top for the majority of the opening frame. Nevertheless, SKA subsequently made a large improvement in the second, creating several clear scoring opportunities.

Shorthanded, Vasily Glotov should have grabbed our equaliser, but he missed the target twice when clean through.

Our equalising goal eventually arrived in the 33rd minute. Unmarked on the left flank, Nikita Gusev collected the loose puck and whipped it into the left corner.

That goal sparked SKA into life.

Firmly on the front foot, SKA tallied two more goals before the second period was out, with Gusev hitting the jackpot from the blue line before Damir Zhafyarov tapped Marat Khairullin's intelligent pass in with Minsk goalkeeper Alexei Kolosov down and out.

SKA seemed to be in the box seat. However, Minsk had other ideas.

Out of the blue, the Belarusians managed to get back on level terms within the first three minutes of the third period. Igor Martynov tallied their goal to draw level, beating Nikolaev from a tight angle on the right wing after Joseph Duszak had got the better of our goalkeeper with an unstoppable rocket on the powerplay.

Those pair of goals forced our coaches into using their time-out.

In the subsequent shift, Nikolaev came to SKA's rescue, denying Denis Mosalyov at point-blank range.

To our delight, though, our players managed to get back on track and prevented Minsk from building on their momentum.

The decisive moment occurred midway through the stanza. The home defence prevented young SKA defenseman Arseniy Koromyslov from skating 1-on-1, but Dmitrij Jaskin pounced on the loose puck to thump it past Kolosov blocker-side.

SKA made sure of the points in the 53rd minute. Initially, the referees waved off Alexander Volkov's goal from the crease, but the puck was confirmed to have crossed the line following a lengthy video review.

Our team will return to KHL action on December 19 at home to Vityaz Moscow Region in Saint Petersburg. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 3:5 (1:0, 0:3, 2:2)

Goals:

1:0 Moroz (Merkley, Spooner), 06.49

1:1 Gusev, 32.15

1:2 Gusev (Khusnutdinov, Jaskin), 34.31

1:3 Zhafyarov (Khairullin), 35.23

2:3 Duszak (Merkley, Alistrov), 41.34 PPG

3:3 Martynov (Gilmour, Lalonde), 42.22

3:4 Jaskin, 49.44

3:5 Volkov (Zykov, Tsitsyura), 52.31