Dinamo Minsk - SKA

Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 2:1 PS

24 December 2014

Today on the 24^th of December, SKA played its first match after the Channel One Cup break against Dinamo Minsk in Belarus. The line-up was somewhat jiggled around, with Tony Martensson, Patrick Thoresen and Jimmie Ericsson playing together in the first line. Pytor Khokhryakov made his competitive debut in the fourth, and Mikko Koskinen was trusted with being in net.

SKA began the period on the front foot, and created a few handy opportunities to score after drawing a penalty from Dinamo. The team’s attack was struggling to get in behind the home defence though, and eventually it was Dinamo who started to look the more threatening. Jonathan Cheechoo with a man’s advantage called Mikko Koskinen into action high blocker side, and as the period was drawing to a close he had to make some excellent reactions stops from point blank range.

If the first didn’t see much goalmouth action, then the second was where the game really burst into life. Dmitry Kalinin thought that he had broken the deadlock when his slap shot from distance looked to have squeezed in – on video review however the puck was found to have not crossed the line. After that Dinamo again took up the initiative, and Mikko Koskinen in particular had to make a wonderful save against Jonathan Cheechoo, shutting the Dinamo forward down by his left hand post. The match was visibly opening up, and it was SKA who struck first blood - Jimmie Ericsson powered down the right flank, and caught the goaltender cold near post. However that lead lasted for only a matter of seconds. Nick Bailen twisted to the right faceoff circle, and his powerful wrister beat the unsighted Mikko Koskinen.

The third period saw gaping opportunities come and go for both sides, as the Minsk Arena became impatient for more goals. Yevgeni Dadonov had an ideal chance to sneak all three points for SKA, but when on a two on one down the right he failed to lift the puck over the goalkeeper’s outstretched glove. Dinamo then had an almost identical opening of their own seconds before the buzzer, as Paul Szczechura was denied by a superb Mikko Koskinen save when going with the backhand. No goals were seen in overtime, and despite Yevgeni Ketov netting for our team in the shootout, Dinamo forward Ryan Vesce struck gold twice to leave SKA with only one point from Minsk.

Match protocol:

Dinamo Minsk – SKA – 2:1 PS (0:0, 1:1, 0:0 – 0:0)

Goals:

0:1 Ericsson (Khafizullin, Thoresen), 36.31

1:1 Bailen (Kulakov, Meleshko), 37.51

2:1 Vesce, PS

Goalkeepers: Taylor – Koskinen

Shots: 25 – 26

Penalty minutes: 12 – 12

Faceoffs: 35 – 28

Hits: 17 – 16

Blocked shots: 14 – 6