Dinamo Minsk - SKA

Dinamo Minsk - SKA - 3:2

27 January 2016

Following seven home matches in a row, SKA travelled to Belarus to play HC Dinamo Minsk away. Head coach Sergei Zubov opted for Igor Shestyorkin in net, and Vyacheslav Voynov was included in the first line. Roman Rukavishnikov was our only defenceman in the fourth, while for Dinamo Jeff Glass was between the pipes.

Our team were fired up for this one after two home defeats on the bounce, and begun strongly in Minsk. Early chances came and went, however Dinamo slowly managed to warm up. An early Vyacheslav Voynov penalty gave them an ideal opportunity to take the initiative, and they did just that. Jonathan Cheechoo escaped his marker on the right wing, and fired into the far corner. That was a real setback for SKA, and worse was yet to come. On a breakaway Alexey Kalyuzhny wound up, and thumped over Igor Shestyorkin’s glove for their second goal on only their fourth shot. Things were threatening to get out of hand for our players, but they did get it together towards the end of the frame. Dinamo started to take penalties as our pressure built, and Jeff Glass’ net was peppered from all angles. He made an amazing right pad save to shut the door on Sergei Shirokov at point blank range, and he then got lucky as Vadim Shipachyov, Maxim Chudinov and Ilya Kovalchuk were all denied by the woodwork in a frantic end to the frame.

SKA carried on from where they left off in the second period, and had a number of clear opportunities on Dinamo’s crease. The best of the lot fell to Nikita Gusev, however with an open net to aim at he was shut down by a football like save by Jeff Glass. Our team were becoming visabally frustrated, and took two penalties in a row for goaltender interference. That let Dinamo calm things down somewhat, and after making Igor Shestyorkin work they netted their third. Jonathan Cheechoo spread the puck across from the left, and it took a wicked deflection off Yegor Yakovlev’s skate to take it over the line. Nevertheless SKA weren’t willing to let their heads drop, and finally got on the board in the next play. Vyacheslav Voynov fed the waiting Nikita Gusev on the doorstep, and he calmly slotted in. That gave our team a boost, and a second should really have been scored before the siren rung. Maxim Chudinov thundered a one timer against the left post, and Ilya Kovalchuk whacked off target when in a fantastic position.

The Belorussian hosts opted to fully shut up shop as time rolled on, and in the third frame the puck barely left Dinamo’s zone. Chance after chance was coming, but Dinamo’s Jeff Glass was having the game of his life. He was a wall in their net, and despite our players’ best efforts the puck wasn’t getting beyond the Canadian netminder. Ilya Kablukov wristed off the crossbar from distance, Alexei Ponikarovsky couldn’t score clean through, and Anton Belov had a ferocious slap shot covered. Panic was growing in our camp, however with one minute left the players did make it a grandstand finish. On the powerplay Vadim Shipachyov took up a juicy rebound, and carefully lifted it into the right corner from a tight angle. Sergei Zubov took a timeout after that, pulled Igor Shestyorkin, but incredibly Vadim went from hero to zero. With half a minute on the clock he took an unneeded tripping call, and that ended our hopes of a comeback. 2:3 today, and the next match will take place at home to HC Severstal Cherepovets on Friday the 28^th of January.

Match protocol:

Dinamo Minsk – SKA – 3:2 (2:0, 1:1, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Cheechoo (Gunderson, Szczechura), 04.00

2:0 Kalyuzhny, 09.43

3:0 Cheechoo (Ellison, Gunderson), 36.23

3:1 Gusev (Voynov, Buchnevich), 37.10

3:2 Shipachyov (Dadonov), 58.56

Goalkeepers: Glass – Shestyorkin

Shots on target: 19 – 47

Penalty minutes: 16 – 10

Faceoffs: 29 – 27