Dynamo Moscow - SKA

Dynamo Moscow - SKA - 5:1

4 January 2016

SKA played their first match of 2016 away against HC Dynamo Moscow in the Russian capital. Head coach Sergei Zubov opted to put Mikko Koskinen in net for this one, with Ilya Ezhov backing him up. Pavel Buchnevich was again included in the fourth line, and Steve Moses kept his place in the first with captain llya Kovalchuk and Alexander Kadeikin. Alexander Lazushin was Dynamo’s starting goaltender.

With this being such a huge match-up the tension was high inside the sold-out VTB Arena, and it was SKA who begun the stronger. The puck was being kept inside Dynamo’s zone for long periods, and with practically the first chance of the day our players opened the scoring. The puck bounced around Dynamo’s crease, and Dinar Khafizullin poked it beyond the goaltender on the right faceoff circle. That gave our team confidence, and the next few minutes belonged to SKA. Sergei Shirokov almost found the net when bursting through the away defence, Dmitry Kalinin had a powerful slapper stopped, and Evgeny Dadonov failed to get a clean shot away when clean through. Nevertheless as time wore on Dynamo began to up the tempo, and Mikko Koskinen was a busy man. Up close he made a stunning right pad save, however when on the penalty kill he was left powerless. Juuso Hietanen wound up on the right flank, and his one timer got the better of our goaltender. Our players lost their way after that, and had to rely on Mikko to get through to the break level.

Despite that pressure SKA once again took charge of proceedings in the second stanza, and had some guilt edged opportunities in front of Dynamo’s net. Steve Moses hacked over from the doorstep, and the Dynamo netminder was being called into regular action. Dynamo were still dangerous on the counterattack though, and they ended up taking the lead. With our defencemen out of position the puck was sent to the far left post, and Vladimir Bryukvin tapped home. That didn’t seem to bother our players however, and they continued pressurizing. Nikita Gusev had an effort cleared off the line, and Andrei Kuteikin and Vadim Shipachyov both fired wide of open nets. Those misses are usually punished, and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened here. Home defenceman Mat Robinson skated away down the right wing, and sent the puck in through the five hole.

The third period saw SKA continue to dominate inside Dynamo’s zone, but the hosts’ counterattacks were killing us. On two similar breakaways the puck was sent to the left, and both Ivan Igumov and Mat Robinson escaped their markers to backhand under Mikko’s left pad. SKA kept on plugging away right until the end, but there was no way that Dynamo’s Alexander Lazushin was going to be beaten again today. 1:5, and SKA will next play HC Vityaz Podolsk away on Wednesday.

Match protocol:

Dynamo Moscow – SKA – 5:1 (1:1, 2:0, 2:0)

Goals:

0:1 Khafizullin, 01.45

1:1 Hietanen (Mironov, Pestushko), 15.20

2:1 Bryukvin (Tereshchenko, Kokarev), 24.27

3:1 Robinson (Osipov), 35.38

4:1 Igumov (Shilov), 45.03

5:1 Robinson (Karpov), 50.25

Goalkeepers: Lazushin – Koskinen

Shots on target: 23 - 31

Penalty minutes: 10 - 35