Third-period blitz costs SKA dearly

6 April 2025

SKA were left to rue a poor start to the third period, conceding three times in the space of six minutes to consequently suffer a 2:5 home loss to Dynamo Moscow in the sixth match of the first round of the 2024/2025 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs.

Moreover, as a consequence of this result, SKA have bowed out of the tournament with an overall 2-4 series defeat.

The home team bossed the first period with their proactive approach.

Ex-SKA goaltender Vladislav Podyapolsky was a busy man for Dynamo in what was his maiden appearance of the series, tallying 17 saves in the opening stanza alone! Although the majority of shots were being unleashed from distance, he did have to make a handful of tough stops, especially when SKA were blocking his view.

Nevertheless, it was Dynamo who wasted the two best opportunities of the period.

Dylan Sikura backhanded wide with only Artemiy Pleshkov to beat, before our goalkeeper displayed lightning-quick reflexes to somehow deny Artyom Ilyenko at point-blank range.

The game well and truly burst into life in the second period.

Maxim Dzhioshvili opened the scoring in the 25^th minute for Dynamo, carefully deflecting Artyom Kudashov’s effort in.

However, SKA conjured up an instant reply, with Valentin Zykov expertly tipping between Podyapolsky’s pads.

The same player then scored a virtually identical marker midway through the frame to give SKA their first lead of the evening. Feeling that there had been a hand pass involved in the play building up to the goal, Dynamo head coach Alexei Kudashov opted to use his coach’s challenge, but the officials ruled it a clean goal following a lengthy video review.

In comparison to the first period, Dynamo were now displaying more attacking aggression. Cedric Paquette passed up their clearest opportunity, striking the right post with the backhand when alone on the crease.

We subsequently endured a nightmare start to the third period.

The dangerous Maxime Comtois only required 90 seconds to draw Dynamo level, escaping the attentions of our defence and calmly backhanding through Pleshkov.

The Muscovites didn’t have to wait long for their go-ahead goal either.

Kirill Adamchuk took aim from the blue line, with the puck sneaking under a visibly angry Pleshkov who smashed his stick against the bar in frustration.

Matters soon went from bad to worse as the game rapidly got away from SKA.

After Evgeny Kuznetsov had been punished for clumsily clattering into Podyapolsky, Nikita Gusev put Dynamo into a commanding position, ripping an unstoppable wrister over Pleshkov’s blocker having beaten our defence with a trademark move.

With their backs suddenly against the wall, SKA required time to regain their composure. When gifted a late powerplay after Dynamo had been penalised for delaying the game, our team began to force the issue and swapped Pleshkov for the extra skater, but apart from Zykov’s shot at close range no clear chances were created.

Dzhioshvili added a late empty-netter for good measure as Dynamo saw out proceedings professionally to book their spot in the quarter-finals of the competition.

We will now shift our focus to the VHL and MHL playoffs respectively, where SKA-Neva and SKA-1946 are in action!

Match protocol:

SKA – Dynamo Moscow – 2:5 (0:0, 2:1, 0:4)

Goals:

0:1 Dzhioshvili (Kudashov), 24.06

1:1 Zykov (Pedan), 26.45

2:1 Zykov (Gritsyuk), 29.34

2:2 Comtois (Rashevsky, Sizov), 41.29

2:3 Adamchuk, 42.41

2:4 Gusev (Menell), 45.51 PPG

2:5 Dzhioshvili (Ilyenko, Comtois), 59.06 EN

Goalkeepers: Pleshkov – Podyapolsky