SKA - Dinamo Minsk. Introducing the opponents

CURRENT STANDINGS

9. SKA, 33 matches, 14 regulation victories, 2 overtime victories, 3 penalty shootout victories, 9 regulation defeats, 2 overtime defeats, 3 penalty shootout defeats, goal difference 103-76, 43 points

14. Dinamo Minsk, 33 matches, 12 regulation victories, 4 overtime victories, 11 regulation defeats, 2 overtime defeats, 4 penalty shootout defeats, goal difference 97-105, 38 points

FORM

Dinamo Minsk are always an entertaining watch. Boasting a strong squad with plenty of firepower, the Belarusians are one of the KHL’s top scorers with 97 goals in 33 games, but, at the same time, they have conceded 105. Only Vityaz Podolsk (106), Admiral Vladivostok (117) and Kunlun Red Star Beijing (127) have let in more goals than Craig Woodcroft’s troops.

The Minsk-based outfit are currently sitting in eighth spot of the Western Conference with 38 points on the board. However, given that Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod are only two points behind in ninth position, Dinamo cannot afford too many more slip-ups as the race for the Gagarin Cup playoffs intensifies.

While Dinamo Minsk have lost six of their past seven matches against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (home, 3:7), Severstal Cherepovets (home, 3:4 SO), CSKA (home, 3:6), Sibir Novosibirsk (home, 1:2 SO), Barys Nur-Sultan (away, 2:3 SO) and Metallurg Magnitogorsk (away, 4:5 SO), they only failed to register a point on two occasions. On November 25, Dinamo held a healthy four-goal advantage against Magnitogorsk on the road after 40 minutes of play, before they subsequently capitulated to concede four straight and subsequently lose in a penalty shootout.

Dinamo are coming into this game on the back of a tense 2:1 triumph over Traktor Chelyabinsk in Minsk on Sunday.

Forwards Malte Stromwall (13+12), Taylor Beck (4+18), Mattias Tedenby (9+12), Tyler Graovac (7+14) and Ilya Usov (7+11) are all enjoying excellent seasons for Minsk, while Swedish defensemen Adam Almquist (3+16) and Lukas Bengtsson (3+12) are very productive at the blue line. This will be Stromwall’s and Bengtsson’s maiden appearance in Saint Petersburg since leaving SKA in the summer.

With a Canadian coach and several North Americans and Europeans in their squad, it’s no surprise that Minsk like to compete in an aggressive, fast manner, crashing the net with intensity at any given opportunity. Goalkeeper Alexei Kolosov, defensemen Anton Lindholm (0+7), Jakub Krejcik (0+5) and forwards Mario Kempe (5+9) and Igor Martynov (0+0) have not made the trip to Saint Petersburg as a result of injury problems.

SKA have lost five straight games at home against Magnitogorsk (2:3 SO), Spartak Moscow (1:2 OT), Lokomotiv (1:3), Sibir (1:2) and Severstal (1:3) to fall to fifth place of the conference, trailing leaders Jokerit Helsinki by five points. Forward Andrei Kuzmenko is our leading scorer with 35 (14+21) points to his name.

Defensemen Mikko Lehtonen (1+2) and Vasily Tokranov (1+0) are continuing to sit on the sidelines with injuries.

This will be the second meeting between these teams in the 2021/2022 regular season. On September 25, SKA emerged victorious in overtime in Belarus by a score of 2:1, as Marat Khusnutdinov and Anton Burdasov hit the target. Roman Gorbunov scored Dinamo’s only goal of the game to initially equalise in the second period.

GOALKEEPING STATISTICS

SKA

Lars Johansson: 24 matches, 12 wins, 9 defeats, 481 saves made, 39 goals conceded, save percentage 92.5%, goals against average 1.78, 7 shutouts

Alexander Samonov: 7 matches, 3 wins, 3 defeats, 105 saves made, 18 goals conceded, save percentage 85.4%, goals against average 3.87

Yaroslav Askarov: 5 matches, 2 wins, 2 defeats, 75 saves made, 8 goals conceded, save percentage 90.4%, goals against average 2.01

Dmitry Nikolaev: 3 matches, 2 wins, 59 saves made, 5 goals conceded, save percentage 92.2%, goals against average 1.73

DINAMO MINSK

Alexei Kolosov: 18 matches, 9 wins, 8 defeats, 466 saves made, 49 goals conceded, save percentage 90.5%, goals against average 2.88, 1 shutout

Patrik Rybar: 14 matches, 6 wins, 7 defeats, 387 saves made, 39 goals conceded, save percentage 90.8%, goals against average 2.93

Sergei Bolshakov: 3 matches, 1 win, 2 defeats, 73 saves made, 11 goals conceded, save percentage 86.9%, goals against average 3.79

WHERE TO WATCH

Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time at the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. KHL PRIME and Channel 78 (Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region) will provide a television broadcast in Russia, whereas you can watch a live video worldwide on the KHL’s official website. Text updates can be found on our Twitter account.