SKA - Dinamo Minsk

SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 2:1

27 August 2015

The second match of the 2015/2016 KHL regular season took place today, as our team faced HC Dinamo Minsk inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. Following the opening day defeat to CSKA Moscow head coach Andrei Nazarov juggled the team around, and there were plenty of surprises to be seen. Ilya Ezhov replaced Mikko Koskinen in net, and Arseniy Khatsey, Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov and Alexander Dergachyov all made their competitive SKA debuts in the fourth line.

SKA came out with serious power, and Dmitry Milchakov in Dinamo’s net was being peppered from the word go. Vadim Shipachyov contrived to hit the right post when completely clean through, and on the powerplay Evgeny Dadonov could only lift the puck over the crossbar from point blank range. Maxim Chudinov and Yegor Yakovlev then both slapped inches wide time and time again, and the opening goal came rather expectedly. Arseniy Khatsey laid the puck back to Alexei Ponikarovsky behind the net, and his deflected pass completely fooled the unwitting goaltender. It took a while for Dinamo to find their feet, but when they did Ilya Ezhov had some work to do. Following a sprawling save glove side Sergei Drozd burst through one on one, and Ilya stayed big to keep the visitors out.

If our team had the advantage all the way during the first, the second period turned out to be the complete opposite. Dinamo dominated from the opening faceoff, and only Ilya Ezhov kept our guys in the game. Just as a SKA penalty came to an end Jonathan Cheechoo had a glorious opportunity by the open right corner, however he thrashed well wide with the goal gaping. That was only the start of it, and with Dinamo pressing SKA all over the ice Ilya Ezhov made a number of excellent stops from all angles. He wasn’t getting much help though, and Dinamo did make their heat count. The puck dropped out to the doorstep, and Ryan Vesce netted from an awkward angle. SKA did wake up to some extent after that, and shorthanded Pyotr Khokhryakov demonstrated an astonishing show of pace only to fail to squeeze the puck in off balance.

It could only get better in the third frame, and SKA finally took back the initiative. Our players practically immediately retook the lead too, as with a man’s advantage Maxim Chudinov absolutely let rip with a cannon from the point. That goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of Dinamo, and apart from one beautiful flash of leather by Ilya Ezhov off a dangerous Jonathan Cheechoo effort our goaltender was rarely troubled. On the other hand SKA piled on the pressure in Dinamo’s zone, and numerous chances came and went. Evgeny Ketov smacked the woodwork with Dmitry Milchakov’s glove beaten, and Ilya Kovalchuk had a massive slapper shut down from the left faceoff circle. Anton Burdasov was the next to hit the frame of the goal with Dinamo’s netminder pulled, but it mattered little as SKA held on for a vital 2:1 victory at home!

Match protocol:

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

Goals:

1:0 Ponikarovsky (Khafizullin, Khatsey), 07.14

1:1 Vesce (Ellison, Gavrus), 33.56

2:1 Chudinov (Shipachyov, Kovalchuk), 40.45

Goalkeepers: Ezhov – Milchakov

Shots on target: 40 – 28

Penalty minutes: 4 – 10

Faceoffs: 30 – 34

Hits: 19 – 10

Referees: Gusev, Sergeev