SKA - Dinamo Minsk

SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 4:2

27 February 2021

In the concluding match of the 2020/2021 KHL regular season, SKA survived a scare against HC Dinamo Minsk in Saint Petersburg, hanging on to claim a 4:2 triumph.

The two teams will meet in the first round of the Gagarin Cup playoffs.

Dinamo Minsk made an aggressive start at the Ice Palace. Coming out with all guns blazing, the Belarusians created plenty of promising opportunities during the opening stages, shooting from any angle possible as they crashed our net with aggression. Alexander Samonov pulled off one wonderful save with his glove to deny Zack Mitchell on the doorstep.

Nevertheless, after weathering the early storm, SKA subsequently took charge of proceedings with two quick-fire markers towards the end of the first period.

On the right flank, Emil Galimov broke the deadlock when beating Dominik Furch glove-side, before Miro Aaltonen sent an unstoppable wrister high into the net from between the faceoff circles.

Ivan Morozov had also missed a penalty shot three minutes before the first goal.

SKA improved further in the second stanza.

In the seventh minute of the frame, Morozov increased our advantage to three, launching an unstoppable one-timer past Furch after receiving a fantastic pass from Kirill Marchenko on the powerplay. Dinamo Minsk head coach Craig Woodcroft made the call to replace Furch with Danny Taylor in their net not long after that goal.

That change did have the desired effect for Minsk. In the closing stages of the second period, the away side began to generate attacking traction in our zone, with Samonov being forced into a handful of tricky saves. At the other end, Galimov should have tallied his second marker, but he knocked the puck wide of the right post when clean through.

Leading by three, SKA looked to be home and dry, but Dinamo Minsk had other ideas.

In a remarkable start to the third period, the Belarus organisation suddenly made it a one-goal game, as Denis Mosalyov hit the jackpot following a faceoff draw in the attacking zone and Francis Pare completed a flowing move on the counter-attack.

Ilya Usov then wasted a glorious opportunity to equalise for the visiting club when somehow missing the target after gathering a big rebound.

Dinamo Minsk were eventually made to pay for their profligacy.

With a little less than six minutes remaining, Galimov did indeed put the match to bed, pouncing on a rebound at point-blank range to tally his second of the day.

During the concluding minutes, Dinamo Minsk laid siege to our goal and swapped the impressive Taylor for the extra skater, but SKA calmly held on to successfully see the game out.

SKA will now prepare to host Minsk on Tuesday in the first match of the opening round of the playoffs. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 4:2 (2:0, 1:0, 1:1)

Goals:

1:0 Galimov (Fantenberg), 16.37

2:0 Aaltonen (Tkachyov, Ozhiganov), 18.48

3:0 Morozov (Marchenko), 26.38

3:1 Mosalyov (Mitchell), 42.08

3:2 Pare (Mosalyov, Mitchell), 42.24

4:2 Galimov (Morozov), 54.18

Goalkeepers: Samonov - Furch

Shots on target: 25 - 17