Game five. SKA – Dinamo Minsk

Game five. SKA – Dinamo Minsk – 6:3

9 March 2023

In a gritty battle, SKA just held on in game five of the first round of the 2022/2023 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs, beating Dinamo Minsk 6:3 at the Ice Palace.

SKA do consequently now lead the series 3-2.

The teams immediately set an exciting tempo.

In a matter of seconds, the two sides both wasted glorious opportunities when clean through, with Damir Zhafyarov striking the left post and Vladimir Alistrov failing to unleash a shot.

SKA were competing on the front foot, protecting the vast majority of possession and testing 21-year-old Belarusian goaltender Alexei Kolosov on a regular basis. However, it was Dinamo who drew first blood in the ninth minute.

Lurking on the doorstep, the imposing Vitaly Pinchuk capitalised on the rebound after Dmitry Nikolaev had stopped the initial shot.

Nonetheless, our players conjured up an instant reply on a powerplay of their own, as Dmitrij Jaskin forced the puck over the line after he had been cleverly picked out by Nikita Gusev.

SKA gained their maiden lead in the penultimate minute of a thrilling first period. Simply too fast for his marker on the counter-attack, Vasily Glotov powered away 2-on-1 after a glaring Belarusian mistake and firmly whacked his wrister past the exposed Kolosov blocker-side.

The second stanza saw our team take full control of proceedings.

Applying heavy pressure on the opponents, SKA were taking the Belarusian defence apart at will, but Kolosov was standing tall as he pulled off several tricky saves.

When he was powerless, his teammates came to his rescue too. Alone on the doorstep, Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov looked certain to score with Kolosov slightly out of position, but his goalbound shot was deflected up and over the crossbar.

Our deserved third goal arrived on the powerplay in the concluding minute of the period. Standing in his favourite position on the slot, Jaskin deftly pushed Damir Zhafyarov’s pinpoint pass under the impressive Kolosov. Dinamo head coach Craig Woodcroft was furious with the tripping penalty which had been issued to Joseph Duszak for that SKA powerplay.

Tempers well and truly reached boiling point before the teams could reach the dressing room. SKA boss Roman Rotenberg was at the epicentre of the chaos, venting his anger at the Dinamo bench after Zakhar Bardakov and Marat Khusnutdinov had both received serious-looking injuries.

Thankfully, though, Khusnutdinov was able to return for the third period.

The drama increased further in the concluding stanza. Cedric Paquette hauled Dinamo back to within one with a smooth finish on the counter, before Gusev hit the jackpot when skating through 1-on-1.

The plucky Belarusian visitors flatly refused to wave the white flag. Taking advantage of another sloppy defensive error from SKA, Dmitry Sokolov halved our lead on the powerplay in the 52^nd minute, backhanding beyond Nikolaev with only our goalkeeper to beat.

Sensing blood, Dinamo rapidly grew in confidence and threw everything at our team. Minsk predictably decided to pull Kolosov for the extra skater in the closing minutes, but to our delight that only resulted in Marat Khairullin hitting the empty net at the second attempt.

The same player subsequently repeated the trick for us before time was up, grabbing his second empty-netter when playing shorthanded.

The sixth match of the series will take place in Minsk, Belarus on Saturday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:10 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Dinamo Minsk – 6:3 (2:1, 1:0, 3:2)

Goals:

0:1 Pinchuk (Spooner, Sokolov), 08.43 PPG

1:1 Jaskin (Gusev, Ozhiganov), 10.16 PPG

2:1 Glotov (Komarov), 17.15

3:1 Jaskin (Zhafyarov, Ozhiganov), 39.17 PPG

3:2 Paquette (Kozun, Spooner), 46.32

4:2 Gusev (Glotov, Kamalov), 47.53

4:3 Sokolov (Barberio, Kozun), 51.58 PPG