Game one. SKA – Dinamo Minsk

Game one. SKA – Dinamo Minsk – 8:3

2 March 2022

In the first match of the opening round of the 2021/2022 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs, SKA overpowered Dinamo Minsk in a highly entertaining battle, emerging victorious by a large score of 8:3 at home.

SKA managed to open the scoring within the maiden three minutes.

Alone on the right faceoff circle, Danila Moiseev sent a powerful attempt beyond Patrik Rybar in the Minsk net after receiving a pinpoint pass from Nikita Gusev.

Our players appeared to be in an excellent position. However, after Anton Burdasov and Daniil Pylenkov were both punished for interference in quick succession respectively, Minsk tallied two consecutive markers to suddenly take the lead.

Between the circles, Pavel Varfolomeev fired a rasping wrister high over Lars Johansson’s glove a second after Burdasov had returned to the ice, before Mattias Tedenby subsequently tapped the puck over the line after a superb play from fellow Dinamo forward Tyler Graovac.

Not long later, Johansson somehow kept the difference at one, pulling off a stunning save at point-blank range to deny Tedenby his second of the day.

The second period saw SKA absolutely take Minsk to town in what was an incredible show of strength.

Andrei Kuzmenko quickly equalised for the home team, knocking the puck in a mere 43 seconds after the frame had started when completing a beautiful play with Nikita Gusev.

Minsk then contrived to surprisingly fall apart in an emphatic manner.

Allowed to advance to a shooting position on the powerplay, Mikko Lehtonen handed SKA the advantage for the second time in the match, wristing over Rybar’s glove. Not long later, Gusev extended the lead to two with a fantastic penalty shot after he had been fouled when pulling clean through past the static Belarusian defence.

Joonas Kemppainen deflected Lehtonen’s shot into the net in the 29^th minute to register SKA’s fifth goal and send Rybar to the bench in the process. Nevertheless, 20-year-old Alexei Kolosov didn’t exactly have a lot of joy in the Minsk goal either, immediately conceding from Stepan Falkovsky with our defenseman catching the young goalkeeper cold with a surprise wrist shot from the blue line.

Matters only went from bad to worse for a horribly forlorn Minsk side which simply couldn’t keep out of the penalty box. Before an unbelievable second period was out, SKA made use of two more powerplays, as Burdasov hit the jackpot from the crease and Kuzmenko managed to shoot into the far corner from a seemingly impossible angle on the left flank.

The third period was somewhat uneventful in comparison to the second.

The highlight was an intense fight between Igor Ozhiganov and Dinamo forward Ilya Usov, which our defenseman comfortably won to the joy of the packed arena.

Out of nothing, Roman Gorbunov grabbed Minsk’s third goal in the 58^th minute with a tricky shot from distance, but it made little difference to the outcome as SKA saw the match out with ease.

Game two of the series is scheduled for 19:30 local time on Friday at the Ice Palace.

Match protocol:

SKA – Dinamo Minsk – 8:3 (1:2, 7:0, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Moiseev (Gusev, Vorobyov), 02.36

1:1 Varfolomeev (Hudacek, Tedenby) 11.32

1:2 Tedenby (Graovac, Krejcik), 13.52 PPG

2:2 Kuzmenko (Gusev), 20.43

3:2 Lehtonen (Gusev, Kuzmenko), 23.49 PPG

4:2 Gusev, 24.44 PS

5:2 Kemppainen (Lehtonen, Burdasov), 28.25 PPG

6:2 Falkovsky (Komarov, Pylenkov), 32.59