Game two. SKA - Dinamo Minsk

Game two. SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 6:4

4 March 2021

SKA survived a real scare against Dinamo Minsk at the Ice Palace in the second match of the 2020/2021 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs first round, emerging victorious 6:4 to take a 2-0 series lead.

In contrast to Tuesday’s match, SKA came flying out of the blocks with all guns blazing, quickly opening up a three-goal lead within the first 15 minutes.

Collecting a rebound on the slot, Joonas Kemppainen bundled the puck over the line from point-blank range, before Evgeny Ketov gave a flowing play it deserved from the right faceoff circle and Ivan Morozov lashed a powerful wrister under Dominik Furch’s blocker.

Minsk weren’t about to wave the right flag, though, and Shane Prince got the away team on the board when backhanding over Alexander Samonov on the doorstep. Not long later, Brandon Kozun promptly made it a one-goal game, beating Samonov on the powerplay from the left wing.

SKA, however, conjured up the perfect response as Ketov knocked Vladimir Tkachyov’s pinpoint pass beyond the forlorn Furch. Anton Burdasov went on to pass up a glorious opportunity for SKA’s fifth marker, missing the net when clean through.

It’s worth noting that Tkachyov registered three assists for SKA during a memorable first period.

The high-tempo action continued in the second stanza.

As they started to force the issue, Minsk applied heavy pressure on SKA, forcing Samonov into a series of tricky saves as the visiting team competed on the front foot. Francis Pare, Kozun and Denis Mosalyov were particularly dangerous, creating opportunities with their aggressive, quick approach. Pavel Varfolomeev contrived to thump over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy in the concluding play of the period.

For SKA’s part, Viktor Antipin missed an ideal chance for our fifth goal, failing to force the puck in after a large goalmouth scramble had erupted. Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi also went close when cleverly escaping his marker on the slot.

A pulsating third period saw Dinamo Minsk suddenly embark on an unlikely comeback.

Shorthanded, Ilya Usov forced the puck in off the back of Samonov after capitalising on a sloppy SKA error. Sensing blood, Minsk began dominating proceedings and playing with serious urgency, pressing which resulted in an equaliser in the 53rd minute as Brennan Menell smashed a huge slap shot into the net on the powerplay.

It was going downhill for SKA at an alarming rate. Nevertheless, to our relief, SKA responded perfectly with a goal on the powerplay just a minute later after Belarusian forward Alexander Pavlovich had taken a cheap high-sticking call.

Burdasov was the hero for SKA, getting the better of Furch with a one-timer. Tkachyov tallied his fourth assist of the day in the process.

In the final minutes, Dinamo Minsk head coach Craig Woodcroft made the call to replace Furch in favour of the extra skater, but that only resulted in Vasily Podkolzin icing the game with an empty-netter.

SKA will now prepare for the third match of the series against Dinamo Minsk in Belarus. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:10 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 6:4 (4:2, 0:0, 2:2)

Goals:

1:0 Kemppainen (Ketov, Tkachyov), 01.04

2:0 Ketov (Tkachyov, Kemppainen), 10.25

3:0 Morozov, 14.59

3:1 Prince (Pare), 15.38

3:2 Kozun (Menell), 17.02

4:2 Ketov (Kirsanov, Tkachyov), 18.22

4:3 Usov, 45.45

4:4 Menell (Prince), 52.08