SKA - Dynamo Moscow - 1:4. Game Two

13 March 2015

SKA and Dynamo Moscow took to the ice to do battle for the second time today in Saint Petersburg. This KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs second round series started with a bang yesterday with a SKA 3:2 overtime victory, and Vyacheslav Bykov made no changes to the line-up with Mikko Koskinen in net. Alexander Lazushin was still his opposite number.

Unlike yesterday it was a fast and furious start inside the Ice Palace, as our team went about forcing the issue. Only seconds in Vadim Shipachyov had a fantastic opportunity to score, as all alone on the doorstep he could only hit the goaltender’s pads. Chances kept on coming as Dynamo were struggling in defence, and Viktor Tikhonov was inches away from connecting with a brilliant feed to the right hand post. Out of nothing though Dynamo were the first to score. A terrible Artemiy Panarin play from behind his own net let in Vladimir Bryukvin, and he thrashed under Mikko Koskinen’s glove. No one liked that inside the arena, and SKA got to work straight afterwards as Jimmie Ericsson was denied from the right faceoff circle. Towards the end of the period our team even earned a penalty shot, but Yevgeni Ketov wristed off target with the goalkeeper already down.

Moving into the second frame, SKA once again picked up the initiative and made the away goaltender work a lot harder. Our team’s powerplay has been excellent this post-season and again it proved too good for the opponents, as Vadim Shipachyov alone by the right post had an easy task of netting. That was the cue to lay siege to Dynamo’s net, and they were very lucky not to concede again. Yevgeni Dadonov just couldn’t lift over Alexander Lazushin’s glove from a promising position, and with a man’s advantage Andrey Kuteikin lashed over from point blank range. Those misses then duly went punished, as approaching the final moments of the period Maxim Karpov bore down and caught Mikko Koskinen cold.

Our players begun the third with serious motivation, and should really have equalled it all up. Yevgeni Dadonov brilliantly worked his way through before hitting only the netminder’s midriff, and then Yevgeni Ketov did the same pulling to the backhand. Such misses weren’t going to be forgiven, and on the powerplay Kaspars Daugavins was picked out alone to the right of the crease to net. That practically killed the game, and Alexey Tsvetkov iced it for good measure with the goalkeeper pulled. 1:4, and the series moves to Moscow with a level score of 1:1.

Match protocol:

SKA – Dynamo Moscow – 1:4 (0:1, 1:1, 0:2)

Goals:

0:1 Bryukvin, 11.19

1:1 Shipachyov (Panarin), 29.36

1:2 Karpov (Tsvetkov, Mironov), 38.50

1:3 Daugavins (Zherdev, Novak), 47.37

1:4 Tsvetkov, 57.40

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Lazushin

Shots: 35 – 17

Penalty minutes: 14 – 16

Faceoffs: 31 – 28