SKA - Dinamo Riga

SKA - Dinamo Riga - 1:4

29 September 2015

HC Dinamo Riga made the trip to Saint Petersburg to take on SKA. It was the second home match in a row for our team following the 6:3 victory over Jokerit, and Andrei Nazarov made only one real change with Mikko Koskinen taking Ilya Ezhov’s place in net. Joacim Eriksson was between the pipes for Dinamo, as the visitors came into this game on the back of five defeats in a row.

Rather predictably it was SKA who held the initiative during the opening stages, and Anton Burdasov was denied on the doorstep minutes in. Dinamo were being pinned inside their zone for long periods, and were forced into taking two unwanted fouls. Their penalty kill was effective though, and apart from a few Ilya Kovalchuk slappers not much was created. Even at equal strength Dinamo still couldn’t get the puck down the other end, however it was them who eventually opened up the scoring. Miks Indrasis burst through the zone, took up his own rebound, and squeezed it between Mikko Koskinen’s pads. Incredibly a very upset Mikko was pulled immediately after that goal, although Ilya Ezhov’s instalment didn’t make much difference. After Anton Burdasov had been shut down clean through Tomas Kundratek had his wrister beaten away, and that man Miks Indrasis gobbled up the loose puck to make it two.

Dinamo begun the second period on the powerplay straight away, and they didn’t need long to make it count. Lauris Dauzins found space on the right flank, slapped as hard as he could, and thumped in off the far left post. The Ice Palace fell deadly silent after that, and it could have been worse had Gints Meija not smacked the woodwork when alone on the slot. Gradually our players did begin to set some sort of tempo, and both Joakim Lindstrom and Ilya Kovalchuk couldn’t beat the goalkeeper when between the circles. The pressure was building up to something though, and eventually the puck found its way in. Maxim Chudinov slapped at the blue line, and after a tricky ricochet it cannoned off Joacim Eriksson’s back to take it over the line. Suddenly all the momentum was with SKA, and the second goal should really have arrived. Ilya Kovalchuk brilliantly set up Jarno Koskiranta at the right post, but Jarno could only thrash over the bar with an open net to aim at.

SKA had real hope moving into the third, and carved out a few golden chances to get back to within one goal. Ilya Kovalchuk had the best of the lot, but alone at close range he failed to beat Joacim Eriksson who made a stunning right toe save. Indeed after that opportunity there was only a lot of huffing and puffing inside Dinamo’s zone, and very few openings were to be had at all. Gints Meija made Ilya Ezhov work blocker side as the visitors made a few rare counterattacks, but they were happy soaking up SKA pressure with the clock running down. Andrei Nazarov opted to replace Ilya Ezhov for the extra skater with two minutes remaining, but that only resulted in Gunars Skovrcovs in hitting the empty net. 1:4 today, and our team will now travel to Helsinki to take on HC Jokerit on Thursday.

Match protocol:

SKA – Dinamo Riga – 1:4 (0:2, 1:1, 0:1)

Goals:

0:1 Indrasis (Darzins), 13.55

0:2 Indrasis (Kundratek), 19.00

0:3 Darzins (K Redlihs), 22.51

1:3 Chudinov (Kablukov, Belov), 36.43

1:4 Skovrcovs, 59.35

Goalkeepers: Koskinen/Ezhov – Eriksson

Shots on target: 33 – 23

Penalty minutes: 6 – 8

Faceoffs: 36 – 18