First duel falls Dynamo's way

4 November 2025

SKA bossed the majority of the play for the maiden 40 minutes, but a third-period slump resulted in a slender 1:2 home loss to Dynamo Moscow.

However, SKA will have the opportunity to earn immediate revenge when facing the same opponents in Moscow on Saturday.

The visitors initially started on the front foot, opening the scoring in the seventh minute as Nikita Gusev hammered his one-timer past Sergei Ivanov following an avoidable mistake committed by SKA.

Nonetheless, our players responded well to that early setback, gradually taking the initiative and finding the equaliser on the powerplay in the 28th minute - not long after Ivanov had pulled off a wonderful save against the clean-through Yegor Rimashevsky.

Lurking on the doorstep, Joseph Blandisi cleverly turned Andrei Loktionov's intelligent pass into the right corner.

SKA really were on the front foot now. But, after failing to make their advantage count in the remainder of the second period, our players fell off the boil in the ensuing third frame.

Dynamo, who outshot our team 28-9 in the period, eventually made their dominance count with a little under four minutes remaining.

And it was former SKA forward Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi who ruined our hopes of holding on for overtime, forcing the puck beyond Ivanov at point-blank range at the second attempt.

SKA will now prepare to host the Shanghai Dragons in Saint Petersburg on Thursday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Dynamo Moscow - 1:2 (0:1, 1:0, 0:1)

Goals:

0:1 Gusev (Weal), 06.56

1:1 Blandisi (Loktionov, Grimaldi), 27.40 PPG

1:2 Shvets-Rogovoi (Dzhioshvili, Artemyev), 56.11

Goalkeepers: Ivanov - Motorygin

Shots: 52 - 56

Shots on target: 23 - 36

Faceoffs: 28 - 28

Blocked shots: 11 - 19