Late blow dealt by Minsk

19 January 2026

Overtime was looming at the Ice Palace, but Dinamo Minsk took advantage of a late penalty taken by SKA goalkeeper Sergei Ivanov to snatch a dramatic 4:3 victory.

Ivanov stood out for the right reasons for the vast majority of a game in which he made 39 saves. However, with a little over a minute on the clock, he hooked the puck out of play and was promptly made to pay.

Minsk had initially taken charge of proceedings during a fast-paced opening stanza, making an early breakthrough with Stanislav Galiyev scoring on the PP.

The away side doubled their lead to two in the 25th minute as Nicolas Meloche beat the unsighted Ivanov with a bomb from the point.

Nevertheless, a spirited SKA came roaring back against the run of play.

Markus Phillips whipped the puck between Zach Fucale's pads from the high slot, before Matvei Polyakov backhanded a beautiful effort over the goalkeeper when powering towards the net on the right flank.

With the siren about to sound for the end of the period, familiar face Vadim Shipachyov handed Dinamo their second lead of the evening, tapping home at point-blank range after Sam Anas' effort had crashed off the boards.

Nonetheless, despite that setback, our players returned for the third stanza with plenty of energy.

Nikolai Goldobin grabbed our equaliser eight minutes into the frame, firing past Fucale at the second attempt when unmarked to the left of the slot.

The remainder of regulation time saw both sides waste promising chances. Overtime seemed inevitable, but Galiyev tapped home a superb feed from the impressive Anas on the PP to break SKA hearts.

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

Match protocol:

SKA - Dinamo Minsk - 3:4 (0:1, 2:2, 1:1)

Goals:

0:1 Galiyev (Limoges, Anas), 08.19 PPG

0:2 Meloche (Pinchuk), 25.05

1:2 Phillips (Blandisi, Leipsic), 29.51

2:2 Polyakov (Plotnikov, Sapego), 33.44

2:3 Shipachyov (Anas, Hamilton), 39.26

3:3 Goldobin (Vorobyov, Menell), 48.20

3:4 Galiyev (Anas, Smith), 59.30 PPG

Goalkeepers: Ivanov - Fucale