SKA slams Spartak, Vityaz wins in Minsk. October 5 round-up

Wednesday’s two games both finished as road wins. Table-topping SKA produced a commanding performance in Moscow, defeating Spartak 5-1. Vityaz posted its fourth straight win with a 5-3 verdict over Dinamo Minsk.

Zinchenko sparks Vityaz victory

Dinamo Minsk 3 Vityaz Moscow Region 5 (0-0, 1-2, 2-3)

Two goals from Ivan Zinchenko helped Vityaz record a fourth successive victory. Dinamo, meanwhile, suffered a fifth loss in six games and missed the chance to overtake today’s opponent in the Western Conference standings.

Zinchenko, 20, led the way for his team in this game, scoring the second and third goals to build a lead that Dinamo could not reel in. The youngster is still on a two-way contract after spending much of last season with Ryazan in the VHL, but he is steadily cementing himself in the KHL line-up this term.

After a goalless first period, in which Dinamo had slightly the better of play, the game burst into life at the midway stage. Vityaz stepped up the tempo at the start of the second stanza and got its reward with two goals in a minute. Alexander Yaremchuk opened the scoring before Zinchenko got his first of the game. Dinamo also has a rising star this season, and Vladimir Alistrov gave the home team hope of a fightback when he scored on the power play late in the middle frame.

However, at the start of the third, Zinchenko got his second of the game to restore a two-goal advantage for the visitor. Then came two goals on the Dinamo power play: Nick Merkley pulled one back, but later Kirill Rasskazov snatched a short-handed tally to keep Vityaz in control. Minsk still believed, and a late goal from Cedric Paquette set up a final storm. However, an empty-net goal from Stepan Starkov saw Vityaz leave with the points.

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Dominant SKA stays well out in front

Spartak Moscow 1 SKA St. Petersburg 5 (0-0, 0-2, 1-3)

SKA kept up its flying start to the season with a thumping win at Spartak. The visitor made it five successive victories since its only loss of the season, a shoot-out reverse at home to Dynamo on Sep 24. SKA stands seven points clear of the Blue-and-Whites, and is eight better off than Eastern Conference leader Avtomobilist.

In today’s first period it took some goaltending heroics from Patrik Rybar to keep Spartak in the game. SKA dominated proceedings, outshooting the Muscovites 19-6, but could not solve the Slovak netminder.

Home resistance continued until the latter half of the second period. Then Dmitrij Jaskin found the breakthrough, getting the final touch on Daniil Pylenkov’s powerful point shot and taking the puck away from Rybar at last. Within three minutes, Igor Ozhiganov doubled the lead. He finished off the rebound after Vasily Glotov danced through the defense only to be denied by the goalie. Glotov, a recent signing from Sochi, is back at his first club and looks determined to secure his long-term future back in Petersburg.

Before the second intermission, Alexander Volkov dinged the Spartak crossbar and the home team was wavering. It was clear that Boris Mironov would need a big team talk to help his players find a way into this game in the final stanza. There were intermittent signs of progress for Spartak, notably Alexander Khokhlachyov’s dangerous break down the right-hand channel, but it was still very much SKA’s game.

Zakhar Bardakov extended the visitor’s lead midway through the third period and even though Spartak got one back thanks to Matvei Zaseda, it always had the feel of a consolation effort. And so it proved. Glotov got his first since returning to SKA when he found the empty net, then Mikhail Vorobyov added some gloss to the final score in the last minute.

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