Gotovets double leads Dynamo to derby win. December 20 round-up
Round three of this Moscow derby saw Dynamo enjoy a big win. The previous two clashes between these crosstown rivals went to shoot-outs, with each team winning one apiece. Today, though, the Blue-and-Whites grabbed an early lead and went on to secure a convincing victory.
Dynamo Moscow 5 Spartak Moscow 2 (2-1, 0-0, 3-1)
It didn’t take long for things to get started here. In the third minute, Spartak’s Semyon Ruchkin took the first penalty of the game and he was soon followed into the box by new signing Alexei Emelin, making his debut after arriving from Dinamo Minsk. Dynamo took full advantage of that 5-on-3 power play, with Jordan Weal opening the scoring before Pavel Kudryavtsev made it 2-0 before Emelin served his penalty.
Late in the first period, Spartak pulled a goal back on a power play of its own. Dynamo Sergei Boikov sat for the second time in the game. The visitor survived a scare when Joey Keane’s error almost allowed Ivan Muranov a shorthanded goal. However, the next attack saw Maxim Chudinov reduce the arrears for the Red-and-Whites.
The middle frame was goalless, and the major incident for both sets of fans was a fight late in the session between Andrei Nikonov and Spartak’s Timur Khairullin. The Dynamo man had the better of that confrontation, which saw both players handed major penalties.
Dynamo began the third period determined to put the game to bed. The home team had a goal called back on a bench challenge on 41:09, with Muranov’s effort whistled down for offside. However, defenseman Kirill Gotovets took the game away from Spartak with two goals in 22 seconds. Both were fired in from the blue line and the second of them was enough to end Patrik Rybar’s evening in the visitor’s net.
Incoming goalie Alexei Krasikov got through the rest of the game without allowing a goal – Dynamo’s fifth, scored by Maxim Dzhioshvili, went into an empty net. However, Spartak was unable to make significant inroads into Dynamo’s lead. Shane Prince pulled a goal back in the 52nd minute but that was as close as the visitor got. Igor Grishin’s team slipped to a third straight loss, while Dynamo made it back-to-back wins and moved level on points with fourth-placed Torpedo.
