Moscow progresses in Dynamic derby. March 12 playoffs
The top team in the regular season became the eighth and last to take its place in the second round of the playoffs. Dynamo Moscow had to come from behind to win game six in Minsk, but a 3-1 verdict on Tuesday completed all the first-round action for 2024.
Dinamo Minsk 1 Dynamo Moscow 3 (1-0, 0-1, 0-2)
Dynamo Moscow wins the series 4-2
The Muscovites welcomed leading scorer Nikita Gusev back after he missed game five due to injury. However, there were signs that all was not well with the star forward, who managed just five shifts in the first period for 2:45 of ice time.
The Belarusians, meanwhile, quickly settle to their task of saving the series. The home team looked livelier in that opening frame, outshooting Dynamo 12-6 and creating the clearer chances. The Bison were helped by the only power play of the opening frame, with Sam Anas scoring in the fifth minute after Jordan Weal sat for high sticks. Anas rifled home a feed from Rob Hamilton, giving the Minsk crowd reason to believe that the season was still alive.
In response, the visitor spent a long time building spells of offense but rarely managed to create much danger for Alexei Kolosov. Towards the end of the opening stanza, Minsk created some more good chances: Vitaly Pinchuk raced through the middle to test Ilya Konovalov before Tanner Fritz dinged the crossbar in the last minute.
While the host could take confidence from a good first period, there was also a sense that Minsk’s superiority should have generated more than one goal. That feeling intensified in the middle frame as Dynamo tied it up. There weren’t many chances at either end, but midway through the session a quick counter saw Kirill Gotovets surge down the right wing and fire the puck to the slot. Maxim Dzhioshvili was waiting, and steered it into the net for his first goal of the series.
The visitor began the third period with a series of attacks, and took the lead in the 43rd minute. Artyom Ilyenko was the scorer, winning a puck battle with Hamilton on the slot before turning to fire past Kolosov.
Now Minsk had 17 minutes to save the season. There was a good chance to tie the scores a couple of minutes after Dynamo took the lead when Anas found Pavel Denisov with a cross-ice pass. Denisov’s shot was dangerous, but Konovalov turned it aside. The home team continued to press, but the effort was undermined by a penalty for Daniil Sotishvili in the 49th minute. The Muscovites could not find a power play goal, but benefitted from the switch in momentum and the time taken out of the game.
In the closing stages, the pressure all came from Dinamo Minsk. However, a strong pressing game from the visitor made it hard to turn possession into clear chances. It wasn’t until a 59th-minute penalty on Andrei Mironov that the home team was able to call Kolosov to the bench and play six-on-four. That saw Andrei Stas force a big save out of Konovalov with seconds left on the clock before Nick Merkley overstepped the mark when battling for possession in front of the Dynamo net. Then an empty-net goal from Jordan Weal gave the Muscovites the breathing space they needed, and the West’s top seed progressed to the second round in six games.
The second round of this year’s playoffs will see cross-conference pairings. The remaining eight teams are placed into two groups. Group A starts on Saturday, with Avangard facing Lokomotiv and Dynamo taking on Traktor. Sunday sees the Group B pairings underway, with Metallurg due to play Spartak and SKA up against Avtomobilist.
