Minsk suffers heavy pre-season loss

Dinamo Minsk made an unconventional start to its pre-season campaign, taking on Metallurg’s farm club, Magnitka, in Belarus. The game was played in three 17-minute periods, plus five minutes of overtime.

Magnitka (VHL) 10 Dinamo Minsk 5 OT (4-0, 3-4, 3-0, 0-1)

The Belarusians iced a short-benched roster with none of the club’s imports involved. Indeed, Dmitry Kvartalnov relied heavily on the home-grown players who featured last season in the KHL, with Nikita Guslistov the most prominent new face after his summer arrival from Severstal.

Magnitka took advantage in the early stages, opening a 5-0 lead inside 22 minutes. Matvei Galenyuk caught the eye with two of those goals.

However, Dinamo rallied. Four unanswered tallies brought the game back to life: Sergei Kuznetsov struck twice and there were scores from Daniil Sotishvili and Yegor Borikov to make it a one-goal game by 31:20.

In a game that ebbed and flowed, Magnitka finished stronger, responding with another uninterrupted five-goal salvo in regulation to claim a 10-4 verdict. By prior arrangement, the game went to overtime anyway and Kuznetsov completed a hat-trick to make the final score 10-5.