Strong starts from Western leaders

After plenty of drama and more than a few upsets, the top seeds from the Western Conference brought some normality back to the opening days of the 2025 Gagarin Cup playoffs. Lokomotiv and Dynamo Moscow both claimed 3-1 wins, defeating Torpedo and SKA respectively. 

Power play makes the difference for Dynamo

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

(Dynamo leads the series 1-0)

For KHL fans of a certain vintage, any meeting between these two in the playoffs cannot fail to evoke memories of Oleg Znarok’s championship teams defeating SKA in the semi-finals.

But that was more than a decade ago. Dynamo has not won the cup since 2013, while SKA enjoyed two triumphs in three seasons, but nothing since 2017. Will this 2025 match-up produce an eventual champion?

The teams had contrasting regular seasons. SKA’s stellar roster produced patchy form, scoring freely but allowing too many to be convincing. Dynamo, meanwhile, tended to look good against the big team but dropped an alarming number of points to the strugglers. Both teams had trouble with goaltending, and few would have tipped Maxim Motorygin and Yegor Zavragin to start the playoffs for their respective teams back in September.

In the first period, penalties frequently disrupted the play. Dynamo was the first to suffer, with Kirill Adamchuk assessed an interference minor in the third minute. The home team survived that test and went on to open the scoring midway through the session. Dylan Sikura broke the deadlock, darting away from Dmitry Yudin before winning his duel with Zavragin.

Immediately after that, SKA got on the power play as well and that launched string of penalties for both teams. During a spell of four-on-four play, SKA found a tying goal when Dynamo attempted to change on the fly and left an open path for Zakhar Bardakov to skate from his own zone to Motorygin’s net.

A couple of minutes later, Dynamo had its first full power play of the evening and duly regained the lead. A neat move saw Jordan Weal come from the right to find Cedric Paquette beside the near post. He moved the puck on to the slot where Pavel Kudryavtsev was waiting to snaffle it home. In the final minute of the opening frame, Evgeny Kuznetsov became the latest player to take a penalty, but Dynamo was unable to build its lead on that PP.

The second period was goalless, and it wasn’t easy to identify the more convincing team. SKA seemed to look more threatening, but the shot count showed a 12-6 advantage for Dynamo. The best chance was created by the visitor, with Kuznetsov and Valentin Zykov setting up a two-on-one break that forced Motorygin into a double save.

At the start of the third, the two goalies traded big saves. First, Zavragin did well to deny first Paquette, then Gusev. At the other end, Motorygin responded with a terrific reaction save to deny young Timofei Korotky from point blank range.

Disciplinary issues resurfaced in the 46th minute. Dynamo’s Dmitry Rashevsky was given two minutes for slashing at Andrei Pedan, but the SKA man was assessed a major for his reaction. After that incident, Gusev hit the post before Igor Ozhiganov was denied in a one-on-one with Zavragin. When Ivan Demidov joined Pedan on the sidelines, Dynamo finally got that third goal. Gusev found a powerful one-timer to finish off Weal’s feed and give some breathing space for the home team.

Subsequently, SKA tried to force the pace. A power play in the 51st minute persuaded Roman Rotenberg to replace Zavragin with a sixth skater – but to no avail. The closing stages saw Motorygin under pressure, but he responded well to preserve the 3-1 lead until the end. 

Loko locks down Torpedo in game one

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 3 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 1 (0-0, 3-1, 0-0)

(Lokomotiv leads the series 1-0)

There’s great anticipation in Yaroslavl this season. After falling at last season’s final hurdle, Lokomotiv responded by dominating the regular season. For many, that makes the Railwaymen strong favorites to go on and lift the Gagarin Cup for the first time.

Head coach Igor Nikitin knows what it takes to win in the playoffs and after a season of disciplined, well-drilled hockey, he didn’t spring any surprises today. The first period was a cautious affair. Under Igor Larionov, Torpedo has always favored an attacking style, so Loko’s first task was to stifle that. In the first period, with the visitor held to just two shots on goal, that’s exactly what happened.

It wasn’t exactly spectacular, but it was effective. Lokomotiv rarely created big chances but looked the more likely team. And if there was a danger that some of the post-season excitement might be dissipating, a fast start to the second period soon got everyone’s focus right back.

Just nine seconds after the restart, the home team took the lead. Rushan Rafikov got the puck on the blue line and dished it off to Maxim Beryozkin on the right. Beryozkin moved into the face-off circle and fired a shot past Ivan Kulbakov on his short side.

The lead was entirely deserved, but it didn’t last long. Torpedo stirred itself at last and tied the game in the 24th minute. A mistake on the visitor’s blue line triggered a counterattack. Yegor Vinogradov raced away and had a chance to shoot himself, but opted to play the puck for Bobby Lynch to finish it off.

Suddenly, Torpedo was buzzing around Daniil Isayev’s net with purpose, but the visitor got over-excited and Vinogradov took a penalty that proved highly damaging. Denis Alexeyev quickly restored the home lead on the power play, with Rafikov collecting his second assist of the game. Lokomotiv continued to dominate and extended its lead in the 38th minute. Martin Gernat moved forward to join his forward colleagues and time his play perfectly to pick up a pass from Nikita Kiryanov and advance to score from the center of the Torpedo zone.

From that point on, things followed a familiar course. Throughout the season, we’ve seen Lokomotiv defend superbly in the third period when it has a lead. Today was no exception: Torpedo found itself pushed back into its own territory and rarely managed to trouble Isayev. At the other end, Byron Froese hit the post.

In the final minutes, a Torpedo power play offered some chance of grabbing a lifeline. However, Lokomotiv was not about to relinquish its grip at that stage and the home team closed out the win.