Spartak marches on, Dinamo runs riot in Minsk

A comfortable home victory over Severstal saw Spartak safely into the second round of the 2025 Gagarin Cup playoffs. Alexei Zhamnov’s team finished the series in five games and joins Lokomotiv in the last eight. In today’s other Western Conference tie, Dinamo Minsk blitzed CSKA 7-0 to regain the lead in the series. The teams will return to Moscow with Dinamo up 3-2.

Red-and-Whites book spot in round two

Spartak Moscow 5 Severstal Cherepovets 2 (0-1, 5-1, 0-0)

(Spartak wins the series 4-1)

With a fightback from 0-2, Spartak eased to victory in this game and booked its place in the second round of this year’s playoffs. The Red-and-Whites finished the job in game five and will now wait to see which Eastern Conference opponent it will face in the next stage. Severstal once again failed to get over the first post-season hurdle, going out at this stage for the fifth year in a row.

Tuesday’s 5-2 win in Cherepovets kept Severstal’s season alive and the visitor made a good start here. Nikolai Chebykin opened the scoring in the second minute when he got free of the defense and took a pass from Alexei Kruchinin to advance on goal and beat Artyom Zagidulin.

Spartak responded with a couple of good chances to tie it up immediately, but Danila Pivchulin failed to convert an odd-man rush before Alexander Samoilov’s stick save denied Pavel Poryadin. At the other end, Kruchinin rang the iron and Alexander Skorenov drew a great save from Zagidulin.

There was no further scoring in the first period, but Severstal finished it strongly. Zagidulin was at his best to deny Roman Abrosimov and Andrei Churkin, then Danil Aimurzin tested the goalie’s reactions with his blocker.

At the start of the second, Severstal doubled its lead through Kruchinin, but after that it went wrong fast for the visitor. Andrei Mironov scored a power play goal, then Churkin was sent to the box and Ivan Morovoz tied it up on the next PP. All those incidents happened in the 24th minute, and the 25th saw Spartak get in front for the first time. Sergei Lukyantsev made it three goals in 68 seconds to turn the game completely on its head. Young Lukyantsev was on hand to convert the rebound from Pivchulin’s shot, prompting Andrei Kozyrev to call a time-out.

By now, though, Spartak was playing with confidence. Nikita Yefremov added a fourth goal after Samoilov failed to hold onto a Nikolai Goldobin shot. Then, just before the intermission, Andrei Loktionov’s quick pass set up Mikhail Maltsev for 5-2. From thoughts of a return to Cherepovets, the home crowd was now contemplating the next round.

The third period saw Severstal have more of the game as it tried to find a way to keep its season alive. But Spartak never looked likely to yield its lead, limiting the visitor to sporadic scoring chances as it closed out the game and the series. 

Seventh heaven for Minsk

Dinamo Minsk 7 CSKA Moscow 0 (4-0, 3-0, 0-0)

(Dinamo leads the series 3-2)

After losing twice on the road, Dinamo responded in fine style on home ice. A devastating first-period performance blew CSKA away and the Bison cruised to a victory.

The home team wasted no time in stamping its authority on this game. In the second minute, Chris Tierney fed Daniil Lipsky. He fired the puck to the back door, where Yegor Borikov took over to find the open corner of Ivan Prosvetov’s net.

Dinamo kept up the pressure, and added to its lead in the 11th minute. Sam Anas saw his first effort go wide of the target, but his team-mates won the rebound. Anas moved to the slot and made it 2-0 when the puck came back to him. A minute later it was 3-0 when Borikov potted his second of the game on a delayed penalty. The home team had three goals from six shots. CSKA, shellshocked, replaced starting goalie Prosvetov with Pavel Khomchenko.

The incoming netminder did not make it to the intermission without allowing another. Just before the break, Rob Hamilton fired home Sotishvili’s pass from behind the net, completing an emphatic first period from the host.

There was no respite at the start of the second period. Colby Williams sat out his second penalty of the game and, just as he left the penalty box, Dinamo scored again. Roman Gorbunov got his first of the game, wiring a wrister from the left-hand circle. The next shift saw Andrei Stas add a sixth when he rounded the net and saw his intended pass to the slot loop into the net off Khomchenko’s stick.

And there was more to come: Gorbunov got his second of the night just after his team killed Josh Brook’s penalty. As Brook returned, Yegor Afanasyev lost possession in center ice and Dinamo was off to the races again. Alexander Volkov threaded a pass beyond Nikita Nesterov’s stick and Gorbunov did the rest.

The game was effectively done by its midway point, and things slowed down somewhat. It was striking that Minsk’s huge advantage on the scoreboard was not reflected in the balance of play. Dinamo led the shot count 23-18 at the second intermission, and had eight minutes attacking possession against six for CSKA.

In the third period, Ilya Vorobyov made the unusual decision to deploy Nikita Okhotyuk as a forward. That experiment had little impact on the final outcome. Vasily Demchenko completed his shut-out, making 25 saves, while CSKA at least escaped any further damage and denied Gorbunov or Borikov a hat-trick.