Traktor close to progress, Ak Bars and Dynamo deadlocked

In Minsk, Traktor edged a 3-2 verdict to go up 3-1 in the Gagarin Cup second round playoff series against Dinamo. Just two days after an 8-0 drubbing, Benoit Groulx’s team is just one win away from the semi-finals. Today’s other series is all square: Dynamo Moscow won 3-2 in Kazan despite a dominant performance from Ak Bars. The teams had back to the capital tied at 2-2.

Traktor claims third win over Minsk

Dinamo Minsk 2 Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 (1-1, 1-0, 0-2)

(Traktor leads the series 3-1)

Traktor bounced back from Wednesday’s 8-0 thrashing in Minsk to edge a 3-2 verdict and restore a two-game advantage. Benoit Groulx’s team can wrap up the 2025 KHL second-round series on home ice on Sunday when the series returns to Chelyabinsk.

Groulx, as expected, switched up his team following that heavy loss. All the attacking lines were reshuffled, and on defense Grigory Dronov changed places with Arseny Koromyslov.

His opposite number, Dmitry Kvartalnov, was unable to continue with the team that performed so well in the previous game. Attacking leader Vadim Shipachyov picked up an injury in the second period of that game and was unable to return to action tonight. As a result, Nikita Pyshkailo was promoted into his spot and Timofei Kovgorenya was called onto the fourth line, where he played as a forward or a defenseman as required.

It was clear from the start that Traktor had a point to prove, but the visitor was happy to play sensible hockey at the start and chose not to try to force the early tempo. Nonetheless, Traktor opened the scoring in the fourth minute. Alexander Kadeikin did a great job on the boards at a time when most of the players seemed to be hugging the edges of the playing area. Kadeikin dished off a pass to the opposite wing when Logan Day had moved into space to finish off the attack.

That didn’t immediately knock Dinamo off course. The Belarusians had two power plays in quick succession and made the second of those count. It took just 10 seconds to win the face-off, get set in the Traktor zone and set up Vitaly Pinchuk to score from the slot with a redirect on a Sam Anas shot.

In the second period, Dinamo got up for the first time in the game. Ilya Usov found the net early in the second stanza, but his goal did not greatly change the calm approach of both teams in this game. With almost two full periods to play, there was little pressure on either side to find an instant escalation and hurl everything into a desperate bid for goals.

The game proceeded at a lively tempo, but with relatively few big hits and with both teams staying out of the box. It wasn’t until the end of the frame that Nicolas Meloche was assessed a roughing minor that spanned the second intermission.

Traktor could not find a power play goal, but it began the third period on the front foot and tied the game when Andrei Svetlakov converted Vasily Glotov’s feed.

That pair also combined for the winning goal in the 49th minute. At first, there didn’t seem much on for Traktor. Glotov got into a puck battle and, with Svetlakov’s help, came out on top. He then found a neat pass to set up Buddy Robinson for the go-ahead tally.

On their next shift, Glotov and Robinson came close to conjuring a fourth Traktor goal, but after that the visitor decided to close out the game in the closing 10 minutes.

Dinamo tried to find a way through and created a couple of threatening moments. But there was a lack of bite about the home offense tonight and even when goalie Vasily Demchenko went to the bench with two-and-a-half minutes to play there was no way for the six home skaters to salvage the game.

Traktor takes a 3-1 lead back home to Chelyabinsk and can wrap up this series on Sunday. Dinamo must win to extend its longest KHL season until at least the middle of next week. 

Sikura’s double ties series for Dynamo

Ak Bars Kazan 2 Dynamo Moscow 3 (0-1, 1-2, 1-0)

(Series tied at 2-2)

In this series, home ice seems to be a disadvantage. Dynamo won its second game in Kazan, having previously dropped two verdicts at home to Ak Bars. Today, two goals from Dylan Sikura made the difference, and the host’s attempts to save the game fell short, despite Dmitrij Jaskin’s late goal.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for the home team. Bringing a 2-0 lead to Tatarstan, Ak Bars had hopes of wrapping up this second round series in short order. But Dynamo came through some tough times against SKA in the opening round and has now reeled off back-to-back road wins of its own to lock up this series at 2-2 ahead of Sunday’s return to Moscow.

Interestingly, this game also maintained the curious tradition of the series: whichever team has played statistically more successful hockey has ended up losing. Twice in Moscow, Dynamo had the better xG but lost. Then on Wednesday in Kazan, Ak Bars created more but scored less. And so it was again today. The home team outshot the Muscovites 34-16; time on attack was 16:16 against 4:47. Yet the only stat that matters showed two goals for Ak Bars and three for Dynamo.

Clearly, converting chances matters. And Dynamo did a better job of that. In the first period, the visitor had just two shots on goal. However, Sikura’s attempt on 6:13 was good enough to open the scoring. Not for the first time, good work on the slot was key: Jordan Weal screened Timur Bilyalov, enabling Sikura to fire home from the right-hand circle with Dynamo’s first shot of the game.

At the other end, Vladislav Podyapolsky was almost caught out behind his own net. An awkward bounce presented Jaskin with the puck; the goalie saved and was then reprieved when Nic Petan fired wide of an open net. The home team also saw a five-on-three power play come and go with no result as Dynamo guarded its lead to the intermission.

After the intermission, Dynamo decided to focus more on its attack and for a time this was an end-to-end encounter. That saw the visitor double its lead in the 26th minute when Maxim Dzhioshvili won a battle on the boards and set up Artyom Mikheyev for a shot to the far corner. Former Dynamo man Eric O’Dell was caught out of position on that play, neither helped Alexei Marchenko in his battle with Dzhioshvili, nor closing down Mikheyev as he looked for a shooting lane.

The home team responded quickly. A decent chance for the fourth line was followed by a goal from Alexander Barabanov, converting the rebound from Mitch Miller’s shot. Miller then thought he had a power play goal, but a bench challenge saw that one called back for a high stick. Then the defenseman took a penalty, and Sikura got his second of the night on the power play to restore Dynamo’s two-goal cushion.

In the final frame it was all Ak Bars. The home team outshot Dynamo 15-3 and spent most of the period buzzing around Podyapolsky’s net. Jaskin missed a great early chance, the Dmitry Katelevsky fired over with the goal at his mercy. At the other end, Weal had a rare breakaway chance but it was largely one-way traffic.

However, there was no way back. Jaskin got one in the closing stages after Bilyalov went to the home bench, but Dynamo was not going to let its lead slip. After four games, there’s nothing to choose between these two in an absorbing and unpredictable series.