Traktor takes control

A second home victory put Traktor 2-0 up in its 2025 Gagarin Cup semi-final series against Dynamo. Zach Fucale made two big saves in the final minute to preserve the home team’s one-goal lead and send the series to Moscow with the Chelyabinsk team on top.

Second home victory in Chelyabinsk gives Groulx’s men the edge

Traktor Chelyabinsk 3 Dynamo Moscow 2 (2-1, 0-1, 1-0)

(Traktor leads the series 2-0)

Semyon Der-Arguchintsev was on target again to give Traktor a narrow victory over Dynamo. Wednesday’s 3-2 success puts Benoit Groulx’s team up 2-0 in the series, giving the Eastern Conference top seed a commanding advantage as it moves to Moscow for games three and four.

Groulx defied tradition by changing a winning line-up. During Monday’s game he frequently shuffled his lines, and today’s game sheet featured new combinations. For Dynamo, Alexei Kudashov scratched 13th forward Dmitry Rashevsky and put Anton Slepyshev on the third line. The experienced forward had just three minutes of action in the second round.

Traktor made a fast start and Alexander Kadeikin scored with the first shot of the game. He got some help from the Dynamo defense, with Igor Ozhiganov and Max Comtois failing to clear their lines and setting up an opportunity that the home center finished. Ozhiganov went on to have a rough game: on a Blue-and-White power play he allowed Vladimir Tkachyov to get a breakaway, then he lost Artyom Blazhievsky when the home defenseman got Traktor’s second goal by following up the rebound from his own shot.

That goal saw the home team take a lead to the intermission for the first time in 13 games. Blazhievsky’s tally restored the lead after Nikita Gusev put Dynamo level in the sixth minute.

With the visitor playing catch-up in the second period, there was a fast start to the middle stanza. Dynamo managed to tie the game once again with the Kudryavtsev-Ilyenko-Rimashevsky line seizing possession in center ice and executing a slick combination that finished with Artyom Ilyenko scoring.

However, there was a rare moment of fluency in an error-strewn game. Both teams were guilty of frequent misplaced passes and chances were hard to come by. The best of them went to the Muscovites, with Slepyshev twice involved in testing the home defense.

The winning goal came at the start of the third, and it stemmed from another Dynamo error. Comtois’s misplaced pass was intended for Cedric Paquette but instead went to Blazhievsky. He set up a counterattack and Der-Arguchintsev took the play to the other end and scored his second goal in as many games. Comtois and Paquette tried to atone for their mishap by redoubling their efforts on the forecheck and seeking to press Traktor back into its zone.

But that didn’t help. Traktor defended deep, and even after Vladislav Podyapolsky made way for a sixth skater, Dynamo could not find a way through. Zach Fucale made a couple of crucial saves in the final seconds, denying Paquette’s redirect before ensuring that Gusev’s effort – and the subsequent scrum in front of the net – did not drag the game into overtime.