Loko rallies from 0-2, Minsk downs Dynamo Moscow

Defending champion Lokomotiv took its 2026 playoff bow – and found itself down by two in barely 10 minutes. A fightback secured Bob Hartley’s men a 5-3 but Spartak will take consolation from a competitive performance in Yaroslavl. In Minsk, Dinamo justified pre-playoff expectation with an impressively solid 3-1 win over Dynamo Moscow.

Spartak poses questions for defending champ

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 5 Spartak Moscow 3 (2-2, 1-0, 2-1)
Lokomotiv leads the series 1-0

Defending champion Lokomotiv got off to a winning start in the playoffs – but eighth seed Spartak gave Bob Hartley’s team something to think about before falling to defeat.

This was the first playoff meeting between these two since 2010 and it came after the Railwaymen won all four regular season games against today’s opposition. Both teams were at full strength, with neither head coach springing any surprises in his selection.

The opening moments went Lokomotiv’s way. In the second minute, visiting goalie Alexander Georgiyev was penalized for dislodging his net. Spartak killed that penalty, then took a bench minor for leaving the gate open during play. However, neither power play produced much drama and Alexei Zhamnov’s team stunned the home crowd once back at equal strength. Demid Mansurov opened the scoring in the ninth minute after Daniil Isayev failed to freeze the puck. It wasn’t long before Spartak doubled its lead on its first power play of the game. It took just eight seconds for Daniil Gutik to make it 2-0.

However, after landing a knock-down blow on the champ, Spartak fell to a sucker punch combination at the end of the first period. Alexander Radulov’s master-and-apprentice partnership with Yegor Surin was a key factor in Loko’s Gagarin Cup win last year; fittingly they combined again for the team’s first goal in the 2026 playoffs. Then, three seconds before the hooter, Georgy Ivanov rewrote the coaches’ team talks with a tying goal.

The second period was a less frantic affair. Lokomotiv began to assume the level of control most had expected before the game started and in the first five minutes Spartak rarely got the puck to Isayev’s net. On 26:02, the host got in front for the first time when Alexei Bereglazov’s point shot was redirected home by Richard Panik. That encouraged Loko to go after more, but Georgiyev prevented any further damage in the middle frame.

Spartak managed just two shots at Isayev in the second period, but the visiting offense improved in the third. Just three minutes into the final stanza,

German Rubtsov tied the game at 3-3 with a close-range effort. Suddenly, the failure to add more goals in the second period looked costly for the host. Spartak was creating the better chances and looked capable of landing the first big shock of this year’s playoffs.

However, an untimely penalty for Mikhail Maltsev derailed the Muscovites’ progress. Slovak defenseman Martin Gernat’s powerful shot restored the home lead and, for all Spartak’s efforts in the closing stages, Nikita Kiryanov’s empty-netter sealed a home win.

Impressive start for Minsk

Dinamo Minsk 3 Dynamo Moscow 1 (0-0, 1-0, 2-1)
Dinamo Minsk leads the series 1-0

After its best ever regular season finish, there is expectation building around Dinamo Minsk. The Belarusians have never been past the second round of the playoffs, but Dmitry Kvartalnov’s men may never have a better chance than this to go deep into post season.

And a win over Dynamo Moscow in Tuesday’s opening game suggests that the hype might carry some justification.

Home hopes got a boost with the return of Vadim Moroz from the injury that kept him out since March 3. That gave Kvartalnov a full-strength roster, while Dynamo’s Vyacheslav Kozlov has a handful of long-term injured – Kirill Gotovets and Fredrik Claesson on defense, Cedric Paquette and Artyom Mikheyev up front.

Dinamo tends to start fast. No time has scored more, nor allowed fewer goals in the first two minutes of its games. But today things took longer. A hard-fought first period finished scoreless, with visiting goalie Vladislav Podyapolsky doing well.

During that first period, Yegor Borikov was one of the liveliest home players, and he opened the scoring early in the second. Strangely, after the Muscovites ceded much of the possession in the opening frame without conceding, they allowed a goal after beginning to play on the front foot. Daniil Pylenkov attempted to clear the puck around the boards, only for a wicked deflection to send it out at a crazy angle. It fell straight to Borikov, who duly scored in the 22nd minute.

After that, the visitor had more of the game before the goal and a sense of injustice fired even greater efforts. However, control of the puck and neat passing produced sterile offense with Zach Fucale barely tested in the home net.

Late in the second period, Magomed Sharakanov and Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi followed each other into the box. Minsk’s five-on-three power play carried into the third and Darren Dietz doubled the lead. Sam Anas, the leading scorer in the regular season, assisted on that to stretch his current productive streak to six games. The KHL’s all-time scoring leader Vadim Shipachyov also assisted on that one, and got his second point of the playoffs when Andrei Stas converted the next power play.

That ended Podyapolsky’s evening, with Maxim Motorygin coming off the bench to take his place. That felt like more an attempt to give Motorygin a taste of playoff action rather than a reflection on the starting goalie’s efforts. At the other end, Fucale was seeking a shut-out but a late push from Dynamo brought a consolation goal for Dylan Sikura. However, in the goalie’s third playoff against the Muscovites in three seasons, he has now won nine of his last 10 games against the Blue-and-Whites.