Sensation in Yaroslavl, comfortable for Minsk

Spartak Moscow delivered the first big shock of this year’s playoffs, grabbing an overtime win at defending champion Lokomotiv. The Red-and-Whites were second best for long spells of Thursday’s game, but opportunistic goals from Ivan Morozov and Daniil Pivchulin secured a 2-1 verdict. In Minsk, Dinamo had little trouble opening a 2-0 lead in its series against Dynamo Moscow. The visiting offense was again off-color and the home team cruised to a 4-1 win.

Minsk dominates shot-shy Muscovites

Dinamo Minsk 4 Dynamo Moscow 1 (2-0, 0-1, 2-0)
Dinamo Minsk leads the series 2-0

Belarusian hopes remain high: after two games of this series, Dinamo Minsk is in a commanding position. It’s not just the 2-0 lead, but the manner of the victories that inspires confidence. The Muscovites have been made to look insipid on offense, while Dmitry Kvartalnov’s men have the firepower to do damage.

After a lukewarm offensive performance in the opening 1-3 defeat, Vyacheslav Kozlov reshuffled three of his four lines. Jordan Weal’s trio remained intact but the rest were reshaped. And that included a shock call-up for Daniil Davydov, second in scoring for Dynamo St. Petersburg in the VHL but with only one KHL appearance to date.

Kvartalnov had no pressing need to change a winning team, but continued his usual system of rotating players. Kirill Voronin was promoted to replace Daniil Sotishvili. That move brought instant reward: in the third minute Voronin opened the scoring with a goal that owed much to the visitor’s defensive uncertainty.

If there was some fortune about the opener, Minsk went on to justify the early lead. The home team had the better of the first period, even when on the penalty kill, and deservedly increased the score. Sam Anas made it 2-0 with a well-placed shot to the top corner, extending his hot streak to seven games.

Moscow’s Daniil Pylenkov joined his opponent on a seven-game run at the start of the second period. His assist set up Kirill Adamchuk for a blast from the point to make it 1-2. Dynamo had managed just five shots in the game, highlighting the trouble the visiting was having making an impression in this series.
The lack of goal threat was a hangover from the first game; in neither instance was Minsk obliged to block much in front of Zach Fucale’s net. Instead, smart defense kept the visitor to the perimeter for the most part.

Often it seemed that Dynamo Moscow was out of ideas: the visitor spent time with the puck in the home zone but seemed unable or unwilling to seek a killer pass and unlock a shooting lane. Young defenseman Magomed Sharakanov tried to inject some urgency with a promising solo rush on Fucale’s net, then late in the frame Igor Ozhiganov had a good look on the power play. But that was as close as we came to a tying goal.

Despite leading by just one goal, Minsk felt comfortable enough to attempt to play out the third period without pushing for more. After all, there was little evidence that the opposition had the weaponry to do any damage. Everything proceeded calmly until Vladislav Podyapolsky made way for a sixth skater in the 59th minute.

After that, things escalated rapidly. Moscow called a time-out, but coughed up possession and allowed an empty-net goal for Sergei Kuznetsov just 14 seconds later. Podyapolsky returned, now with 57 seconds left to play. The visiting goalie never made it back to the bench, though: a home power play brought a fourth Minsk goal for Yegor Borikov with 11 seconds on the clock.

Pivchulin stuns Loko, ties series

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 1 Spartak Moscow 2 OT (0-0, 0-0, 1-1, 0-1)
Series tied at 1-1

The first big shock of this year’s playoffs is in. Spartak grabbed a sensational overtime win at defending champion Lokomotiv, tying this first-round series before the teams head to Moscow for games three and four.

The Red-and-Whites sounded some warnings during the opening game, jumping to an early 2-0 lead and holding Loko at 3-3 until the latter half of the third period. But if Bob Hartley’s team thought that two late goals and a 5-3 win had subdued the outsider, it was mistaken.

Admittedly, Danil Pivchulin’s overtime winner was something of a smash-and-grab. In the extras, Lokomotiv outshot Spartak 13-4 and the visitor iced the puck seven times in 17 minutes. But the pressure did not pay off for the Railwaymen.

Instead, on 17:53, Pivchulin scored a goal out of nothing, collecting Christian Jaros’s long diagonal pass, advancing into the Lokomotiv zone and firing a shot from the top of the left-hand circle that threaded a tight path between defenseman Rushan Rafikov and goalie Daniil Isayev to find the net and win the game.

In regulation, Lokomotiv edge the play – but perhaps struggled to generate enough chances to be value for the win. The first period was tight but for all the home team’s possession it could not improve on a fourth-minute chance when Maxim Shalunov fired a Martin Gernat pass just wide.

In the second, the defending champion improved and produced its most compelling 20 minutes of the game. A shot count of 14-6 reflected Lokomotiv’s dominance, but Alexander Georgiyev came up big in the Spartak net and his team-mates blocked 10 efforts on their way to goal. Once again, territory and possession did not bring the breakthrough.

Improbably, given what came before, it took a Spartak power play to get Lokomotiv in front. Byron Froese sat for tripping in the 42nd minute, and Georgy Ivanov made a smart interception to launch a two-on-one rush that he raced away to finish himself.

The lead lasted exactly four minutes before Spartak tied it up. Mikhail Maltsev’s pace and determination chased down a lost cause behind Isayev’s net and he got the puck out to the front. Ivan Morozov was sprinting forward, unguarded by any opponent, and had a clear sight of goal before rifling home from between the hashmarks.

But that sudden goal rush did not herald a third period of end-to-end offense. Instead, the teams shared just 12 shots on goal between them as a cautious session moved inexorably towards overtime. Lokomotiv got its wheels turning again in those extras, only to be felled by a sucker punch.