Ak Bars survives late scare

Two goals in the last three minutes were not enough for Dinamo Minsk to save the game or the series as Ak Bars moves into the 2026 Gagarin Cup semi-finals.

Lymakin keeps up streak as Minsk bows out

Ak Bars Kazan 3 Dinamo Minsk 2 (1-0, 2-0, 0-2)
Ak Bars wins the series 4-0

A two-point performance from Nikita Lyamkin paced a fourth successive victory for Ak Bars, and Anvar Gatiyatulin’s men secured a round two sweep of Dinamo Minsk.

Both teams changed their starting goalies from the previous game. Timur Bilyalov was rotated back into the Ak Bars line-up despite a shut-out for youngster Maxim Arefyev on Monday. At the other end, Vasily Demchenko replaced Zach Fucale, who made way in the third period of that 0-4 loss.

Lyamkin got his first playoff goal in that convincing win and the defenseman is very much the man of the moment for Ak Bars right now. Today he opened the scoring midway through the first period. Lyamkin moved into Dinamo territory, exchanged passes with Ilya Safonov and beat Vasily Demchenko at the second attempt.

That goal shifted the focus away from a bruising start to the game that brought two fights in the first five minutes. With barely a minute played, home forward Mikhail Fisenko dropped the gloves for a confrontation with visiting defenseman Nicolas Meloche.

Then, on 4:16, hostilities broke out again. Xavier Ouellet’s trip sparked an angry reaction from Nikita Dynyak, and their fight was accompanied by a scuffle on the undercard involving Josh Brook and Alexei Pustozyorov. Ak Bars had a two-minute power play after all that, and it had barely finished when there was a further flashpoint involving Darren Dietz and home forward Artyom Galimov.

Once all that calmed down, Ak Bars got its opening goal – and from then on, the home team gained the upper hand.

Up at the intermission, another power play midway through a fractious game brought a second goal. This time, Lyamkin had an assist as Dmitrij Jaskin redirected his shot to double the home lead.

Dinamo had a chance to get back into contention in the 34th minute when Galimov was assessed a double minor for high sticks. On the power play, Minsk got the puck past Timur Bilyalov, but Vitaly Pinchuk’s scrambled effort was called back after a review showed the use of a skate. And the Pinchuk was on the wrong end of another review when Anvar Gatiyatulin’s bench challenge uncovered an offside in the 38th minute.

That double blow dealt by the video got more painful just before the hooter when Alexander Barabanov’s counterattack goal made it 3-0 at the second intermission.

For much of the third period the Ak Bars defense held Dinamo at bay with relatively little drama. The visitor, unsurprisingly, was eager to get forward at every opportunity but rarely found its way inside the perimeter.

However, there was a late injection of drama as the Bison came close to an improbable comeback. In the 57th minute, Vadim Shipachyov reduced the deficit when he steered a Pinchuk shot past Bilyalov. It looked like a mere consolation effort, but on 59:15 Daniil Lipsky set alarm bells ringing for the home team when he made it 2-3 after a great shot from Alex Limoges dropped into his path.

Suddenly, Minsk had a shot at salvation. However, Ak Bars shut down the last 45 seconds and secured its passage despite the late fright.