Dynamo surprise SKA in game no 1

22 Mar 2013 | Dennis Mende

Guests Dynamo Moscow showed a convincing performance in the opener of KHL's Western Conference final series against SKA St. Petersburg and won the match 3-2.

Western Conference finals, game 1

SKA St. Petersburg (1) - Dynamo Moscow (3) 2-3

The home side started with a lot of speed and had a first big opportunity already after 30 seconds when Dynamo goalie Yeryomenko cleared with problems after a blue line shot. The following attack by the guests from Moscow though led to the fast lead through Yuri Babenko who deflected a shot from the left wing by Janne Jalasvaara into the back of the net from short distance! From now on Dynamo controlled the match during most parts of the first period and earned the 2-0 through Konstantin Kasyanchuk who deflected a shot by Dominik Granak during the first power play of the match at 19:12.

The middle period was even more one-sided with several big chances for Dynamo when Kokarev's one-timer from half a metre was stopped by Ezhov and Gorovikov failed after a break away that followed just after the end of a shorthanded play of the guests. In the end they were rewarded for their efforts with the third goal which was added by Konstantin Kasyanchuk who used a pass by Alexei Sopin from the left circle to fire the puck into the right top corner at 37:51! At the end of the period Fyodor Fedorov had the opportunity to get SKA onto the scoreboard for the first time but Yeryomenko made a spectacular pad save against his deke from short distance!

At the start of the third period the SKA players became more and more impatient and frustrated which led to several stupid penalties. One of them was a five minute major against Fedorov for a check against the head which stayed unused by Dynamo. This was almost punished by SKA! First Alexander Kucheryavenko deflected a shot by Igor Makarov from the right circle into the left top corner. From this moment on the hosts finally believed in themselves and after a timeout their goalie Ilya Ezhov left his net for an additional attacker with two minutes left to play. Out of a large crowd again Kucheryavenko made it 2-3 at 59:08! Ezhov stayed on the bench for the rest of the time and with 20 seconds left on the clock SKA almost forced the equalizer but in the end Dynamo survided the pressure and had a not undeserved 3-2 win in St. Petersburg that gives them the lead in the series!

Game #2 follows already tomorrow at 14.00 CET, again in St. Petersburg.

Dynamo lead 1-0 in the series