WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS
Game 1 - Monday, March 07
(5) Dynamo Moscow 2 (6) SKA St. Petersburg 3 SKA leads the series 1-0
Ilya Kovalchuk returned to SKA’s roster after missing most of the series against Lokomotiv, but it was Evgeny Dadonov who masterminded a hard-fought win in Game 1. Dadonov scored two and his menacing presence on the power play hurried Dynamo goalie Alexander Yeryomenko into an error as Nikita Gusev snatched the game winner midway through the final period. Gusev, the architect of Dadonov’s opener, forced the puck home from close range after Dadonov chased down a clearance behind the net and sowed panic among the Blue-and-White defense as the puck popped up in the slot. Gusev’s goal ensured that the game’s key moment was the crunching check to the head that Denis Barantsev delivered to Jarno Koskiranta in center ice with the score at 2-2. The D-man was given a 5+20 penalty, dealing a huge blow to his team’s hopes of finding a winner. SKA struck first with Dadonov opening the scoring on the power play after 10 minutes. Dynamo’s PK got caught out watching the puck and allowed Dadonov far too much time on the slot. Gusev’s pass picked him out and the shot rifled past Yeryomenko. Dynamo continued to press as the opening stanza wound down but SKA came into the game on the back of three successive shut-outs against Lokomotiv and Mikko Koskinen was once again on his game to keep the home team at bay. His hot streak ended right at the start of the middle session, though, when Andrei Mironov took Maxim Karpov’s pass over the blue line and hit a shot from the top of the circle that clipped the top of Koskinen’s glove on its way into the net. Dadonov soon reinstated SKA’s lead with a power play goal that resembled his first. This time Vadim Shipachyov supplied the pass as his team-mate found space on the slot to beat Yeryomenko. However, SKA had to regroup once again after a bitterly contested goal in the closing stages of the middle period. Dynamo was on the power play when a powerful shot from Alexander Osipov was deflected into the net by Daniil Tarasov. SKA’s furious defense had several questions for the officials and it took two rounds of video analysis before the goal was awarded. First the officials confirmed that Tarasov had not used his hand to push the puck into the net. Then, on the request of the SKA bench, the men in stripes went back to check whether Tarasov had encroached on Koskinen’s crease during his tussle with Slava Voynov right on the edge of the paint. The goal stood, SKA protested in vain, but the defending champion went on to find the answers on the ice.
Game 2 - Wednesday, March 09
(5) Dynamo Moscow 4 (1OT) (6) SKA St. Petersburg 3 Series tied at 1-1
An overtime goal from Alexander Osipov hauled Dynamo level in the series after another Titanic battle between these old foes. The defenseman snapped a 3-3 tie on the power play deep into the first period of overtime to give the Blue-and-Whites the victory – but only after SKA battled back to recover a two-goal deficit. Osipov’s strike came with Ilya Kovalchuk in the penalty box for interference. Dynamo used the man advantage to carefully probe for weaknesses in the SKA defense and finally found Osipov on the blue line. The shooting lane opened up for the D-man and his finish gave Mikko Koskinen no chance in the SKA net.
However, Dynamo may well feel it should have settled the game within regulation. The home team took the lead in the fourth minute thanks to a wonderful solo effort from Maxim Karpov. He collected the puck on the face-off spot in his own end and surged down the ice. Bursting into SKA’s zone, he found the defense backed off him, enabling him to dart between the hatching and fire a wrister into the top corner. And the first power play for the Blue-and-Whites saw that lead double. Ivan Igumnov’s shot from the left channel was turned back across the slot by Dmitry Vishnevsky and Ilya Shipov was on the spot to slide it home on the backhand. But SKA showed the kind of resilience that helped it to lift the Gagarin Cup last season, fighting back from 0-2 and 1-3 to complete the second stanza with the scores tied at 3-3. First a slip-up on SKA’s blue line saw Dynamo give up possession and send Nikita Gusev off to the races. The former Ugra man made it 2-1 with a precise finish that echoed Karpov’s opener.
Dynamo hit back immediately to reinstate its two-goal cushion within a minute. This time it was SKA turning over possession and enabling a breakaway for Dmitry Pestyusko and Vladimir Bryukvin. The latter completed the move to make it 3-1. Again there was an instant response, with Ilya Kablukov slinging the puck into the danger zone and celebrating as a deflection off a Dynamo skate took it into the net. The home team’s problems deepened with a clutch of penalties. SKA had 81 seconds of 5-on-3 and duly took advantage when Gusev found Vadim Shipachyov in space in the right-hand circle and the visitor’s captain smashed in a one-timer to tie the game in the 35th minute. In the third period Dynamo returned to the kind of form it showed in the first, but could not find a winning goal despite a golden chance for Bryukvin in the 47th minute. Instead the game went to overtime and Osipov’s winner for Dynamo.
Game 3 - Friday, March 11
(6) SKA St Petersburg 0 (5) Dynamo Moscow 4
Dynamo leads the series 2-1
When Muhammad Ali was truly the Greatest, he liked nothing better than to step back and leave his opponents with a free hit … only for them to swing at the empty air and be felled by the sucker punch. In this game, Dynamo re-enacted that strategy to a tee, allowing SKA plenty of room to play its hockey away from the net, defending the goal stoutly and waiting patiently for the errors to come. Sergei Oreshkin’s team soaked up plenty of pressure but was able to score its goals on the breakaway; SKA was left frustrated by a refereeing call right at the end of the first period. The home team believed it had tied the game at 1-1 when Maxim Chudinov’s backhand shot went through Alexander Yeryomenko’s five-hole from the right-hand circle as the hooter sounded. However, the video showed that the puck crossed the line after the 20 minutes were up and Dynamo held its lead going into the interval.
The home team already had cause for frustration in a first period where it dominated possession but failed to solve Yeryomenko. To make matters worse, Dynamo snatched the only goal of the opening stanza while short-handed: a SKA shot was blocked, the puck dropped kindly for Ivan Igumnov and the youngster skated 40 meters to score on Mikko Koskinen. Those frustrations deepened in the second period. If a blocked shot at one end set up Igumnov’s breakaway goal, Koskinen’s pad save from Alexei Tereshchenko at the other came into the path of Maxim Pestushko for a clinical finish over the goalie’s outstretched glove. And former SKA man Konstantin Gorovikov added a third after another swift turnover among the St. Petersburg forwards as they tried to repeat Dynamo’s short-handed triumph.
Alexander Dergachyov lost the blade of his skate and was left crawling along the ice as Alexander Osipov and Denis Kokarev led the 5on3 counter attack; the former’s shot was blocked and Gorovikov had the reactions and composure to retrieve the puck and fashion the shooting angle to make it 3-0. SKA’s miserable night was wrapped up when another defensive error presented Daniil Tarasov with the puck in center ice. He advanced and added a fourth goal to give his team a decisive victory and the lead in the series.
Game 4 - Sunday, March 13(6) SKA St. Petersburg 4 (5) Dynamo Moscow 0 Series tied at 2-2
After four games there’s nothing to choose between these two old rivals. SKA and Dynamo shared two tight games in Moscow before each team enjoyed a 4-0 win apiece in Petersburg to send the action back to the capital all square at 2-2.
SKA was under pressure to respond after its disappointing reverse on Friday saw the Army Men tactically out-thought by Dynamo. Ilya Kovalchuk, whose 2016 post-season stubbornly refuses to ignite, was scratched and once again the emphasis was on the Dadonov-Shipachyov-Gusev line to deliver the points for SKA. The trio shared 22 points in the previous eight playoff games and claimed all four goals here to add another nine points to that cumulative tally.
Vadim Shipachyov led the way with a hattrick and an assist. His opener came on the power play in the third minute, unleashing a one-timer to convert Nikita Gusev’s pass across the face of Alexander Yeryomenko’s net. SKA continued to dominate the game, but it wasn’t until the midway point that a second power play goal put the home team in control. It took just nine seconds to convert the man advantage: SKA won the face-off, Gusev fed Shipachyov in space in the deep slot and the captain’s pass picked out the unmarked Evgeny Dadonov on the post to double the lead. Shipachyov’s second of the night came just before the second intermission. Gusev rushed the net, only to be blocked in a crowd of players. The puck dropped for Shipachyov and he found the top shelf from a tight angle. With the game settled, the third period was more evenly-matched. But the only further scoring came late on as Shipachyov completed his treble, taking his post-season tally to seven when Gusev’s pass sliced open Dynamo’s defense once more and Shipachyov shot home a one-timer.
SKA’s top line led the way once again as the defending champion moved to within a single game of returning to the Western Conference final and repeating last season’s Army derby against CSKA. The troika of Nikita Gusev, Evgeny Dadonov and Vadim Shipachyov shared another six points in Moscow to down Dynamo and take a 3-2 lead back to home ice in Petersburg on Thursday.
Dynamo, seeking to recover from a 0-4 reverse that tied the series up in St. Petersburg, made five changes to its roster. Denis Barantsev and Maxim Solovyov were called up as the Blue-and-Whites opted for eight D-men, while Maxim Karpov, Konstantin Volkov and Alexander Avtsin got the nod among the forwards. SKA, meanwhile, made no changes, with Ilya Kovalchuk once again absent from the team.
Initially the new look seemed to suit Dynamo: the home team had the better of the opening period but could not convert its edge into goals. And that proved costly. Penalty trouble in the middle session put Dynamo behind in the game – and ultimately in the series. Dinar Khafizullin opened the scoring in the 25th minute, spotting a loose puck between Alexander Yeryomenko’s pads and prodding it into the net after Evgeny Dadonov and Vadim Shipachyov tested the home goalie.
The host retaliated: Konstantin Gorovikov beat Mikko Koskinen with a shot that angled into the top corner from the deep slot after Dynamo’s forecheck pushed SKA into dangerous territory. Then on a delayed penalty SKA struck again. Steve Moses came on to support the offense and when Nikita Gusev shot into Yeryomenko’s pads the American was first to react, forcing the puck home from close range. The shot count was even more telling than the 2-1 scoreline: after trailing 5-9 in the first period, SKA bossed the second 15-5. Dynamo’s defense was starting to open up. Another power play early in the third saw Gusev add a third SKA goal. Khafizulin found him with time and space at the bottom of the circle and after feinting to pass he wrapped his stick around a shot that fizzed inside the near post to put clear water between the teams. Jarno Koskiranta added a fourth goal in the closing stages after Dynamo’s Danill Tarasov was expelled from the game for fighting with Yegor Yakovlev.
Two goals in 25 seconds put SKA in complete control of this game and duly booked its passage into the Western Conference final. Dynamo, knowing that Thursday’s clash was a do-or-die moment against the team that ended its Gagarin Cup hopes last season, once again rang the changes. Head coach Sergei Oreshkin tweaked three of his four lines, reversing three of the five switches he made prior to Tuesday’s 1-4 defeat in Moscow. For the first period, that seemed to get results. The visitor had the better of the play in a session with few chances at either end. The best opportunities for the Blue-and-Whites fell to Maxim Karpov, who was twice sent clean through on goal only for Mikko Koskinen’s imposing presence to deny him.
More importantly, perhaps, Dynamo got through the opening session without giving away a penalty. That record ended early in the second and, once again, SKA’s power play proved to be deadly. Vadim Shipachyov held up play on the blue line before finding Nikita Gusev and the forward beat Alexander Yeryomenko with a wrister from the left circle to open the scoring. Shipachyov had been a doubt for this game after picking up an injury from Daniil Tarasov’s hard hit late in Tuesday’s game but recovered to collect his 16th post season point and his 11th of this series. If Dynamo hoped to regroup quickly and seek a renewed toehold in the game it was swiftly disappointed. SKA added a second goal just 25 seconds later through Anton Belov. The D-man fired Joakim Lindstrom’s pass into the far corner after ghosting in un obstructed at the far post.
Tempers frayed once again: Alexander Osipov was ejected from the game for throwing water at Stanislav Chudinov late in the second period after SKA came agonizingly close to adding a third. The final period saw Dynamo enjoying the bulk of the offense, taking the shot count by 13-4. But Koskinen was in fine form, finishing the evening with 31 saves to complete his shut-out and steer SKA into the next round. SKA’s win sets up a repeat of last year’s Western Conference final against CSKA. Twelve months ago, famously, the Petersburg team made history by recovering a 0-3 deficit to win the series and go on to lift the cup.
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