Game 1 - Dynamo v Torpedo 1-0 OT - Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Mikhail Biryukov’s spell as Dynamo goalie back in 2008-2010 isn’t one of the best-remembered moments of a long career. But tonight, back at his former club in the colors of Torpedo, he produced a display that left his old employers frustrated for 93 minutes. With 28 saves in regulation and a further 20 in overtime, Biryukov defied the home team as the opening game of this series went into two periods of extras before Maxim Karpov supplied the winning goal. He even overcame two juddering challenges early in the second period of overtime, shrugging off the after effects of accidental collisions with Denis Kokarev and Martins Karsums to soldier on behind an increasingly porous Torpedo defense. A Dynamo power play soon followed, and again Biryukov had the answers to deny the home team. It wasn’t until the 93rd minute that the goalie finally yielded to Karpov. Lukas Kaspar’s pass from behind the net dropped nicely for his team-mate, and the former Traktor forward fired home to bring the game to an end. Not that Biryukov was alone in impressing between the piping. Alexander Yeryomenko, already a Blue-and-White legend, delivered another fine display in both regulation and sudden-death, with his double block deep in OT1 to deny Carter Ashton and Bobby Butler catching the eye. But it was Dynamo who had more reason to feel frustrated as overtime dragged on. Biryukov had already pulled off a big stop in the dying seconds of regulation to deny Andrei Kuteikin, and followed that up with more crucial saves to keep out Ilya Nikulin and Ansel Galimov. Kuteikin finally beat the goalie, but not the crossbar, and the game rolled into a second stanza of extras. Earlier, Torpedo began the game more brightly, having the better of the first period as Dynamo struggled to settle into its game. But the Blue-and-Whites improved after the intermission, without finding a way to seriously test Biryukov. Increasingly it felt like this could be a one-goal game, with both teams failing to take the chances they created.
Game 2 - Dynamo v Torpedo 3-2 OT - Thursday, February 23, 2017
For the second game in a row, it took overtime to separate these two teams – but Thursday’s encounter was very different from Tuesday. After taking 93 minutes to come up with a goal in game one, Dynamo scored twice in the first period here and seemed to have got its offense firing once again. But Torpedo dug in, and stifled the host as the game went on, hauling the game back to 2-2 and setting up another spell of extras. Unlike Tuesday, when overtime became a battle of endurance and attrition, it took just two minutes to settle the outcome here. Torpedo made the brighter start, but succumbed to Dynamo’s first counter attack. Andrei Kuteikin handed his team the win and gives the Blue-and-Whites a big advantage to take to Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday. It was an unlikely goal: Kuteikin banged in a shot from center ice and caught Mikhail Biryukov unawares to win the game. Earlier, the home team blazed into action in the early stages of Thursday’s game, and as a hard-pressed Torpedo ran into penalty trouble, Dynamo took advantage. A 5-on-3 power play enabled Artyom Fyodorov to open the scoring in the 14th minute, converting the rebound from a Dmitry Vishnevsky shot. Another power play soon followed, and Juuso Hietanen doubled the lead with something of a Dynamo trademark. Lukas Kaspar’s pass found his colleague well placed to shoot, and that was 2-0.
For Torpedo, the stats were looking grim. Dynamo had won all 20 games in which it held a 2-0 lead this season, and the visitor had failed to score on Alexander Yeryomenko in 113 minutes and counting since the series began. But the start of the middle stanza saw Peteris Skudra’s team whip up a whirlwind around the home net. Dynamo, desperate to change its personnel, called a time-out on 21:49, but the rest did little good. Five seconds later, Torpedo made it 1-2 when Evgeny Mozer forced home Artyom Alyayev’s shot. It wasn’t enough to unsettle the host, though, and the Muscovites continued to have the better of the game for much of the second period. However, just as in the opening game, goals proved hard to come by at either end. Not even a 5-on-3 advantage for Torpedo could yield any change in the scoreline and it remained a one-goal game going into the third. Torpedo knew that the final stanza of this game could be a pivotal moment in the series. Fail to score, and heading to Nizhny Novgorod with two defeats to recover would be a daunting task. Strike back and give Dynamo something to think about, and the contest would be very much alive. The visitor raised its game on offense, outshooting the home team for the first time in the series. Enterprise got its reward in the 52nd minute when Sam Lofquist, recalled in place of Bobby Butler, saw his shot deflected into the net by Alexander Frolov to tie the game.
Game 3 - Torpedo v Dynamo 4-3 OT - Saturday, February 25, 2017
Torpedo left it late to take this game into overtime, but claimed its first victory of the playoffs at the third attempt to breathe new life into a close-fought series.
John Norman tied the game with his second goal of the night just 86 seconds before the hooter. Kaspars Daugavins saw his shot blocked by Alexander Yeryomenko, but the goalie allowed the puck to bounce towards Norman and the Swedish forward had half the net to aim for. For the second time in the game, Norman converted a big rebound, and Torpedo was saved. Then came Brandon McMillan’s winner, five minutes into the extras. McMillan charged down the puck in center ice and streaked towards Yeryomenko’s net with the Dynamo defense in disarray. His finish was deadly; the game was won. For the third game in a row there was little to choose between the teams. The first period produced no goals, but handed Dynamo a huge boost. A flurry of penalties in the 12th minute saw the Blue-and-Whites lose the services of Ilya Nikulin and Andrei Mironov with minor penalties and then, five seconds later, Andrei Kuteikin was handed a 5+20 after hitting an opponent in the face with his stick. Despite that long advantage – two minutes of 5-on-3, and a further three minutes of 5-on-4 – Torpedo failed to find a way through Dynamo’s defense.
But it took just three minutes of the second period to change all that as Torpedo raced into a 2-0 lead. Daugavins, a former Dynamo player, opened the scoring just 11 seconds after the restart. Then a rare error from Yeryomenko handed the host a second. A routine block went awry when the goalie lost sight of the puck as it bounced out in front of him; Norman had little difficulty in finding the net.
Dynamo rallied. A Mironov shot was deflected past Ilya Proskuryakov by Artyom Podshendyalov to reduce the arrears in the 27th minute. Then Alexei Tereshchenko tied it up in the 33rd, four seconds after a Torpedo time-out. Dmitry Vishnevsky fired in a shot, Proskuryakov parried, and Tereshchenko reacted first to the rebound. The visitor thought the game was won when Ilya Nikulin, a player with a proud tradition of clutch goals in playoff games, added to that list with a go-ahead goal in the 52nd minute. It was a familiar play: a feed along the blue line, this time from Juuso Hietanen, and a slap shot from the point that flew through a crowded crease and into the net. But this time, Nikulin’s power play effort was not enough and Torpedo got a victory that breathes new life into this series.
Game 4 - Torpedo v Dynamo 2-3 OT - Monday, February 27, 2017
Don’t make plans to do anything soon after watching Torpedo and Dynamo battle it out in this year’s playoffs, it’s a sure bet that overtime will disrupt the rest of your evening. For the fourth game in a row these two were deadlocked after 60 minutes, and the tying goal came later than ever as Daniil Tarasov forced the puck home with 39 seconds left. It wasn’t the prettiest of goals, but in the context of this series it could be crucial. Ilya Nikulin thumped a shot into the slot as Dynamo made one final push to tie the game. Alexei Tereshchenko found himself in a wrestling bout with two Torpedo D-men, and in the confusion the puck broke for Tarasov to grab his first goal of this year’s playoff. For Dynamo, which had trailed since the 10th minute and found itself 2-0 behind in the middle session, the relief was obvious; for Torpedo, so close to levelling the series, that goal hurt. In overtime, it hurt more. Three minutes into the extras, Maxim Karpov got his second game-winner of the series, forcing the puck into the net from under Ilya Proskuryakov’s pads after Tereshchenko ran the puck into the goalie before he could get his shot away. The home team was unhappy; Karpov was in danger of encroaching on the paintwork, but Peteris Skudra could not appeal from the bench and the goal was given. In the space of five minutes of game time, Torpedo had gone from a tied series to a 1-3 deficit. A trip to Moscow fuelled by the momentum of back-to-back victories became a trip to the capital in a last-ditch bid to save the series.
Initially the game seemed destined to follow a different course. Despite injury problems that cost Torpedo the services of Roman Derlyuk and Kaspars Daugavins in the first period, the home team gained the lead thanks to Vladimir Galuzin’s first goal of the playoffs in the 10th minute. The Dynamo defense failed to deal with a shot that flashed wide and bounced behind the net; the puck dropped kindly for Galuzin, who forced it into the net off the skates of goalie Alexander Yeryomenko. The second stanza began with another Torpedo goal when Evgeny Mozer converted a power play chance in the 23rd minute. But Dynamo rallied, testing Ilya Proskuryakov in the Torpedo net before getting a goal back through Ivan Igumnov. The youngster produced a neat backhand finish from close range after Daniil Tarasov’s attempted shot turned into a pass via the pads of the home goalie.
Game 5 - Dynamo v Torpedo 3-1 - Wednesday, March 01, 2017
For once it didn’t need overtime, Dynamo clinched the victory it needed inside 60 minutes. But in a game riddled with minor penalties, Torpedo paid the price for allowing its opponent too many opportunities on the power play. The visitor’s indiscretions, nine minor penalties, one major, robbed it of momentum at crucial times and cost the game-winning goal. Dynamo’s first goal wasn’t officially a power play goal, but it came just one second after Dmitry Semin returned to the ice after a minor penalty, and its roots lay in the prolonged pressure that the Blue-and-Whites put on Mikhail Biryukov’s net. Alexei Tsvetkov’s shot was saved, but the puck rebounded for Yakov Rylov to open the scoring. Then Torpedo ran into penalty trouble again at the end of the second period and Tsvetkov was architect of a power play goal to double the home lead. He collected the puck from Fyodorov, waited for his team mate to take up a dangerous position on the slot and slung the puck low and hard into the danger zone. Fyodorov wrestled free of a D-man to turn it into the net. Those penalties late in the middle stanza wrested the initiative away from Torpedo as it looked to chase the game, and the final period began in a similar fashion. The visitor, playing for its playoff survival, looked menacing early on, especially when Denis Shurakov carved out a chance for Danil Veryayev, only to find Alexander Yeryomenko had the angles covered. But all that changed when Alexei Potapov went in hard on Fyodorov. The Dynamo man was helped to the locker room, Potapov followed him off the ice after picking up an ejection for boarding. Soon afterwards, Brandon McMillan got a minor penalty, and Torpedo faced two minutes of 3-on-5 penalty kill. Dynamo, aware that it had a lead, opted not to go for the throat and took much of the pace out of the game, allowing time pressure to build up on the visitor. But Dynamo ran into penalty trouble of its own when Denis Kokarev picked up a minor. Evgeny Grachyov hit the post off a Sam Lofquist pass on the power play and seconds after Kokarev’s return, Torpedo halved the deficit. Kirill Urakov was the scorer, recovering to find the net at the second attempt after hitting the post with the goal at his mercy.
Suddenly there was a very real prospect of overtime for the fifth game in a row in this series, especially when Dynamo’s Alexei Tereshchenko became the latest player to pick up a penalty. Torpedo took a time-out with 2:48 left to play, seeking to plot a last-gasp, series-saving goal. Biryukov abandoned his net with 90 seconds left, but this time there would be no late drama. Instead, Tereshchenko emerged from the sin bin, got the puck and fired into the empty net to settle the issue.
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