Dynamo Moscow reached the quarterfinals of the KHL play-offs
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In the play-offs of the Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League, the last quarter-finalist was determined, which was Dynamo Moscow. In the sixth match with Minsk teammates on their site, the winner of the regular season prevailed – 3:1 – and closed the series with a total score of 4:2.
As in the Eastern Conference, in the West, in the starting round of the play-offs, the team that took first place at the end of the regular season had problems with qualifying, which accordingly got the eighth seed as its opponent. But Dynamo Moscow actually won the Continental Cup, winning the regular season.
Of course, no one promised that it would be easy for Muscovites in the confrontation with Dynamo Minsk, but it was difficult to predict that this particular series would turn out to be the most stubborn.
And everything seemed to be going smoothly for Muscovites. Having won two home victories, they completed the minimum program away and returned from the capital of Belarus with the score 3:1 in their favor. The point was that the blue and whites would qualify for the next stage in five matches, as did the other Western clubs – Lokomotiv, Spartak and SKA. Yes, their top scorer of the regular championship, Nikita Gusev, missed that game due to illness, nevertheless, they scored quickly and, in principle, kept the situation under control. The Minsk team finally got back in the 49th minute, but they had a very hard time in the first overtime, and just 49 seconds after the start of the second they extended the series until the sixth meeting.
The teams moved to Minsk again, but here one could already expect any development of events. And a lot depended on whether Gusev would appear on the ice. Without him, the majority of Muscovites immediately became upset, and this is their main trump card. They surpassed everyone in this indicator both in the regular season and in the playoffs, but in the fifth match they did not use any of the six attempts. Gusev played, and Dynamo Moscow’s first strike line was restored.
From the first shifts, the Minsk team powerfully attacked Ilya Konovalov’s goal and quickly achieved success, hitting the guests with their own weapons and realizing their numerical advantage. The best scorer of the Belarusian club in the regular season, Sam Enas, threw the puck into the near “nine” from the right face-off circle. After that, the Muscovites also got involved in the game, starting to fire at goalkeeper Alexei Kolosov from different points. True, all this was not very dangerous, but Tanner Fritz at the end of the first period almost doubled the difference when he ran away one to zero. Konovalov managed to slightly change the flight of the puck, which bounced off the crossbar into the field.
In the opening period of the meeting, the best three of the blue and whites practically did not show themselves at all, and Gusev even looked as if something was still preventing him from showing his usual hockey. In addition, the owners did not leave. Only in the second twenty minutes did Gusev finally score with a good throw. But the goal was not organized by the leaders of Dynamo Moscow, but, as they say, by the workhorses. Defenseman Kirill Gotovets dragged the puck from his own zone to someone else’s and threw it onto the penny, where Maxim Dzhioshvili had already arrived. Then Gusev rolled into a killer position and hit the goalkeeper.
The Minsk team gave up the initiative and lost this period, although before the break they stepped up their game again and could have taken the lead. But the guests took the lead when already in the third twenty minutes they carried out a protracted attack, Artem Ilyenko received a pass from Yegor Rimashevsky and, in a fight with Robert Hamilton, hit the target with a turn. Again their third line scored, but the first line didn’t score even on the long-awaited power play. However, the Muscovites were already thinking more about how to kill time and not let the enemy score. They defended without mistakes, but in the end, defender Andrei Mironov still broke the rules, and the hosts tried to save the series in the six-on-four format by removing the goalkeeper. However, the referees soon fined their striker Nick Merkley, and it all ended with Jordan Weal throwing the control puck into an empty net.
Dynamo Moscow defeated Minsk – 3:1 – and made it to the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup.
Considering that from the second round of the current season, cross-playoffs are being used for the first time, there they will meet with Traktor, which plays in the Eastern Conference. Avangard will face off against Lokomotiv. In the other part of the tournament bracket, Metallurg will play with Spartak, and SKA will play with Avtomobilist.
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