Metallurg defeated Dynamo Minsk in the KHL for the second time this season

Metallurg is holding a short away series on the route Minsk – Novosibirsk. The day before, the Magnitogorsk team played in Belarus against the local Dynamo.

The coaching staff of Magnitogorsk decided to use almost the same lineup for the game in Minsk that brought victory over Ak Bars in the previous match. The only change affected the goalkeeper line: Artyom Zagidulin, who earned a “cracker,” was given a rest and Ilya Nabokov was released as the starting goalkeeper.

The first period was marked by one goal. In the ninth minute, the hosts broke the rules and were left with four players on the court. Metallurg, which had noticeably improved its offensive and power play performance in recent matches, could not help but take the chance to further improve its statistics. Robin Press opened the scoring. Note that at the end of the period, Dynamo had a pretty good chance to even the numbers after the puck ended up on the Magnitogorsk team’s back, but Luke Johnson neutralized the threat.

And yet the hosts managed to reduce the gap in the opening of the second twenty minutes. Vadim Moroz played to finish and hit Ilya Nabokov. Let us note that the young Magnitogorsk goalkeeper did not allow the puck to go beyond the ribbon during the remaining playing time. But Metallurg responded to the missed goal with three of their own.

So, in the 24th minute, Magnitogorsk took the lead with a shot from Danila Yurov. By the way, the guests were again in the majority at that moment. Then, in the 32nd minute, Pavel Akolzin increased the gap to 1:3.

In the third period, Dynamo tried to play more actively, but Metallurg did not really allow them to make shots on target. Magnitogorsk blocked and intercepted the puck a lot, and the goalkeeper played reliably. At the end of the meeting, the Minsk team played with an empty goal, but two minutes before the siren they earned another penalty. Playing in a four-on-five formation, the hosts even took a chance and removed the goalkeeper, but ended up with another puck into an empty net. Danila Yurov put an end to the match, thus scoring his first double in the KHL. Note that this goal was also counted as a converted majority attempt.

The result is a 4:1 victory, which becomes the fifth in a row for Magnitogorsk. They will play their next match on November 16 in Novosibirsk.