Spartak won the derby and took first place in the KHL championship
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The Fonbet Kontinental Hockey League hosted a match between the leaders of the Western Conference, in which Dynamo Moscow and Spartak met. Despite the fact that the blue and whites took the lead three times, the red and white won in overtime – 4:3. Spartak regained the lead, but they were tied on points with Dynamo.
The Spartak-Dynamo match could easily be called the central event not only of the next game day in the KHL regular championship, but also of the entire 12th week of the tournament. And this despite the fact that at the same time in Kazan such giants as Ak Bars and SKA were arguing among themselves. But now the leaders in the Western Conference are not the army team from St. Petersburg or even their Moscow teammates, the current winners of the Gagarin Cup from CSKA, but Dynamo and Spartak, who before the current meeting scored 44 and 43 points, respectively. Moreover, with these indicators they took first or second place in the overall league standings.
Both teams had already put together nine-game winning streaks during the regular season, after which their batteries ran out and they started winning again, proving that it was no coincidence that they were at the top of the KHL. Spartak, with 109 goals, remained first in scoring in the current championship, and Dynamo was one of the top in defensive reliability with 62 goals conceded and the leader in power play conversion with an efficiency of 31.7%.
And in this match, two of the league’s top attacking trios competed: Spartak’s Nikolai Goldobin-Ivan Morozov-Pavel Poryadin and Dynamo’s Nikita Gusev-Cedric Paquette-Jordan Weale. True, in the first confrontation of the season, in which the blue and whites prevailed – 6:3, they showed themselves rather negatively, and Morozov completely missed that game almost a month ago.
And now the non-leading links of the capital’s clubs distinguished themselves in a productive first period.
Dynamo forward Dmitry Rashevsky opened the scoring, kicking the puck like a footballer after Eric O’Dell’s pass from behind the goal and accurately throwing it from the middle spot. For Spartak, Maxim Tsyplakov scored, finishing Alexander Burmistrov’s pass at the far post in the power play. Then the red-and-white goalkeeper Patrick Rybar failed to cope with the throw of defender Andrei Mironov, who was assisted by Maxim Dzhioshvili. But Alexei Zhamnov’s team quickly bounced back this time, when Yegor Filin wanted to aim Ansel Galimov at the empty goal, and Dynamo’s Andrei Pribylsky unsuccessfully waved his stick and upset his own goalkeeper.
Already in the second twenty minutes, Paquette’s trio was unable to take advantage of the numerical advantage, however, as soon as the red and white hockey player was penalized, Pavel Kudryavtsev again brought the blue and white forward thanks to the fact that big Dzhioshvili blocked Rybar’s entire view. Soon Gusev earned a second power play, but Paquette fouled at the wrong time and leveled the lineups, so Dynamo missed a good opportunity to take a lead. But Alexei Kudashov’s team was pulled in by goalkeeper Ilya Konovalov, and they retained a minimal advantage by the third period. Although it is surprising how the opponents limited themselves to only one goal in the second segment of the match, considering that they continued to play open hockey and create sharp moments.
However, the guests of the Megasport Arena were still in business, as they noticeably outscored the hosts after two periods – 26:14 in shots on target and 48:26 in total.
In the final twenty minutes, Spartak looked much more active, and Dynamo had already switched to a more pragmatic tactic of containing and waiting for mistakes on the part of the enemy. Morozov and his partners were very close to scoring in the five-on-four format, however, the blue and white survived. And in the future they defended reliably, offering the red and white the most intense fight in which even their best line got stuck. And yet, at the end of normal time, he managed to play out a scoring combination in the opponent’s zone when Poryadin found defender Dmitry Vishnevsky on the blue line, and the captain did not disappoint.
The fate of this fiery derby was decided in overtime. Tsyplakov single-handedly climbed to the goal and with an awkward wrist shot put the puck under Konovalov’s pad. “Spartak” snatched victory in a match in which it lost the score three times—4:3. And now, with 45 points, he is again the leader in the West, ahead of Dynamo in additional indicators.
As for the Eastern Conference, Metallurg took first place with 42 points, beating Dynamo Minsk 4:1 on the road. The second line is still occupied by the sensational Lada, which has 41 points, but it was caught up by Avangard, which defeated Severstal in overtime – 5:4. But the main favorite of the East, Ak Bars, is still only fifth with 38 points. The Kazan team were defeated at home by SKA – 2:4, and this was their third failure in a row.
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