A paragon of away games

Two changes took place in Traktor’s lineup as Pavel Francouz was put in between the pipes, and Denis Mosharov replaced Semyon Afonasyevsky.

Dinamo put the pedal to the metal early on, bombarding Francouz with shots from any and every angle. This active play by the hosts led to a penalty by Dmitri Pestunov. However, the black-and-white not only killed it off, but managed to organize a shorthanded goal; Matt Ellison could not get a hold of the puck on the blue line, and Alexander Chernikov beat Ben Scrivens on a breakaway.

Dinamo continued with the onslaught in the second period. Alexander Kitarov and Yevgeni Kovyrshin had opportunities to score a tying goal, but Francouz and company did not allow this to happen. Somewhere around the mid-game mark, things started heating up as both teams were throwing hits right and left. The tension finally boiled over, and Nikita Komarov and Nikolai Belov had a short yet exciting scrap that led to a Traktor penalty. During these two minutes, AlexeiKruchinin damn near broke the goal post with his shot. His goal would come minutes later when he found the rebounded puck near the opposition’s goal and transferred it into the net.

A fun hockey game continued in the third twenty. Dinamo mustered all their strength in an attempt to get back into the game while Traktor was trying their best to hang on. Eight minutes before the buzzer, Dinamo had a three-on-two breakaway chance that was stopped by Kirill Koltsov and his skate. Ben Scrivens was pulled for the sixth skater 150 seconds before the end of the bout, but it didn’t matter. Traktor put on a terrific away-ice performance and continues the series Thursday against Jokerit.

Game details

DINAMO Minsk vs. TRAKTOR – 0:2 (0:1, 0:1, 0:0)
Goals: Chernikov, 9 (0:1 – shorthanded); Kruchinin (Szczechura, Koltsov), 38 (0:2).

DINAMO
Scrivens (57:33-59:16 – empty net);
Gotovets – Lisovets, Gavrus – Ellison – Pavlovich (C);
Korobov – Gragnani, Klinkhammer (A) – Kovyrshin – Materukhin;
Shinkevich – Henkel, Komarov – Stepanov – Drozd;
Kulakov (A) – Kitarov – Karaban – Ambrozheichik.

TRAKTOR
Francouz;
Belov – Borodkin, Kruchinin – Szczechura – Yakutsenya;
Koltsov – Denisov (A), Chernikov – Yuri Petrov – Zinovyev;
Shinin (C) – Klimontov, Sharov – Pestunov (A) – Roy;
Alexei Petrov, Gubarev – Penkovsky – Mosharov.

Shots on goal: 34 (16+10+8) – 16 (5+7+4).
Faceoffs won: 33 (12+12+9) – 24 (4+10+10).
Shots blocked: 6 (2+2+2) – 14 (5+6+3).
Hits: 7 (5+0+2) – 9 (2+5+2).
PIM: 23 (0+19+4) – 11 (2+7+2).
TOI: Lisovets (25:26), Klinkhammer (21:52), Kovyrshin (20:31) – Borodkin (22:03), Denisov (19:06), Klimontov (18:53).

Referees: Sergei Kulakov, Pavel Ovchinnikov.
Linesmen: Yevgeni Pronskikh, Alexei Maytak. 

November 29, 2016. Minsk-Arena, Minsk, Belarus. Attendance – 13822.