Dinamo Mn topped by Sibir 4-2

The Belarusian club has never won KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk on home ice.

On 28 October this negative statistics continued for the Minskers as Dinamo Minsk fell 2-4 to the visiting Russian team.

The beginning of the match was similar to Dinamo’s meeting with Amur at Minsk Arena three days earlier. The first period was nearly over when Alexei Kopeikin gave Sibir the lead at 19:57. Dinamo Minsk allowed another one early in the second period. Four minutes later the scoreboard was showing 3-0 to the favor of the visiting team. The Belarusians started battling back midway through the second period. Minsk captain Alexei Kalyuzhny put his one-timer into the upper corner of Mikko Koskinen’s goal during the 5-on-3 action on the ice. Derek Meech could now boast a super sprawling save of the Minsk net midway through the second denying the puck with his leg.

Despite Minsk’s attacking outburst in the third period the 1-3 score was kept unchanged almost until the end of the regulation. With four minutes left to play Minskers reduced the gap to the minimum on Ivan Usenko’s first goal as a member of the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk. Neman defenseman Ivan Usenko made his debut at Minsk Arena on 28 October after signing a contract with the Belarusian KHL representative until the end of the 2013-14 season.

Dinamo coach Alexander Andriyevsky once again made an attempt to save the game by pulling the goaltender in favor of an additional skater. The move did not work this time as Minskers got the fourth into the empty net. Geoff Platt’s blast from the blue line was taken by one of Sibir players who sent it across the ice to his linemate. With this empty netter Jonas Enlund made it his second of the night.

With 20 points after 21 games Dinamo Minsk is 13th in the Western Conference, 11 points away from the playoff zone.

Dinamo Minsk have two more games to play this week: against Metallurg Novokuznetsk on 30 October and Admiral Vladivostok on 1 November.