Dinamo Minsk held off by Metallurg Novokuznetsk

Goals from Zbynek Irgl and Alexander Kitarov were not enough as Dinamo Minsk fell 2-3 to Metallurg Novokuznetsk in their second road game on 4 December.

Artyom Gareyev and Sergei Yemelin gave a two-goal lead to Novokuznetsk in the first half of the opening period and forced Dinamo coach Lubomir Pokovic once again take a timeout and replace the goaltender. Lars Haugen showed rather solid game this time. With the clock ticking to the end of the first period, the hosts pulled one more into Minsk net, but the whistle blew the game dead just a second earlier. The moment sparked a fight between Ilya Kaznadei and Ansel Galimov on Dinamo’s crease. Penalty announcements followed, with the latter receiving twice as much.

The Bisons, however, allowed the third goal early in the middle stanza. It has become Minsk’ seventh shorthanded goal they conceded since the start of the 2013-14 KHL regular season. Dinamo made their response late in the period on Geoff Platt-Alexei Kalyuzhny-Zbynek Irgl counterattack. Zbynek Irgl was assisted by Dinamo’s best strikers Geoff Platt and Alexei Kalyuzhny who continued keeping their trends going in the right direction. Geoff Platt now leads with a total of 24 points (14 goals and 10 assists), Alexei Kalyuzhny has so far pocketed 18 points (9+9) into his record with Dinamo Minsk.

Alexander Kitarov pulled another past Metallurg’s Nikita Lozhkin late in the final period to reduce the gap for Dinamo to the minimum. The second penalty on Ilya Kaznadei and bad luck on the power play that followed kept the Belarusians from taking the game into overtime.

Dinamo Minsk suffered their 15th defeat on the road. With 33 points after 33 games the Bisons remain at the bottom of the Western Conference.

The team has two more games to play before heading home. Dinamo Minsk face Amur Khabarovsk on 6 December and Admiral Vladivostok on 8 December.