Dynamo Moscow have defeated their cross city rivals Spartak 2-1, registering their second win in four games since the start of the new KHL season.
Nominal hosts Dynamo started the 2011 KHL season with a win and two losses, with the latest two-day-old defeat coming at the hands of none other than Spartak Moscow.
It is no wonder that Dynamo were not only motivated by garnering quick revenge, as it was also the club’s first home game.
However, it was the visitors who opened the score on the power play 11 minutes into the first period, through Anatoly Nikontsev.
The beginning of the second period saw both teams increase speeds consequently creating chances on either side of the rink.
But it was Dynamo’s Leo Komarov, who capitalized on one of a multitude of opportunities to level matters in this match.
So a mirrored result in the second period left the score at 1-all going into the final 20 minutes.
It is safe to say that it was a goalkeepers’ game at that point with nerves of steel bound to win the match for one of the sides.
And it was Spartak’s busy netminder Ivan Kasutin, who gave in first in the third period, after one of Dynamo’s opening attacks ended in the teams’ second goal, scored by Grigory Shafigulin, 2-1.
“You know, I think we did a great job. We were ready for the game because we had three games before this and we played really badly. And today everybody went out for the team and we scored two goals and won,” Leo Komarov, Dynamo’s goal scorer, said.
Spartak did have opportunities to level the match and take it into overtime, however Dynamo’s goaltender Aleksandr Eremenko was on guard at all times.
Despite this result, the play-off future is wide open for both teams as the KHL season has just started and will last until March of next year.