SKA and Dynamo to clash in KHL semis

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Published time: March 23, 2012 20:04
Edited time: March 24, 2012 00:38

SKA St Petersburg and Dynamo Moscow have eclipsed their latest rivals to set up a head-to-head battle in the semi-final series of the Gagarin Cup play-offs.

­SKA St Petersburg 4-0 Atlant Moscow Region

Despite home ice advantage, Atlant looked completely helpless against SKA in Game 6 of their series.

Dmitry Vorobyev, Maksim Rybin and Maksim Afinogenov all beat Konstantin Barulin before Ivan Nepryaev settled the final 4-0 score with a goal into an empty net.

“I can’t say a bad word about my team,” Milos Riha, SKA’s coach, commented. “The boys executed the game plan perfectly. We had a lively start; we played well; we scored goals.”

SKA won the best-of-seven series 4-2 to make their first ever Gagarin Cup semi, which they’ll go into as favorites.   

Dynamo Moscow 3-2 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

Dynamo ended their meeting with Torpedo by the same 4-2 score.  

The Muscovites were trailing 2-1 on home ice after the opening period, but managed to come back strongly in the second period.

Dmitry Pestunov equalized for Dynamo, while Mikhail Anisin gave the hosts the lead less than two minutes before the break.

Torpedo had plenty of chances to get back into the match in the final 20 minutes as Dynamo committed too may fouls.

But the visitors from Nizhny Novgorod failed to beat netminder Aleksandr Eremenko despite having four-on-three and five-on-three chances during a power-play.

The home win saw Dynamo progressing to the semis with a 4-2 scoreline in the best of seven series.

“I’d like to thank my guys for the entire series,” Oleg Znarok, Dynamo’s boss, commented. “We played great and we fought and didn’t lose to our opponents in any component of the game. We were a goal down at one point, but in the second period we finally got angry and managed to come away with a win.”

The first game of the Western Conference finals is scheduled for March 28, with SKA entertaining the visitors from Moscow at home.