Published: 29 September, 2009, 10:41
Edited: 29 September, 2009, 17:02
Spartak Moscow have failed to return to the top of the KHL table after suffering their second straight defeat.
Their opponents on the other hand, city rivals Dynamo, broke a three-game losing streak after they crushed their city rivals 5-1.
There was no question as to who was the stronger side on Monday night, as Dynamo spent half of the first period playing four on five against Spartak.
The Red-and-Whites failed to take advantage of those five powerplays and actually conceded the first goal in one of them.
Swede Mathias Veinhandle made good on a penalty after seven minutes of play awarded to Dynamo for holding.
Both sides performed well in the first twenty minutes, ending with a 1-0 scoreline.
It was probably the second period that sealed victory for the home team. Dynamo upped the pressure on the Spartak goal and kept the puck mostly on the visitor’s side of the rink.
The second goal came only 15 minutes into the second. An attack that was initiated by Russian Vitaly Iachmenev was completed by a Swedish duo – Johan Harriou’s pass across the keeper line found Linus Omark, who flicked it in.
Just two minutes later Dynamo found themselves in a 5-on-3 situation and took full advantage.
Credit goes to Johan Harriou and team captain Aleksey Zhitnik, who set up Jiri Hudler for his first goal of the day. Two periods saw the score increase to 3-1 to Dynamo.
“It’s nice to score. It’s important for us to play a game like this against a very good team like Spartak,” Dynamo’s Jiri Hudler commented.
Spartak managed to create somewhat of an intrigue in the final period. Dmitry Uper received all the credit for the team’s only goal on the night.
That seemed to have inspired the visitors for at least five minutes, but Dynamo buried all their hopes in the last three minutes by scoring another two goals. 5-1 was the final result.