A Mikhail Anisin hat-trick helped send Dynamo Moscow through to the Gagarin Cup final in spectacular circumstances, sealing a barnstorming 6-1 win to top a 4-0 series shutout of SKA St. Petersburg in the Western Conference final.
The diminutive forward took his playoff tally to a KHL record 13 goals in 14 games as Dynamo dismantled SKA, the clear favorite before the series began.
“We weren’t amazed at the number of the goals. We just did our jobs and moved forward to our goal,” Anisin said. “We only grasped that we’d done it when the final siren sounded.”
He lauded the team ambience.
“We’ve got a group of people who think alike, we’re very good friends in the team and playing in that atmosphere is a real pleasure.”
Denis Mosalyov, the star of Dynamo’s 5-4 overtime win in St. Petersburg, opened the scoring Tuesday before Leonid Komarov and Konstain Gorovikov chipped in for the hosts, and Dmitry Kalinin claimed a consolation goal for SKA.
Dynamo, Russia’s oldest hockey club, become the first Moscow team in a Gagarin Cup final, and could be the first Western Conference team to lift the trophy.
SKA coach Milos Riha told RIA Novosti that his team simply buckled under the pressure.
“Straight away we let in three goals, straight away we made a lot of mistakes. You could see that the guys had just burned out,” he said. “They prepared too hard and too seriously, talking among themselves. That’s why they just burned, burned like pieces of paper.”
A group of SKA fans chanted “There’s no place in St. Pete for Riha” as he left the stadium after the match, but the team had to share the blame, SKA forward Viktor Tikhonov said.
“I reckon that it’s not right to blame Riha for everything. ... If the players had played better, as they needed to, then there absolutely wouldn’t be these questions about Riha’s future,” he told RIA Novosti.
Dynamo seized the lead on five minutes when Dmitry Pestunov set up Mosalyov with a long pass that gave him space on the left to line up his strike.
Mattias Weinhandl then hit the piping for SKA before Anisin lashed in a long range strike past SKA goaltender Jakub Stepanek on 11 minutes before Komarov grabbed Dynamo’s third with a solo effort on SKA power play.
With SKA 3-0 down after 14 minutes, Riha opted to withdraw Stepanek in favor of Ilya Yezhov, who shut out Dynamo for the rest of the period.
Three minutes into the second period, Dynamo scored again on a SKA power play, Gorovikov tapping in the rebound from Komarov’s shot after another solo charge.
On 26 minutes, Anisin skated around the SKA defense for his second before finishing the hat-trick seven minutes later from Denis Tolpeko’s pass, causing the Dynamo fans to shower their caps onto the ice.
SKA’s sole consolation came 20 seconds before the end of the second period, when Kalinin lashed in the rebound after Vladimir Tarasenko struck the frame of the goal.
Dynamo’s opponent in the Gagarin Cup final will not be decided until at least Friday.
Avangard Omsk leads Traktor Chelyabinsk 2-1 in the Eastern Conference final, with the fourth game in that series to be played later Wednesday.
