Dinamo hold on for now

In what was a relative goalfest between these two defensive teams, Dinamo Moscow forced a Game 6 in Moscow after defeating Avangard Omsk in Game 5.

Dinamo struck early, as they took a two goal lead in the first ten minutes. After being held off of the scoresheet in the first four games of the finals, Dinamo's go to guy Mikhail Anisin finally found the net two and a half minutes into the first period, as Karri Ramo got his angles all wrong, and the diminutive forward managed to squeeze the puck between the post and the Finnish netminders pads. Dinamo captain Yuri Babenko made the score 2:0 just after the nine minute mark, as he pounced on a loose puck in front of Ramo, who seemed to knock the puck into his own net by mistake.

The second period saw Dinamo extend their lead, as Konstantin Gorovikov fired a blast from the left circle after shrugging off the challenge of Roman Cervenka. Ramo seemed to get a piece of the puck but still couldn't keep the puck out of the net. It took 31 minutes for Avangard to finally beat Alexander Yeryomenko, as Anton Kuryanov finally broke Avangard's duck after the halfway mark.

The third period saw a massive shots on goal advantage for Dinamo, which was surprising considering Avangard were still behind. Yuri Alexandrov found the net with 19 seconds to go, but it was a case of too little too late for the Siberians, who dropped their second game of the series at home, and now face the prospect of going back to Moscow on Monday with another chance to win their first Gagarin Cup.