All or nothing

Both teams have struggled to score goals all series, but Dinamo Moscow scored three goals in the opening period to win their second elimination game on the trot 5:2 against Avangard Omsk. The two teams will now play Game 7 in Omsk on Wednesday, with the momentum firmly swung in the direction of the Moscow side.

It only took 53 seconds for Dinamo to find the back of the net, as Leonid Komarov scored once more in the series, finding the net after a defensive blunder by Yuri Alexandrov, who came back into the line-up following the suspension of Anton Belov who tested positive for a banned substance following Game 5. Alexandrov gave the puck away, and eventually Konstantin Gorovikov set up Komarov, who had an open net to tap the puck into. Avangard managed to kill a penalty taken in the fifth minute, and soon they were level with the hosts, as Martin Skoula fired home following a beautiful piece of play by the Omsk side, with Anton Kuryanov and Alexei Kalyuzhny getting the assists.

Avangard couldn't capitalise on the momentum though, and soon the champions of the West came roaring back, scoring twice in the second half of the opening period. Karri Ramo was forced into a number of saves, but in the sixteenth minute his rebound control failed him, and Denis Mosalyov was there to put the second effort past the Finnish netminder. Three minutes later the score was 3:1, as Ramo whiffed on a blueline rocket by defenceman Filip Novak. The shots on goal were level at nine apiece, but Dinamo had a massive two goal lead going into the first intermission.

The second period was extremely open in regards to the two finalists' preference for defensive hockey, and as the middle frame began, Avangard had the better of the play. Alexander Yeryomenko, a four time Russian champion, was forced to make a string of saves in the first couple of minutes to keep his sides two goal lead intact. It simply wasn't Avangard's day, as they weren't having any luck in front of goal, and Dinamo's fourth goal came in unfortunate circumstances, as Marek Kvapil's effort midway through the period took a wicked deflection off of Georgijs Pujacs and past a helpless Ramo. Omsk would need a miracle in the third period.

Avangard dominated the third period, laying seige on Yeryomenko's goal. The away side had 19 shots in the final period, but Yeryomenko was equal to almost all of them. Martin Skoula scored his second of the game following a lovely pass by Kirill Lyamin, which cut the Dinamo lead to two, and with the way that Omsk were playing, you would not have put it past them finding the net at least once more. However, few would have budgeted for the form of the Dinamo netminder, who made save after save. Avangard pulled Ramo with a little over two minutes to go, but a blueline giveaway by Skoula let Marek Kvapil skate in unopposed into the Omsk zone and fire the puck into the empty net to the delight of the majority of the 8,500 fans present, and set up a mouthwatering Game 7, with the ball truly in Dinamo's court.

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