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Lokomotiv finally play well after sacking the coack

Lokomotiv finally gave their fans a win. It would be surprising if they wouldn't win today too, since they play against a weaker team

Lokomotiv sacked their coach before the match with Medvescak which obviously affected the team in a good way - they started playing better and won the home match. They didn't open the season in a great way, but the new coach and a slightly weaker opponent brought them back on track. Not everything went great in that match either since Medvescak had the lead up until two minutes before the end, even though Lokomotiv were better. They had 14 attempts more, but couldn't score. Vasilye manages to score in power play in the very end, the match went to extra time and the penalty shootout, and they managed to win.
Even though they deserve the three points, they should be happy with the situation regardless. They need to catch up with the play off teams and winning in this match is a necessity - their opponent is among the worst teams in the league and should pose no threat. They have good power play (25%) as well as the  penalty killing (87%).
- We had too many penalties in the first period which is not acceptable and that's something we have to work on. Nothing changed when it comes to our ambitions. We have to work on the problems we have in our game - for starters score more. The defense is so far doing well - said new coach Vorobyov.
They won both head to head matches with Minsk last year, and Lokomotiv have even better team this year which should reflect on the final result. The last round win gave them the necessary confidence. The only player missing is still Konkov.
Dinamo Minks opened the season as badly as expected - they won only once in seven matches and remain at the bottom of the table. They lost all the most important players due to budget cuts, and purchased not so good replacements.That is why their game is not good, especially in the away matches.

Rumor has it that coach Andrievski might be replaced by Lubomir Pokovich soon, but both Andrievski and the club deny it. That still says something about the atmosphere in the team. 

They played badly against Atlant even though the final result suggest a tied match. They had only 16 attempts on target (half as much as their opponent). Only goaltender Haugen saved them from a bigger defeat. Atlant was in a 3-1 in the third period. Dinamo managed to score once again, but that was it. They are not doing well in away matches - the team is not good enough and the fans can make up for that a bit in home matches, but the away matches will be a problem. The defense is not so bad, but they can't make up for bad power play (6%) and the worst offense in the league.

- We don't play the away matches well and that was Atlant's advantage over us. It was a tough match, we could have won, but penalties in the last period stopped us from doing that - said Andrievsky about that match.

Surovy and Kaznadei are missing but that is not a big problem. The home team play the role of the favorite and Dinamo will have a bad time in Jaroslav if they keep on playing like in the previous matches.

Dinamo Minsk have the weakest offense in the league and haven't scored more than two goals in any of their last seven games. Lokomotiv Yaroslav have started playing better and their defense is strong as it is, and their coach is extremely satisfied with this aspect of their game. They have conceded over two goals in only one of their last four games, and have gone under this margin in two games - against Spartak and Avtomobilist. Last season, when Dinamo were better, they got only 1 goal and I expect the same today. Lokomotiv's core squad is the same as last season, their form is improving but the odds on their win are not too high and I see this as a much better option, bearing in mind the situation in Dinamo and the away team's solid defense.