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Dinamo lost their best scorer Pestushko

He was injured after a brutal foul by one of Severstal's players, and the team have other injury problems as well. They will have to do with what they have, but that will leave mark on their game. Lokomotiv wait for their chance

Dynamo is doing better lately after a bad period, but still, only bad things happen to them lately. Possibly the worst one happened - their best scorer Pestushka got injured (he won 15 points in the first 12 matches of the season). He suffered a concussion and a broken jaw and nose in a savage clash with Severstal's player. 

The only good thing about that match are the three points they secured with three goals in the first period. They were better, but didn't score any more goals till the end. Their defense was traditionally good, they managed to save all five short handed situations, Eremenko was as good as always on the goal - he had 95% of saves which makes him one of the engines of last year's KHL champion.


Not only Pestushko, but Jalasvaar and Granak got injured as well in that match. They are two of their four top level defensemen and that will create some serious problems because they already miss some other players. Their situation is similar to the one CSKA is currently in - almost all of their key players are missing, and Leo Komarov alone will have to take a great deal of responsibility in Dynamo now.


- We played the first period well and we deserved to win. But, the atmosphere is bad because we lost three players in that match. Pestushko got badly injured and Granak and Jalasvaar as well, which is a disaster or us - said Dynamos'c coach Znarok.


Other than the newly injured trio, Vishnevsky, Budkin, Soin, Shafigulin, Derlyuk are injured for some time now, which is altogether really bad. Dynamo is among the candidates for the title with all their players on disposal, but like this, they will hardly be able to handle a team such as Lokomotiv, who seem to be getting out of a crisis finally. 


Lokomotiv won in Podolsk against Vityaz after two disastrous matches and two defeats away, having scored for the first time after two matches. Lokomotiv equalized and got ahead first, then Vityaz got ahead again, and the match was decided only four minutes before the end. But scored for Lokomotiv three minutes before the end for the win.


Their penalty killing line up did a great job, they saved six out of seven short handed situations, and goalie Sanfor saved 32 out of 34 attempts (94%). That will boost his and his team's confidence for this tough match in which they do stand a chance against their opponent. They powerplay is quite good (20%) which is something they ought to use in the next match since the home team can't count on a few starting line up defensemen.


- I think we deserved to win. We took the initiative over in the most important moment in the third period, even though we have to admit they had their chances as well - said Lokomotiv's coach Vorobyov.


Only Konkov is injured on his team. They will try to change the fact that Lokomotiv never won against Dynamo away in KHL today. They can hardly get a better opportunity for that than this one when the home team struggle with so many problems.

Dynamo Moscow have gone only once over the three-goal margin in their last seven games, and this was against a weak Slovan team. On the opposite side, we have Lokomotiv, who have a very good defense and have only conceded over three goals in two of their last eight games, which makes this a sensible and value bet in my opinion. Besides, Dynamo are missing league top scorer Pestushko and this will be a huge setback for them in offense. Their team is decimated, they are plagued by injuries, which puts an additional dent into their attacking play. As already mentioned, Lokomotiv can rely on their solid defense; even when they lose, they don't concede too many goals, and I don't believe they can let in more than three against their decimated opponents today. In addition, their confidence is up after beating Vityaz. Dynamo failed to score more than three goals against Lokomotiv in their two encounters last season, which is another stat favoring the bet that seems a no-brainer to me.