Admiral - SKA

Admiral - SKA - 1:4

5 December 2016

SKA rounded off their KHL Far Eastern trip with a fixture against HC Admiral Vladivostok. Head coach Oleg Znarok handed newly signed defenseman Artyom Zub his SKA debut, slotting him into the second line. Igor Shestyorkin and Igor Bobkov were the match's starting netminders.

Having beaten Kunlun and Amur, SKA came into this game full of confidence. That self-assurance resulted in an early opening goal - Pavel Datsyuk opened up at the high slot, cunningly wristing under the goalkeeper. We could have had more, but Alexander Dergachyov missed a gaping opportunity at point blank range. For their part, Admiral were counterattacking with real threat, however they failed to get many clean looks at our net.

That was all about to change. Out of nowhere, Admiral put their foot on the acceleration pedal, crashing SKA's goal.with serious power. They should really have equalised too - clean through, Maxim Kazakov and ex SKA forward Vladimir Tkachyov both couldn't get the better of a rock solid Igor Shestyorkin. Our players were struggling against Admiral's pace, but with the stanza coming to a close, the hosts shot themselves in the foot. Andrei Sigaryov took a cheap holding penalty, allowing Anton Belov to whack a thumping slap shot into the roof of the net.

That goal proved to be a sucker punch for Admiral. The hosts were flattened, and a third SKA marker at the start of the third period sealed the deal. Nikita Gusev squeezed between his markers, burst clean through and slid the puck into the right corner. Despite Maxim Kazakov eventually pulling one back for the hosts, there was to be no Admiral comeback, and after they pulled Igor Bobkov for the extra skater, Jarno Koskiranta hit the empty net. 4:1, SKA make it six wins in a row and will now return to Saint Petersburg!

Match protocol:

Admiral - SKA - 1:4 (0:1, 0:1, 1:2)

Goals:

0:1 Datsyuk (Hersley, Dadonov), 10.21

0:2 Belov (Kovalchuk, Dadonov), 37.01

0:3 Gusev, 41.08

1:3 Kazakov (Ivanov, Lugin), 47.34

1:4 Koskiranta, 59.34

Goalkeepers: Bobkov - Shestyorkin

Shots on target: 29 - 30

Penalty minutes: 18 - 10

Faceoffs: 21 - 34