Avangard - SKA

Avangard - SKA - 5:4

11 February 2023

Despite dominating for long stages of the game, SKA came up short in a nine-goal thriller against Avangard Omsk away in the 2022/2023 KHL regular season, losing by a score of 4:5.

The teams immediately set a high tempo.

Alexander Volkov's opener was instantly cancelled out by Reid Boucher following a poor defensive error. With the maiden stanza approaching its climax, Andrei Pedan handed SKA their second advantage, hammering a huge one-timer in on the powerplay.

The breathless action continued in the second period.

Familiar face Vladimir Tkachyov equalised on the counter-attack, but Dmitrij Jaskin once again put SKA ahead when pouncing on the rebound to the left of the slot. Nevertheless, Tkachyov was the man of the moment, as he whipped a powerful effort past Dmitry Nikolaev on the break-away.

SKA were in the box seat after Evgeny Ketov deftly deflected Mikhail Pashnin's attempt beyond Vasily Demchenko midway through the third frame.

However, Avangard stole an unlikely victory thanks to two late goals within 30 seconds of each other.

Damir Sharipzyanov beat Nikolaev through traffic from the blue line on the powerplay, before Alex Broadhust went top-shelf after the away side had committed another sloppy defensive mistake.

SKA will now prepare to face Barys Astana in Kazakhstan on Monday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 16:30 Moscow time.

Match protocol:

Avangard - SKA - 5:4 (1:2, 2:1, 2:1)

Goals:

0:1 Volkov (Bardakov), 01.07

1:1 Boucher, 02.25

1:2 Pedan (Ozhiganov, Zhafyarov), 15.22 PPG

2:2 Tkachyov (Paigin, Broadhurst), 24.01

2:3 Jaskin (Zhafyarov, Ozhiganov), 28.20 PPG

3:3 Tkachyov (Tolchinsky, Chistyakov), 35.31

3:4 Ketov (Pashnin, Grebenshchikov), 49.45

4:4 Sharipzyanov (Gritsyuk, Tolchinsky), 55.21 PPG