Two-goal lead wasted in Yekaterinburg

20 March 2025

Despite holding a two-goal advantage, SKA failed to earn the twp points in Yekaterinburg, suffering a slender 2:3 shootout loss to Avtomobilist.

Our players were still ahead with a little less than two minutes remaining on the clock, however the hosts grabbed their all-important equaliser before subsequently edging the ensuing shootout.

SKA did take control of proceedings early on.

Nikita Zaitsev netted his maiden SKA goal in the 14th minute, beating home goaltender Vladimir Galkin with a deflected wrister.

Marat Khairullin then made it two for our team at point-blank range in the 23rd minute.

SKA appeared to be firmly in the box seat. However, Avtomobilist quickly cut our lead in half, as Artyom Kashtanov got the better of our netminder Yegor Zavragin with a powerful wrister.

To their credit, our players were solid throughout the vast majority of the third period, calmly keeping the opponents at bay and creating openings on the counter. But, after Brooks Macek had seen his rebound disallowed for offside, the same player sent a rasping attempt past Zavragin in the dying moments with SKA having carelessly lost possession inside their own zone.

SKA successfully killed an Avtomobilist powerplay in the extra frame. It mattered little, though, as Semyon Kizimov netted the decisive penalty shot in round five.

Our team will now prepare to face Torpedo in Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday. The final match of the 2024/2025 KHL regular season is scheduled to begin at 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

Avtomobilist - SKA - 3:2 SO (0:1, 1:1, 1:0, 0:0 - 1:0)

Goals:

0:1 Zaitsev (Tolchinsky, Gritsyuk), 13.37

0:2 Khairullin (Zemchyonok, Alistrov), 22.48

1:2 Kashtanov (Romantsev), 27.08

2:2 Macek, 58.17

3:2 Kizimov, 65.00 SO

Goalkeepers: Galkin - Zavragin

Shots: 59 - 53

Shots on target: 21 - 28

Faceoffs: 20 - 44