Jokerit - SKA - 2:3 SO

24 November 2016

SKA's first game of this KHL away series took place today against HC Jokerit in Helsinki. Head coach Oleg Znarok welcomed Yegor Rykov and Sergei Shirokov back into the line-up, while Vyacheslav Voynov and Nikolai Prokhorkin missed out. Igor Shestyorkin and Ryan Zapolski were the match's starting goaltenders.

In front of a packed out Hartwall Arena, it was a slow start. Both teams were playing it like a game of chess, refusing to open up against each other. Eventually, it was a counterattack that brought the first goal. Ilya Kovalchuk dashed away on an odd man rush, fed Sergei Plotnikov, and the latter expertly stroked into the net. Full of confidence, SKA had more opportunities to double the advantage. Steve Moses and Nikita Gusev came the closest, both failing to net when clean through.

The slow tempo didn't change in the second. SKA were playing it cautious in defence, making sure that Jokerit couldn't create a lot in our zone. The hosts' few chances came on the powerplay, however Igor Shestyorkin had no trouble in dealing with long range attempts. At the other end, SKA weren't putting pressure on the Finns, not having any real openings during the stanza.

Out of nothing, the match suddenly burst into life midway through the third period. Just as though it was looking that SKA were going to calmly see the game out, Jokerit equalised - Tommi Huhtala pounced upon a rare rebound given up by Igor Shestyorkin.

Nevertheless, that only resulted in waking SKA up. Two minutes later, Ilya Kovalchuk powered down the right wing, took on a wrist shot and found the net with the help of the far post. That appeared to be the match's deciding moment, but with the clock running down, Jokerit took the game into overtime. Pekka Jormakka tricked his way beyond the entire SKA team, elegantly backhanding in.

After some unbelieveable SKA misses in overtime, it went all the way to penalty shots. Thankfully, that was where our players managed to keep cool heads. Three superb Igor Shestyorkin saves were backed up by a Pavel Datsyuk goal, ensuring that SKA come away from Finland with two points!

Match protocol:

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

Goals:

0:1 Plotnikov (Kovalchuk, Datsyuk), 06.31

1:1 Huhtala (Jormakka, Maki), 51.08

1:2 Kovalchuk (Yakovlev, Plotnikov), 53.29

2:2 Jormakka (Jaakola), 57.31

2:3 Datsyuk, 65.00 SO

Goalkeepers: Zapolski - Shestyorkin

Shots on target: 27 - 32

Penalty minutes: 6 - 6

Faceoffs: 29 - 29