Ugra - SKA

Ugra - SKA - 2:4

21 September 2016

SKA completed their KHL away series with a match against HC Ugra in Khanty-Mansiysk. Interim head coach Pyotr Vorobyov installed Alexander Khokhlachyov into the second line, while Igor Shestyorkin kept his place between the pipes. Alexander Sharychenkov was Yugra’s goaltender.

Hungry for victory after losing to Avtomobilist, SKA made a fast start in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ugra were coming under some early pressure, and had Alexander Sharychenkov to thank for keeping SKA off the board. Both teams were playing at a high tempo, and towards the end of the frame, Ugra started to create themselves. Igor Shestyorkin pulled off an amazing pad save at point blank range, but despite his best efforts, Yugra managed to find the opening goal – Konstantin Panov neatly deflected into the net.

That goal shook our players up, and we found a response at the start of the second stanza – Sergei Shirokov finished off a beautiful play with a man’s advantage, Nevertheless, despite that setback, Ugra began to take the initiative and crashed SKA’s net. Our team didn’t aid the cause by taking two penalties in a row and unfortunately, Ugra weren’t going to let us off the hook – Anton Kuryanov cashed in on a juicy rebound.

We were up against it, but with seconds remaining in that period, we grabbed a vital equalising goal. Alexander Khokhlachyov took up the puck, twisted and expertly fired into the left corner. That was his first SKA goal and riding on adrenaline, he became the match hero late on in the third. Taking up a clever Yegor Yakovlev feed, Alexander calmly beat the goalkeeper blocker side to give SKA their first lead. Ugra were flattened, and a long range Dinar Khafizullin effort sealed the deal. 4:2 and SKA will now return to Saint Petersburg!

Match protocol:

Ugra – SKA – 2:4 (1:0, 1:2, 0:2)

Goals:

1:0 Panov (Bortnikov, Khlystov), 17.10

1:1 Shirokov (Plotnikov, Kovalchuk), 21.04

2:1 Kuryanov (Ugolnikov, Bortnikov), 34.59

2:2 Khokhlachyov (Shirokov, Belov), 38.45

2:3 Khokhlachyov (Yakovlev), 52.43

2:4 Khafizullin (Ketov, Tochitsky), 54.02

Goalkeepers: Sharychenkov – Shestyorkin

Shots on target: 24 – 39

Penalty minutes: 12 – 8