Salavat Yulaev – SKA

Salavat Yulaev – SKA – 5:1

6 January 2023

SKA came up short against Salavat Yulaev away in Ufa in the 2022/2023 KHL regular season, suffering a disappointing 1:5 defeat.

The two teams immediately set a quick, intense tempo, with Salavat competing with speed and SKA landing plenty of crunching hits.

Vasily Glotov had our best oppprtunity of the opening stages, firing against the near post from a tight angle on the right flank.

Salavat broke the deadlock in the 14th minute on the powerplay. After pouncing on the rebound, Ivan Drozdov sent the puck across goal, and it was knocked past SKA goalkeeper Vladislav Podyapolsky as a consequence of a wicked ricochet. We did use our coach’s challenge for goaltender interference, but the referees ruled it a clean goal after a quick video review.

Matters rapidly went from bad to worse for SKA in the second stanza.

Ufa opened up a three-goal lead within the maiden seven minutes of the frame. Sergei Shmelyov’s attempt had too much power for Podyapolsky immediately after Alexander Kadeikin had won a faceoff draw for the hosts inside the attacking zone, before Mikhail Naumenkov hit the jackpot with a wrister from the point with our goalkeeper unsighted.

In truth, SKA were rather fortunate that Salavat didn’t increase their lead further in the remainder of the period. The lively Drozdov missed the open net twice on the powerplay, Danil Bashkirov wristed wide with the goal at his mercy, and Alexander Chmelevski struck the right post with a sharp wraparound.

Glotov had our only major opportunity in the second period, failing to control the puck with home goalkeeper Ilya Ezhov out of position. 19-year-old defenseman Arseniy Koromyslov had picked Glotov out with a superb pass on the counter.

The third period predictably saw SKA try to force the issue. Salavat were dangerous on the counter, though, and Podyapolsky pulled off an incredible point-blank stop with his right pad to somehow prevent the Bashkir club from registering a fourth marker with our defence once again nowhere to be seen.

SKA finally got on the board with a little under six minutes remaining in the third frame. Alone at the blue line, Andrei Pedan drew his stick back and thumped an unstoppable one-timer into the right corner.

Back in with a chance, SKA went all-out in the closing stages, pulling Podyapolsky for the extra skater and laying siege to the Ufa net.

However, it wasn’t to be, as Danil Alalykin and Kulyomin – the second empty-netter being scored when shorthanded – iced it for the home team with Podyapolsky on the bench.

SKA will now prepare to play Sochi away from home on Sunday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

Salavat Yulaev – SKA – 5:1 (1:0, 2:0, 2:1)

Goals:

1:0 Drozdov (Mukhamadullin, Shmelyov), 13.34 PPG

2:0 Shmelyov (Kadeikin), 23.50

3:0 Naumenkov (Koledov, Chmelevski), 27.10

3:1 Pedan (Glotov), 54.16

4:1 Alalykin (Chmelevski), 56.03 EN

5:1 Kulyomin, 59.12 EN SHG

Goalkeepers: Ezhov – Podyapolsky

Shots: 62 – 59