SKA - Admiral

SKA - Admiral - 9:2

6 September 2021

In the first home match of the 2021/2022 KHL regular season, SKA well and truly put Admiral Vladivostok to the sword, thrashing the Far East club 9:2 in Saint Petersburg.

SKA came flying out of the blocks. After a couple of strong initial shifts from Admiral, our players quickly took the initiative, and Mikhail Vorobyov promptly opened the scoring in the third minute on his SKA debut, beating Ivan Nalimov from a tight angle on the right wing.

The second goal wasn’t long in coming either.

On the powerplay, Anton Burdasov doubled our money six minutes later, launching a trademark one-timer beyond the stricken goalkeeper.

Admiral were all at sea in defence. Completely unable to cope with our pressing, the visitors were constantly committing major mistakes in their zone, allowing SKA to create openings at will. Danila Moiseev did indeed increase the advantage to three in the 13^th minute, tapping the loose puck over the line on the crease to score his maiden SKA goal.

The visiting team predictably made the decision to swap the forlorn Nalimov in favour of Nikita Serebryakov following our third marker.

The goalkeeping change did make a difference to Admiral’s approach. In stark comparison to the first period, the Vladivostok-based club were managing to press SKA with intensity in the second stanza, protecting the puck for long periods inside our zone and testing Johansson at any given opportunity. Admiral did attempt 26 shots in the period, while SKA mustered a mere six.

However, SKA were ruthless when presented with a chance.

In the 28^th minute, Kirill Marchenko expertly went top-shelf on Serebryakov with a fantastic effort, before Andrei Kuzmenko scored a similar goal three minutes later after displaying superb skill.

Nevertheless, Admiral did get themselves on the board in the 35^th minute, as Dmitry Sayustov forced the puck under Johansson from the doorstep.

With the period coming to a close, the visiting team were presented with a glorious chance for their second goal on the counter-attack, but Johansson came to the rescue with a big save to deny the clean-through Vladislav Kaletnik. Maxim Groshev had missed a similar chance for SKA not long earlier.

SKA made a noticeable improvement in the third period.

In the very first shift of the stanza, Evgeny Timkin got his name on the scoreboard, connecting with Moiseev’s intelligent pass to grab our sixth goal with Serebryakov caught horribly out of position for Admiral.

To their credit, Admiral didn’t throw in the towel in the attacking zone, earning a powerplay which they capitalised on with Vyacheslav Ushenin blasting a rocket in. Johansson then subsequently pulled off a tough save to shut the door on another Admiral forward who had shown a sharp turn of pace to speed away from our defence.

But, for all of their promising attacking play, Admiral simply didn’t show up in defence and SKA ran riot in the concluding 10 minutes.

On two powerplays, 16-year-old Matvei Michkov tallied his first two goals in the KHL, getting the better of Serebryakov with two perfect wrist shots. In the final minute of the game, Marchenko rounded off the evening in fitting fashion with our fourth powerplay goal.

SKA will now prepare to host Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg at the Ice Palace on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Admiral - 9:2 (3:0, 2:1, 4:1)

Goals:

1:0 Vorobyov (Ozhiganov, Fantenberg), 02.59

2:0 Burdasov (Ozhiganov, Vey), 08.37

3:0 Moiseev (Groshev, Galenyuk), 12.37

4:0 Marchenko (Kirsanov), 27.38

5:0 Kuzmenko (Kemppainen, Khusnutdinov), 30.38

5:1 Sayustov (Kestner, Bukarts), 34.31

6:1 Timkin (Moiseev), 40.12

6:2 Vy. Ushenin (Sayustov, Sulak), 43.27