SKA - Ak Bars

SKA - Ak Bars - 1:5

9 February 2015

SKA begun their final home series of the KHL regular season against Ak Bars Kazan. Head coach Vyacheslav Bykov juggled the lines around a bit, with Pyotr Khokhryakov dropping to the fourth, and Czech Roman Cervenka being promoted to the first. Goaltender Mikko Koskinen retained his place in net, with Ilya Ezhov fit enough to back him up.

The visitors were full of energy in the opening few minutes, and they took the game to SKA pressing deep inside the attacking zone. After Pyotr Khokhryakov’s foul for kneeing they did indeed make the breakthrough, as Oscar Moller went upstairs on the left faceoff circle. That goal gave them even more fire, and Petr Vrana tapped in a tricky feed from the right hand boards to make it two. That did bring our players out of their shells, and away goalkeeper Anders Nilsson had to be at his best to deny Jimmie Ericsson from point blank range. As the period drew to a close SKA grew into the game more and more, and Ak Bars got lucky to see Artemiy Panarin and Yevgeni Dadonov mess up a huge two on one opportunity.

That momentum carried on into the second, and our team drew no fewer than four penalties in a row out of Ak Bars. That duly led up to a goal, as Artemiy Panarin’s feed from behind the net left Yevgeni Dadonov with a simple task of hitting the target. It could have even been a tied game immediately, but on the left flank Ilya Kovalchuk smacked the near post. The puck barely left Ak Bars’ zone at all, however with their first chance of the frame the visitors struck again. After an incredible Mikko Koskinen pad save Sheldon Brookbank wristed from distance, and it sailed over Mikko’s glove. 1:3 after two.

Unfortunately that third Ak Bars goal set the tone for the final period. The game was killed practically straight away, as a defensive turnover was punished by Mikhail Varnakov’s backhand. SKA still showed character though, and Tony Martensson somehow fired off target with an open left hand corner to aim it. That miss was then punished, as Petr Vrana skated away alone to finish the match off. 1:5, and SKA will now take to the ice again on Wednesday against Dinamo Riga.

Match protocol:

SKA – Ak Bars – 1:5 (0:2, 1:1, 0:2)

Goals:

0:1 Moller (Kostitsyn, Varnakov), 03.32

0:2 Vrana (Kostitsyn, Mirnov), 07.08

1:2 Dadonov (Kuteikin, Panarin), 25.45

1:3 Brookbank (Moller), 33.17

1:4 Varnakov (Azevedo), 40.45

1:5 Vrana (Tokranov, Kostitsyn), 53.55

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Nilsson

Shots: 25 – 23

Penalty minutes: 8 – 24