SKA - Ak Bars - 5:6 SO

30 August 2016

SKA took on HC Ak Bars Kazan for their third home match of the 2016/2017 KHL regular season. Head coach Oleg Znarok handed Igor Shestyorkin a start in net, while Evgeny Ketov and Ilya Kablukov returned to the fourth line. Emil Garipov was Ak Bars’ goaltender.

The Ice Palace was full to the rafters for this game, and immediately, the fans were on their feet. A beautiful play set up Vadim Shipachyov, and the number 87 made no mistake. Confidence was coursing through the players, however out of the blue, the game turned on its head. Evgeny Ketov was dealt a 5+20 penalty for kneeing, and Ak Bars made us pay in stunning fashion. Jiri Sekac, Vasily Tokranov, Andrei Popov and Vladimir Tkachyov all found the net on that same powerplay, and with SKA in shock, Oleg Znarok pulled the forlorn Igor Shestyorkin in favour of Evgeny Ivannikov.

Despite that change, Ak Bars continued to dominate, and they netted their fifth. Directly off a faceoff draw, the puck fell to the stick of Maxim Lazarev, and he lashed the puck beyond the blocker. You could have forgiven SKA’s players for giving up the ghost, but amazingly, they showed remarkable character to get back into the game. Sergei Shirokov tipped in on the powerplay, and on another man’s advantage, Nikita Gusev made it a two goal game.

The Kazan outfit were there for the taking, and in the third period, SKA outshot their opponents 19-1. All the action was coming at one end, and with time ticking down, we put the pressure on even harder. Ak Bars were all over the place, and when they took a penalty, Pavel Datsyuk redirected Ilya Kovalchuk’s slap shot to make it a grandstand finish. Evgeny Ivannikov was promptly pulled for the extra skater, and with five seconds on the clock, we amazingly tied it up. Pavel Datsyuk had too much skill for the Ak Bars defence, and he went top shelf on Emil Garipov.

Both sides missing glorious opportunities in overtime, and sadly, Ak Bars proved to be the stronger in the shootout. Vladimir Tkachyov and Artyom Lukoyanov cancelled out Nikita Gusev’s marker, and despite a heroic comeback, SKA have fallen to Ak Bars 5:6.

Match protocol:

SKA – Ak Bars – 5:6 SO (1:4, 2:1, 2:0 – 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Shipachyov (Dadonov, Gusev), 03.57

1:1 Sekac (Azevedo, Tokranov), 06.45

1:2 Tokranov (Glinkin, Ohtamaa), 08.05

1:3 Popov (Glinkin, Ohtamaa), 08.42

1:4 Tkachyov (Abrosimov, Lukoyanov), 10.07

1:5 Lazarev (Svitov, Obukhov), 22.03

2:5 Shirokov (Datsyuk, Kovalchuk), 27.08

3:5 Gusev (Chudinov, Dadonov), 35.11

4:5 Datsyuk (Shirokov, Kovalchuk), 54.48