SKA – Amur

SKA – Amur – 3:1

15 January 2023

SKA fought back against an organised Amur Khabarovsk team at the Ice Palace in the 2022/2023 KHL regular season, emerging victorious by a score of 3:1.

Despite fielding a youthful line-up, SKA quickly took the initiative.

Competing at a high tempo, our players took the game to an Amur side which appeared to be somewhat fatigued. The fact that SKA were gifted four powerplays during the first period alone certainly suggests that Amur struggled to match our pace.

However, Amur drew first blood against the run of play in the 16^th minute.

Yaroslav Likhachyov took aim from a seemingly impossible angle on the left flank, but he managed to bank the puck in off Sergei Ivanov. The 18-year-old goalkeeper was indeed making his first KHL start.

To our relief, SKA only required three minutes to draw level, as Dmitrij Jaskin expertly tipped Igor Ozhiganov’s slap shot under Amur goaltender Evgeny Alikin.

SKA stepped it up further in the second stanza.

Our early pressing resulted in a quick pair of goals. Maxim Groshev connected with Emil Galimov’s superb no-look pass on the doorstep, before the in-form Svyatoslav Grebenshchikov fired a rasping effort past Alikin when alone on the left faceoff circle.

On the powerplay, Amur came close to a response, but Ivanov pulled off a top point-blank save after giving up the initial rebound.

SKA continued dominating throughout the period, with Amur failing to compete at our high tempo. Gifted 17-year-old forward Ivan Demidov was particularly lively, lashing a strong one-timer against the pads, drawing a holding penalty out of Amur defenseman Cameron Lee and constantly causing problems with his tenacious approach.

Requiring goals, Amur did begin to compete with more speed and urgency in the third period.

Talented 19-year-old forward Nikita Grebyonkin regularly tested Ivanov with threatening efforts after displaying brilliant skill. At the other end, Vasily Glotov also wowed the fans when beating the entire Amur team with beautiful stick handling, but Alikin prevented him from scoring one of the goals of the season.

Amur twice came agonisingly close to halving the deficit, striking the crossbar two times in quick succession. That was the closest they came, though, as Ivanov and SKA calmly saw the game out.

SKA will now prepare to face CSKA in Moscow on Tuesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Amur – 3:1 (1:1, 2:0, 0:0)

Goals:

0:1 Likhachyov (Nikolishin, Bocharov), 15.21

1:1 Jaskin (Ozhiganov, Gusev), 18.02 PPG

2:1 Groshev (Galimov), 23.51

3:1 Grebenshchikov (Khairullin, Glotov), 25.07

Goalkeepers: Ivanov – Alikin

Shots: 71 – 43

Shots on target: 45 – 25

Faceoffs: 31 – 23