SKA - Avangard

SKA - Avangard - 1:3

17 November 2015

SKA’s third home match in a row took place today against HC Avangard Omsk. New official head coach Sergei Zubov made a number of line changes despite the wins against HC Dynamo Moscow and Vityaz, and Ilya Kovalchuk was added to Joakim Lindstrom’s and Jarno Koskiranta’s line. Ilya Ezhov replaced Mikko Koskinen in net, with Czech Dominik Furch his opposite number for Avangard.

It was a quiet start inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace, as both teams put all of their focus on to the defence. Avangard were barely moving out of their own zone, and it was SKA who made the early running. Despite the slow tempo our players were carving out opportunities, and Nikita Gusev came close with a dangerous shot to the left of the crease. SKA were slowly upping the pressure, and Dmitry Kalinin one timed over the bar before Evgeny Dadonov misfired when clean through. At the other end Ilya Ezhov was very much a spectator, and he made only four saves in the period.

Nevertheless the action was about to take a sharp rise in the second period, and Avangard came out of their shells to take the initiative. Following a Vadim Shipachyov turnover the visitors had a two on one, and Sergey Shirokov finished off with Ilya Ezhov already beaten. Avangard drew confidence from that goal, and they had two clear chances to double their money when Yury Alexandrov and Nikolai Lemtyugov fired into the netminder up close. Our team had to up their game, and they managed to do just that. Vyacheslav Voynov and Alexander Barabanov combined to send Anton Burdasov away down the right flank, and Anton caught the goaltender cold near post. The Ice Palace roared into life with that goal, but unfortunately the away fans had more reason to cheer. Practically immediately after Anton’s goal Avangard had a three man counterattack advantage, and Denis Kulyash wristed into the left corner. Two soon became three, as Alexander Perezhogin tapped home a rebound after Ilya Mikheev had smacked the woodwork.

Our team had to go hell for leather now, however Avangard had the game just where they wanted it. Indeed they didn’t allow our players to get set up in their own at all, and the majority of the scoring chances came in our zone. Yury Alexandrov wristed inches wide of the right corner, Ilya Mikheev was shut down blocker side, and Alexander Popov almost fired beyond our goaltender’s grasp. Only with the minutes running down did SKA begin to make Dominik Furch in Avangard’s net work, and on the powerplay openings did come. Ilya Kovalchuk slapped from distance on a number of occasions, but despite a strong effort the puck refused to go into the net. 1:3 today, and SKA will next take to the ice on Thursday against HC Barys Astana.

Match protocol:

SKA – Avangard – 1:3 (0:0, 1:3, 0:0)

Goals:

0:1 Shirokov (Sobotka, Erat), 21.21

1:1 Burdasov (Voynov, Barabanov), 28.19

1:2 Kulyash (Parshin, Zubov), 29.43

1:3 Perezhogin (Mikheev), 34.13

Goalkeepers: Ezhov – Furch

Shots on target: 35 – 28

Penalty minutes: 4 – 4

Faceoffs: 34 – 38

Hits: 6 – 4