SKA - Avtomobilist

SKA - Avtomobilist - 2:4

8 September 2021

At home, SKA conceded their maiden defeat of the 2021/2022 KHL campaign, going down 2:4 to Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg at the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace.

Our players initially came out with positive energy and intent. However, when on the powerplay midway through the first period, Avtomobilist scored shorthanded in a rather unusual fashion.

Emerging from his goal to play the puck, SKA goaltender Alexander Samonov contrived to knock it directly against the stick of the lurking Alexei Makeev, who tapped it into the gaping net.

That wasn't the only bit of bad luck on SKA's side in the opening frame.

Incredibly, just five minutes later, SKA contrived to concede a second ridiculous goal. Under pressure from Shane Prince, Kirill Marchenko passed the puck across his own crease when trying to clear it, and it struck Samonov's left pad and rolled over the line.

SKA did respond well at the start of the second stanza. In the very first shift, Igor Ozhiganov had a golden opportunity to claw one back, but his powerful slap shot was just pushed aside by former SKA goalkeeper Dmitry Shikin.

That miss was followed up by a third conceded goal. On the counter-attack, French forward Stephane Da Costa beat Samonov with a laser of a wrister, thumping the puck high over the glove. The SKA management group promptly made the call to replace the forlorn Samonov with Lars Johansson after that goal.

Something eventually went SKA's way in the 29th minute. Competing on the powerplay, Marchenko took aim from the right faceoff circle, Shikin could only push the puck into the air, and Fredrik Handemark was on hand to bundle it in and get SKA on the board.

The deficit was cut to one at the start of the third period.

Simply too skillful for the Avtomobilist defence, Andrei Kuzmenko found Anton Burdasov with a quite beautiful pass, and the latter got the better of Shikin from a tight angle to the right of the slot.

Moments later, SKA could have notched an equaliser on a subsequent powerplay, but Kuzmenko lashed inches wide from between the circles and Shikin displayed alert reactions to pull off a series of big saves.

Saves which proved decisive.

Avtomobilist grabbed their fourth goal on the counter in the 50th minute. Unmarked at the high slot, Ryan Spooner went five-hole on Johansson, in turn making SKA's task doubly as difficult.

In the closing minutes, SKA pulled Johansson for the extra skater and piled the pressure on Avtomobilist, but the Ural outfit held on.

SKA will now prepare to face Torpedo in Nizhny Novgorod on Sunday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Avtomobilist - 2:4 (0:2, 1:1, 1:1)

Goals:

0:1 Makeev, 10.57

0:2 Macek, 15.44

0:3 Da Costa (Shumakov, Gurkin), 24.14

1:3 Handemark (Marchenko, Falkovsky), 28.30

2:3 Burdasov (Kuzmenko, Kemppainen), 44.20

2:4 Spooner (Prince, Macek), 49.05

Goalkeepers: Samonov/Johansson - Shikin