SKA - Avtomobilist

SKA - Avtomobilist - 7:2

10 December 2020

Producing a stunning performance, SKA took HC Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg to town at the Ice Palace, soaring to a comfortable 7:2 triumph in the 2020/2021 KHL regular season.

It truly was a memorable first period at the Ice Palace.

Coming flying out of the blocks, SKA quickly opened up a two-goal lead, as Stepan Starkov took advantage of a goalmouth scramble to score his first for our senior team before Kirill Marchenko lashed a big rebound into the left corner. However, moments later, former SKA forward and legendary Russian forward Pavel Datsyuk halved the deficit for Avtomobilist when coolly slotting the puck beyond Alexander Samonov after a defensive error. Vladimir Tkachyov had seen a goal disallowed for a kicking motion moments before Datsyuk’s marker.

Nevertheless, that setback didn’t affect our players at all, as they subsequently went on to score for fun during the remainder of an incredible period.

On the powerplay, Joonas Kemppainen deftly tipped Vasily Tokranov’s wrister past Jakub Kovar, and not long later Linden Vey completed a clever play to whip the puck into the empty net on another man advantage. After that goal, Avtomobilist boss Bill Peters took the decision to pull the hapless Kovar in favour of Vladimir Galkin, however SKA grabbed a fifth within 60 seconds of that change as Anton Burdasov whipped his backhander over the blocker when unchallenged on the doorstep.

The eventful manner of the game continued in the second period.

Midway through the stanza, Avtomobilist defenseman Alexei Vasilevskiy was dismissed with a 5+20 penalty for a rough foul against Miro Aaltonen, however the visiting team contrived to score shorthanded as KHL veteran Geoff Platt forced the puck under Samonov after a SKA mistake in the attacking zone. SKA, however, conjured up the perfect response just 22 seconds later, with Andrei Kuzmenko wonderfully lifting the puck in with his back to goal on that same powerplay. In full control of proceedings, our team did reduce the tempo in the second frame, preventing Avtomobilist from having several chances with the opponents searching for a way back into the match.

To their credit, Avtomobilist refused to throw in the towel in the third period, as the Yekaterinburg club enjoyed lots of puck possession and continued to test Samonov on a regular basis. Thankfully, though, our goalkeeper was as solid as a rock, and SKA rounded off proceedings in the 57^th minute as Tkachyov knocked the puck in with ease after Artyom Shvets-Rogovoi had dished out an unexpected pass.

SKA will now prepare to face Dinamo Riga in Latvia on Saturday. The start time is scheduled for 18:00 Moscow time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Avtomobilist - 7:2 (5:1, 1:1, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Starkov (Belov, Marchenko), 02.25

2:0 Marchenko (Vey, Starkov), 05.02

2:1 Datsyuk (Makeev), 07.50

3:1 Kemppainen (Tokranov, Kuzmenko), 13.03

4:1 Vey (Timkin, Ozhiganov), 16.20

5:1 Burdasov (Morozov, Belov), 17.18

5:2 Platt (Belousov), 35.40

6:2 Kuzmenko (Tkachyov, Tokranov), 36.02