SKA – Barys

SKA – Barys – 7:0

24 January 2024

Despite being outshot 44-39, SKA cruised to an important victory against Barys Astana at the Ice Palace in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season, running out emphatic 7:0 winners.

Taking into account that both teams prefer an attacking style of game, it came as no surprise to see the sides immediately set an intense tempo.

Even though they are languishing towards the bottom of the Eastern Conference, Barys boast a strong team with plenty of high-profile foreigners. Swedish forward Pontus Aberg was particularly in the opening stanza, taking aim with a handful of threatening attempts.

Nevertheless, SKA quickly took a firm grip of proceedings.

Alex Galchenyuk opened the scoring in the sixth minute, cleverly tipping Arseniy Gritsyuk’s wrist shot over experienced Canadian goaltender Eddie Pasquale. Following that goal, our players began applying huge pressure on a rather shaky Barys back line, creating chances at will and constantly calling Pasquale into action.

Our second arrived in the 14^th minute on the powerplay, as Vasily Glotov whipped an unstoppable wrister high into the far corner from the right circle.

The second stanza started with an epic fight between Alexander Nikishin and Anthony Camara at neutral ice.

That duel made little difference to the flow of the game, though, as SKA continued to dominate. Not long later, we were celebrating a beautiful third goal, as Glotov’s wonderful no-look pass was duly turned past the stricken Pasquale by Marat Khairullin.

Gifted 18-year-old forward Amir Nugmanov began to regularly appear on the ice as the match progressed. Even though he did admittedly commit a slashing foul during his second shift, the teenager was lively when given a chance to display his abilities, testing Pasquale on one occasion with a sharp effort on the break-away.

Interestingly, Barys did outshoot SKA 12-8 in the second period, but not many of their attempts challenged Nikita Serebryakov. The Kazakh visitors’ best chance fell to the stick of Batyrlan Muratov on the PP, but he could only tip David Sklenicka’s surprise pass wide of the right corner. Aberg also blasted high and wide in the concluding second of the frame with Serebryakov out of the picture.

The third period saw SKA well and truly take a sorry Barys defence to town.

Our team firmly put the game to bed with three goals within three minutes! Gritsyuk - the game’s hero with five (1+4) points - followed in Galchenyuk’s footsteps by tipping over the glove, before Khairullin lashed the puck between the pads on the counter and Glotov scored a similar goal to his first on the PP.

It's also worth noting that 18-year-old defenseman Ivan Remezovsky recorded his first KHL assist for our fifth!

The hapless Pasquale was pulled in favour of Andrei Shutov following our sixth marker. However, he was picking the puck out of his net seven minutes later, as Stepan Falkovsky hit the jackpot when receiving an intelligent pass from the brilliant Gritsyuk at the high slot.

Refusing to wave the white flag, Barys peppered our goal throughout the remainder of the period as they desperately tried to get on the board, but Serebryakov held on for an impressive 44-save shutout. Barys did indeed tally 26 shots on target during the third stanza alone!

SKA will now prepare to host CSKA Moscow in Saint Petersburg on Friday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Barys – 7:0 (2:0, 1:0, 4:0)

Goals:

1:0 Galchenyuk (Gritsyuk, Sapego), 05.58

2:0 Glotov (Gritsyuk, Zykov), 13.15 PPG

3:0 Khairullin (Glotov), 23.35

4:0 Gritsyuk (Sapego, Galchenyuk), 42.39

5:0 Khairullin (Zykov, Remezovsky), 43.12

6:0 Glotov (Gritsyuk, Khairullin), 45.17 PPG

7:0 Falkovsky (Gritsyuk), 52.46

Goalkeepers: Serebryakov – Pasquale/Shutov