SKA - Jokerit

SKA - Jokerit - 2:1

1 February 2016

SKA continued their mammoth home stretch with a fixture against near neighbours HC Jokerit Helsinki. After Vadim Shipachyov’s injury against Severstal head coach Sergei Zubov moved Pavel Buchnevich up to the first line, and Alexander Barabanov made a return to the third with Jarno Koskiranta and Steve Moses. Mikko Koskinen was in our net, as Henrik Karlsson was between Jokerit’s pipes.

Given the match’s top status it wasn’t a surprise to see both teams opt for a cagey style, and the fans had very little to cheer about in a drab opening frame. The puck was rarely exiting neutral ice, and both teams weren’t willing to give each other an inch. Nevertheless a few penalties were taken as tempers began to build, and SKA had a handful of openings. Steve Moses had a testing wrister from distance turned away, and Pavel Buchnevich should really have opened the scoring – all alone by the right post, Pavel could only smack the woodwork with the goaltender beaten. Jokerit weren’t getting a lot going by our net, however with their first chance they managed to break through. A bobbling puck was sent back to the doorstep, and with Mikko Koskinen out of position Philip Larsen slid it over the line.

Jokerit began the second period from where they left off in the first – on the front foot. The vast majority of the possession was being had in our zone, and Mikko Koskinen made one important sharp stop off a Jesse Joensuu one timer from between the circles. Our players slowly turned things around though, and took the tempo up a notch with the Ice Palace’s volume level rising. Jarno Koskiranta wristed against the goaltender from distance, Sergei Shirokov was shut down up close blocker side, and Ilya Kovalchuk was denied by a flash of Henrik Karlsson leather. The pressure was building, and as Jokerit began to get into penalty trouble SKA made it count. On a goalmouth scramble Steve Moses was left open at the high slot, and he ripped his effort into the left corner against his former team. All the momentum was with SKA, and the Finnish visitors were having their net peppered from an all manner of angles.

The Finnish visitors kept on taking penalties all over the place in the third period, and that allowed SKA to completely control proceedings. Jokerit were being pressed deep into their own zone, and only their goaltender was keeping them in the game. Maxim Chudinov had the best opportunity of the lot, however open on the left flank he blasted wide of a completely unguarded near corner. Jokerit didn’t heed that warning, and with time running down they eventually caved in. Jarno Koskiranta sped down the left, squared for Alexander Barabanov, and his feed took a wicked deflection off a Jokerit skate to take it in. That proved to be the killer blow, and Jokerit ended up finishing the match shorthanded after a disgusting Philip Larsen spear between Yegor Yakovlev’s legs. 2:1, and with this victory SKA have officially qualified for the 2015/2016 KHL playoffs!

Match protocol:

SKA – Jokerit – 2:1 (0:1, 1:0, 1:0)

Goals:

0:1 Larsen (Maki, Rita), 19.14

1:1 Moses (Koskiranta, Shirokov), 29.57

2:1 Koskiranta (Barabanov, Kovalchuk), 53.20

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Karlsson

Shots on target: 31 – 22

Penalty minutes: 8 – 37

Faceoffs: 36 – 22

Hits: 22 – 16

Referees: Belov, Sergeev