SKA – Kunlun Red Star

SKA – Kunlun Red Star – 3:1

19 January 2024

It wasn’t particularly pretty, but SKA got the job done against an impressive Kunlun Red Star team at the Ice Palace in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season, earning a routine 3:1 victory.

Although they are languishing towards the bottom of the Western Conference without any realistic hope of qualifying for the Gagarin Cup playoffs, Kunlun didn’t play like an outsider in the first period.

The Chinese outfit created several clear opportunities. Shorthanded, the lively Devin Brosseau charged clean through beyond our somewhat static defence, but calm 19-year-old goaltender Pavel Moisevich denied him with a top stop.

Not long later, Austin Wong wasted another 1-on-1 chance for Kunlun, shooting wide of the right post. Competing with visible confidence after emphatically beating Dinamo Minsk 5:2 in Belarus on Wednesday, the visitors were pulling our off-colour back line apart with sharp passing plays, and Colin Campbell would have liked to have done better when alone on the slot – Moisevich got in the way with his outstretched left pad.

An out-of-sorts SKA didn’t force veteran away goalkeeper Alexander Lazushin into challenging saves in the opening frame.

However, after Campbell had committed a high-sticking foul in the dying embers of the period, SKA subsequently took a firm grip of proceedings at the start of the second.

Marat Khairullin provided our team with lift-off, firing high into the far corner from the left circle. Buoyed by that goal, SKA then doubled their money a mere matter of 90 seconds later, as Borna Rendulic beat Lazushin five-hole after receiving an intelligent pass from Arseniy Gritsyuk on a 3-on-1 counter.

SKA went on to dominate the entirety of the period. Bossing the match with slick passing and movement, the hosts were applying incessant pressure on an increasingly frustrated Kunlun side, who were relying on Lazushin to keep them in the game.

A notable event of the second stanza was gifted 18-year-old defenseman Ivan Remezovsky’s KHL debut. The teenager even managed to register a shot on target in his maiden shift, wristing low against Lazushin with traffic impeding the netminder’s view.

SKA put the game firmly to bed as a contest in the ninth minute of the third period.

After hard work from Gritsyuk in the attacking zone, Valentin Zykov etched his name onto the scoreboard, whipping home past the stranded Lazushin.

Unfortunately, plucky Kunlun - who refused to wave the white flag until the very end - ruined Moisevich’s shutout hopes two minutes later.

The tall Belarusian saved the initial shot from Teemu Pulkkinen, but Tyler Graovac was on hand to whack the puck into the gaping net with feeling.

A late powerplay provided Kunlun with hope of embarking on a dramatic comeback. Predictably, Lazushin was pulled in favour of the extra skater to make it a 6-on-4 PP, but SKA bravely held on - largely thanks to wonderful saves from Moisevich in our net.

This hard-fought win does mean that SKA have officially booked their ticket for the upcoming Gagarin Cup playoffs!

SKA will now prepare to host Dinamo Minsk in Saint Petersburg on Monday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Kunlun Red Star – 3:1 (0:0, 2:0, 1:1)

Goals:

1:0 Khairullin (Nikishin, Glotov), 21.33 PPG

2:0 Rendulic (Gritsyuk), 23.03

3:0 Zykov (Gritsyuk, Nikishin), 48.10

3:1 Graovac (Pulkkinen, G. Smith), 50.05

Goalkeepers: Moisevich – Lazushin

Shots: 77 – 55

Shots on target: 44 – 26