SKA - Lada

SKA - Lada - 3:1

11 September 2017

SKA returned to Saint Petersburg for a KHL home match against HC Lada Togliatti. Head coach Oleg Znarok made a few changes to the line-up, notably putting Mikhail Maltsev in the fourth line for his KHL debut. Mikko Koskinen and Alexander Lazushin were the starting goaltenders.

Both teams set a fast tempo inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace. Unfortunately, it was Lada who struck first blood - Stanislav Bocharov snuck beyond the SKA defence, found himself clean through and slid the puck under Mikko Koskinen. Nevertheless, SKA had the right response. Our players laid siege to the Lada net, but despite having 24 shots on target during the frame, Lada goalkeeper Alexander Lazushin couldn't be beaten. Ilya Kovalchuk came the closest, as he saw his powerful slap shot cannon off the pipe.

With Lada offering stubborn resistance, SKA struggled in the second period. The visitors were doing a solid job of keeping SKA on the outside, while Lada themselves were having some dangerous counterattacks. Nevertheless, our players eventually woke up. The equalising goal arrived just three minutes before the second break - Nikolai Prokhorkin battled his way to the crease before wristing an effort into the left corner. 1:1 after two frames.

It took a 2+2 Lada penalty to finally kill off the visitors' challenge in the third stanza. Pavel Datsyuk gave SKA their first lead of the match on that powerplay, firing an arrowed attempt beyond Alexander Lazushin from the right faceoff circle. With that extended Lada penalty ticking down, Ilya Kovalchuk whipped home a stinging wrister - 3:1. Mikko Koskinen calmly made four saves in the period, sealing a nervy 3:1 SKA victory against Lada!

Match protocol:

SKA - Lada - 3:1 (0:1, 1:0, 2:0)

Goals:

0:1 Bocharov (Akhmetov), 05.17

1:1 Prokhorkin (Plotnikov), 36.21

2:1 Datsyuk (Kovalchuk, Gusev), 46.24

3:1 Kovalchuk (Gusev), 48.27

Goalkeepers: Koskinen - Lazushin

Shots on target: 49 - 20

Penalty minutes: 6 - 14

Faceoffs: 33 - 18

Hits: 10 - 7