SKA edge past Lada at home in OT

15 September 2024

In a hard-fought battle, SKA edged past Lada Tolyatti at the Ice Palace in the 2024/2025 KHL regular season, tallying a tense 4:3 OT win.

Gifted 18-year-old Ivan Demidov quickly opened the scoring in the second minute, grabbing his long-awaited first league goal when converting Evgeny Kuznetsov's pass at the second attempt on the slot.

Marat Khairullin then doubled our money on the counter.

However, Lada weren't about to lie down, with the visitors responding with a wonderful marker from former SKA forward Andrei Altybarmakyan on the powerplay in the 28th minute. Not long later, Demidov thought that he had notched his second KHL goal, but it was disallowed as a consequence of goaltender interference following a coach's challenge from Lada.

Mikhail Grigorenko did subsequently record our third with a trademark one-timer on the powerplay at the start of the third stanza. Nevertheless, instead of that being a killer blow for Lada, it instead fired the plucky visitors up.

Altybarmakyan had his second goal disallowed for a slight touch against goalkeeper Artemiy Pleshkov's pads, but ex-SKA defenseman Vladislav Syomin netted a clean second for Lada with a strong effort through traffic on another powerplay.

Nikita Popugayev, another Lada player who has experience of representing SKA, sent the game to overtime with a huge slap shot from distance.

SKA were to have the last laugh, though. Competing on the powerplay after Altybarmakyan had committed an interference foul in the last knockings of the third frame, our players sealed the two points, beating Vladislav Podyapolsky - yet another former SKA figure - for the fourth time through Valentin Zykov on the slot.

Our next match will be held against Sochi on the road on Thursday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Lada - 4:3 OT (2:0, 0:1, 1:2, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Demidov (Kuznetsov, Rendulic), 01.59

2:0 Khairullin (Vorobyov, Kuzmin), 08.31

2:1 Altybarmakyan (Mikhailov, Koromyslov), 27.27 PPG

3:1 Grigorenko (Khairullin, Nikishin), 40.12 PPG

3:2 Syomin (Altybarmakyan, Mikhailov), 47.45 PPG

3:3 Popugayev (Mikhailov, Nekolenko), 52.38

4:3 Zykov (Khairullin, Grigorenko), 60.25 PPG

Goalkeepers: Pleshkov - Podyapolsky