Back to winning ways against Yaroslavl!

21 January 2025

SKA snapped their four-game losing streak in emphatic fashion, confidently defeating Lokomotiv 5:2 at home.

Following a poor run of form, our players well and truly stepped up to the mark this evening, defending solidly and capitalising on virtually every scoring opportunity which came their way.

Sergei Plotnikov opened the scoring in the 15th minute on the powerplay, hammering a firm one-timer home from the right circle having been intelligently found by Ivan Demidov.

However, Lokomotiv had been the better side up until that point, and they wasted no time in equalising as Maxim Beryozkin beat Yegor Zavragin from a tight angle less than four minutes later.

SKA took a firm grip of the game with two quickfire goals at the start of the second stanza. Arseniy Gritsyuk caught former SKA goaltender Alexei Melnichuk cold with a sharp wrister, before Demidov carefully shot beyond the goalkeeper after brilliantly skating beyond the Lokomotiv defence.

Maxim Shalunov halved our lead from the doorstep in the 28th minute, but Zakhar Bardakov reinstated our two-goal advantage with four minutes remaining in the period as his attempt on the counter was inadvertently turned into his own net by Lokomotiv forward Nikita Kiryanov.

Playing in a solid, organised manner, SKA calmly kept Lokomotiv at bay in the third frame despite taking two penalties, and Plotnikov iced it late on with an empty-netter from his own zone.

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

Match protocol:

SKA - Lokomotiv - 5:2 (1:1, 3:1, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Plotnikov (I. Demidov, Nikishin), 14.50 PPG

1:1 Beryozkin (Gernat, Kayumov), 18.16

2:1 Gritsyuk (Bardakov, Nikishin), 20.25

3:1 I. Demidov (Bardakov, Sapego), 23.33

3:2 Shalunov (Kayumov, Rafikov), 27.44

4:2 Bardakov, 35.48

5:2 Plotnikov, 56.51 EN

Goalkeepers: Zavragin - Melnichuk