SKA - Medvescak

SKA - Medvescak - 6:0

27 October 2016

SKA played their final match before the national team break against HC Medvescak Zagreb. Head coach Oleg Znarok made a few changes to the line-up, as Igor Shestyorkin got his place in net instead of Mikko Koskinen. Drew McIntyre was Medvescak’s starting goalkeeper.

With this being the last game inside the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace for a while, the stadium was pumped up for this fixture. However, it was Medvescak who were the more aggressive during the opening stages. Struggling to get going, SKA had Igor Shestyorkin to thank for making a few key saves – Francis Pare had the best opportunity, failing to score clean through. Nevertheless, slowly improving, SKA found a late period go ahead goal. Alexander Khokhlachyov was pushed out wide, he set the puck back to the crease and Evgeny Ketov hammered over the glove.

Full of confidence, SKA continued to rack up the pressure in the second stanza. Unlike the first, all of the play was coming inside Medvescak’s zone, and the visitors gradually retreated into their shell. Our pressing resulted in a second goal – Vyacheslav Voynov’s dump into the slot was deftly tipped home by Ilya Kovalchuk. That gave SKA the breathing space that they needed, and Igor Shestyorkin was rarely being threatened in net. On the other hand, Medvescak’s goalkeeper was constantly being called into action, and he was beaten for the third time at the end of the period. Pavel Datsyuk took up the loose puck, twisted to the left and elegantly backhanded high into the far corner. A trick only the Magic Man can pull off.

Holding a three goal lead, SKA could afford to relax. However, our players were hungry for more goals, crashing Medvescak’s net at any given opportunity. It didn’t take long to find the fourth – Nikolai Prokhorkin expertly went top shelf after Steve Moses had set him up brilliantly. The visitors were losing heart, and they were second best in all aspects. They contrived to concede two more – Alexander Barabanov went five hole, and on the powerplay, Yegor Yakovlev wristed powerfully over the blocker. Igor Shestyorkin calmly kept his sixth shutout of the season, and seeing the game out with minimal fuss, SKA register their eleventh win in a row 6:0!

Match protocol:

SKA – Medvescak – 6:0 (1:0, 2:0, 3:0)

Goals:

1:0 Ketov (Kablukov, Khokhlachyov), 17.11

2:0 Kovalchuk (Voynov), 24.26

3:0 Datsyuk (Voynov, Barabanov), 39.09

4:0 Prokhorkin (Moses), 41.42

5:0 Barabanov (Gusev), 49.52

6:0 Yakovlev (Datsyuk), 53.06

Goalkeepers: Shestyorkin – McIntyre

Shots on target: 35 – 20

Penalty minutes: 2 – 10