SKA – Metallurg Magnitogorsk

SKA – Metallurg Magnitogorsk – 1:2 OT

7 January 2024

In a tense battle, SKA earned the one point against Metallurg Magnitogorsk at the Ice Palace in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season, conceding a slender 1:2 overtime loss.

The teams quickly set an intense tempo in the first period.

Vasily Glotov thought that he had opened the scoring in the fifth minute, but the goal was ruled out as a consequence of goaltender interference against 20-year-old Ilya Nabokov following a coach’s challenge.

Nevertheless, we did make the breakthrough five minutes later.

Seconds after Metallurg had tipped wide, SKA powered away on the counter-attack, and Ivan Zinchenko whipped an instant attempt between Nabokov’s pads.

SKA really should have grabbed their second towards the end of the frame. However, with the goal seemingly at his mercy, Stepan Falkovsky whipped wide of the right corner from the top of the slot. The Belarusian defenseman displayed his frustration by slamming his stick into the boards.

Pavel Moisevich was the busier goaltender in the first frame, making 13 saves in comparison to Nabokov’s 11. At point-blank range, the tall 19-year-old pulled off one superb stop, covering the puck on the line before Nikita Grebyonkin could tap it in.

SKA competed on the front foot for the majority of the second stanza.

With Metallurg taking two penalties, our players were presented with the opportunity to apply heavy pressure on the away side. Nevertheless, to their credit, the opponents were flawless shorthanded, blocking all possible passing and shooting lanes for SKA.

In the closing moments of the frame, Nikolai Polyakov wasted a glorious chance for our second, hammering a rising one-timer over the crossbar after he had escaped his marker.

Metallurg were mainly waiting for counter-attack chances. On a couple of break-aways, Maxim Karpov and Denis Zernov did make the home fans panic, shooting wide of the mark with only Moisevich to beat. The latter knocked past the right corner after he had beaten our goalkeeper to a sneaky pass from deep.

The equalising goal arrived for Metallurg in the 45^th minute in somewhat unexpected circumstances.

Standing next to the right boards, Swedish defenseman Robin Press took aim with what appeared to be a harmless wrist shot, but his effort caught Moisevich cold.

Buoyed by that goal, Magnitogorsk went on to create a number of clear opportunities in the first half of the third period. On two occasions, Moisevich was beaten all ends up in our net after saving the initial shots, but Sergei Sapego and Falkovsky came to the rescue with two incredible stops on the line.

Overtime was indeed required.

To our dismay, it fell Magnitogorsk’s way with 17 seconds left.

Not long after Alexander Nikishin had failed to score when 1-on-1, Igor Geraskin was left unmarked at the high slot, with the away forward thundering an unstoppable attempt into the left corner. Geraskin had taken SKA defenseman Artyom Sergeev out of the picture with a questionable challenge moments before he had received the puck.

SKA will now prepare to face Vityaz Moscow Region away in Balashikha on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:00 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Metallurg Magnitogorsk – 1:2 OT (1:0, 0:0, 0:1, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Zinchenko (Gritsyuk), 09.38

1:1 Press, 44.04

1:2 Geraskin (Yurov), 64.43

Goalkeepers: Moisevich – Nabokov

Shots: 84 – 64

Shots on target: 44 – 32

Faceoffs: 42 – 29

Blocked shots: 20 – 16