SKA - Salavat Yulaev

SKA - Salavat Yulaev - 7:1

25 August 2016

SKA played their opening home match of the 2016/2017 KHL regular season against HC Salavat Yulaev. Head coach Oleg Znarok swapped Steve Moses for Alexander Barabanov, while fellow forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and Sergei Plotnikov were kept together in the first line.

Fans inside the packed Saint Petersburg Ice Palace were treated to a wonderful pre-game show, and the players kept the celebratory mood going. In the first attack, Pavel Datsyuk drifted down the right flank, backhanded, and the Salavat goalkeeper Niklas Svedberg was beaten all ends up. The adrenaline was flowing, and ten minutes later, we grabbed a second. Again Pavel was the creator, beautifully teeing up Vyacheslav Voynov at the far right post. Salavat were struggling, but they made us sweat towards the end of the frame. They were keeping the puck in our zone for long periods, and Mikko Koskinen made a superb point blank range save against Teemu Hartikainen.

Despite that late Salavat pressure in the first, SKA came flying out of the blocks in the second stanza, and put the game completely out of sight. On the powerplay Ilya Kovalchuk took aim, and his thunderous slap shot crashed over the glove. Ilya was feeling it, and later on, he netted his second in stunning fashion: taking out two Salavat defensemen, he pulled to the slot, and forced the puck over the line. The visitors from Ufa were all over the place, and after further near misses, they conceded their fifth with a mere two seconds on the clock. Sergei Plotnikov was left alone on the slot, and he calmly tapped in.

There was one major matter left to settle for third period: could Ilya Kovalchuk seal his hat trick? To the Ice Palace’s glee, he was up to the challenge. Midway through the frame, Ilya had space on the right wing, and he lashed the puck beyond the netminder. Salavat's Teemu Hartikainen did get one back for the visitors with a late wrist shot over Mikko Koskinen’s glove, but the last word would go to SKA, as Nikita Gusev gently wristed under the left arm. 7:1, and SKA defeat HC Salavat Yulaev in pulsating fashion!

Match protocol:

SKA – Salavat Yulaev – 7:1 (2:0, 3:0, 2:1)

Goals:

1:0 Datsyuk (Voynov, Kovalchuk), 00.30

2:0 Voynov (Plotnikov, Datsyuk), 11.31

3:0 Kovalchuk (Dadonov, Shipachyov), 21.30

4:0 Kovalchuk (Belov, Plotnikov), 32.24

5:0 Plotnikov (Kovalchuk), 39.58

6:0 Kovalchuk (Datsyuk), 48.37

6:1 Hartikainen (Engqvist, Omark), 52.34

7:1 Gusev (Shipachyov, Khafizullin), 58.38

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Svedberg