Vital home triumph over Salavat!

25 January 2025

SKA held on against Salavat Yulaev in a tight duel, emerging victorious by a score of 3:2 in Saint Petersburg.

Following Thursday's defensive problems, our players made a vast improvement in their zone in this particular game, keeping a strong Salavat side at bay alongside wonderful goalkeeping from Artemiy Pleshkov.

Zakhar Bardakov opened the scoring at the start of the second period when cutting sharply to the crease, but Salavat quickly equalised through leading scorer Joshua Leivo at close range.

However, SKA were firmly on top of the match, and the home side opened up a two-goal advantage before the stanza was out as Ilya Karpukhin completed a flowing passing play and Arseniy Gritsyuk caught familiar face Alexander Samonov cold from a tight angle on the left flank.

SKA controlled the game well in the ensuing third frame. With a mere six seconds remaining, Sheldon Rempal bundled in a consolation for Ufa at point-blank range, but it was too little too late for Bashkir organisation.

Our team will now prepare to host Vityaz Moscow Region at the SKA Arena on Tuesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Salavat Yulaev - 3:2 (0:0, 3:1, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Bardakov (Zykov, Yudin), 20.34

1:1 Leivo (Todd), 24.50

2:1 Karpukhin (Zykov, Gritsyuk), 29.00

3:1 Gritsyuk (Bardakov, Zykov), 33.49

3:2 Rempal (Chmelevski, Wilson), 59.54

Goalkeepers: Pleshkov - Samonov

Shots: 74 - 67

Shots on target: 45 - 43