SKA - Sibir

SKA - Sibir - 1:2

19 November 2021

In a tense match, SKA couldn’t hold on against Sibir Novosibirsk, conceding a bitter 1:2 defeat at the Ice Palace in the 2021/2022 KHL regular season.

The visitors came out with all guns blazing. Competing with plenty of speed and aggression, Sibir immediately took the game to SKA, wasting an excellent chance to take the lead in the opening stages as Oleg Li could only wrist against Lars Johansson’s glove when shooting on an odd-man rush.

Not long later, Anton Shenfeld was clean through for Sibir but, thankfully, he lost his footing when shaping for a shot.

SKA subsequently broke the deadlock with their maiden opportunity of the day. All of a sudden, a huge goalmouth scramble erupted on the slot, and Andrei Kuzmenko managed to tap the puck over the line past stricken Sibir goaltender Anton Krasotkin.

Our team drew two penalties out of Sibir after that goal. Nikita Lisov - making his KHL debut for SKA -, Nikita Gusev, Alexander Volkov and Valentin Zykov came close to a second, but Krasotkin stood tall to the challenge. SKA successfully killed Sibir’s first powerplay in the closing minutes of the first period after being penalised for having six skaters on the ice.

Kuzmenko was denied by a fantastic point-blank save from Krasotkin at the start of the second stanza. During the period, SKA were gifted two more powerplay opportunities by the opposing team, chances which were wasted with Sibir defending solidly and protecting Krasotkin with good effect.

Sibir certainly had the better of the second period. As the frame progressed, the quick Siberians tested Johansson on a regular basis as they rapidly grew in confidence, with the likes of Anton Shenfeld, Alexander Sharov and Evgeny Chesalin all seeing their goalbound efforts turned aside as SKA struggled to clear their lines.

The visiting team did eventually get back on level terms with a little over seven minutes remaining in the third period. Lurking at the blue line, Vadim Kudako decided to send the puck towards the doorstep, where Ilya Morozov managed to tip it beyond Johansson.

Buoyed by their equaliser, Sibir continued to play with the initiative. Unfortunately, their heavy pressure resulted in a go-ahead goal with around two minutes in the third period.

Nick Shore collected the loose puck behind Johansson’s net, swung sharply to the right post and caught our goalkeeper cold.

In the dying moments, SKA peppered Krasotkin’s goal after Johansson had been pulled in favour of the extra skater, but the impressive Sibir goaltender refused to be beaten.

SKA will now prepare to compete against CSKA in Moscow on Sunday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Sibir - 1:2 (1:0, 0:0, 0:2)

Goals:

1:0 Kuzmenko (Burdasov, Kemppainen), 07.22

1:1 Morozov (Kudako, Milovzorov), 52.33

1:2 Shore (Shenfeld, Li), 57.47

Goalkeepers: Johansson - Krasotkin

Shots on target: 28 - 25

Faceoffs: 35 - 29

Hits: 16 - 15

Blocked shots: 19 - 7