SKA - Sibir

SKA - Sibir - 6:2

17 January 2016

The fourth match of this series took place for SKA today against HC Sibir Novosibirsk. A number of changes were made to the line-up for this one, as Ilya Kovalchuk were joined by Vadim Shipachyov and Evgeny Dadonov in the first line. Yegor Rykov and Pavel Buchnevich returned to the fourth, however Mikko Koskinen kept his place in net. Alexander Salak begun the match for Sibir.

Following the disappointing defeat to Amur two days ago our players begun with purpose, and opened up the scoring within three minutes. A neat passing play ended with Ilya Kovalchuk feeding the open Evgeny Dadonov at the far left post, and the latter slotted home. That sent the Ice Palace into raptures, and on the first powerplay of the day the lead was doubled. Alexander Barabanov battled away for the loose puck on Sibir’s crease, and eventually Jarno Koskiranta forced it beyond Alexander Salak. Sibir promptly took a timeout after that goal, and unfortunately that proved to be the turning point of the period. The visitors emerged a completely different team, and Maxim Shalunov got them back into the game – splitting the entire SKA defence apart, he beautifully wristed beyond Mikko Koskinen’s blocker. That marker swung the game, and after Mikko Koskinen made a superb glove save up close they made it a tied game. With Roman Rukavishnikov in the penalty box the puck was swept across from the right flank, and Oleg Gubin tapped into the far corner.

Those two Sibir goals threatened to take the game away from SKA, however our team got back to work immediately in the second period. Just like at the start of the first all of the goalmouth action was coming inside Sibir’s zone, and on an early man’s advantage we took a third lead. A stunning Ilya Kovalchuk feed teed up Nikita Gusev on the left wing, and from a tight angle the latter found the net. Plenty of goalscoring chances were coming for our team, and not long later it was four. Andrei Kuteikin wound up at the blue line, and his bomb of a slapper crashed into the right corner. Sibir were becoming seriously frustrated, and couldn’t keep out of the penalty box. Our players weren’t in the mood for letting the Siberians off the hook, and Nikita Gusev extended the lead to three with a tricky wrist shot on the right faceoff circle that went five hole. That signalled the end of goaltender Alexander Salak’s day, and he was replaced by Nikita Bespalov. That did help the visitors to shore proceedings up, but a sharp Andrej Mezaros effort that was pushed out by the right pad was the best that they could offer.

All the momentum was with SKA moving into the third period, and our players continued dominating. The pressure on Sibir’s net was incessant, and defenceman Yegor Yakovlev was the next to get on the scoreboard. Moving to middle of the zone Yegor attempted a rising wrist shot, and it sailed high over Nikita Bespalov’s glove. That killed all of Sibir’s remaining hope once and for all, and we spent the majority of the remaining minutes a man up. Sibir couldn’t keep out of the penalty box, and Steve Moses and Ilya Kovalchuk had huge chances as the puck bobbled all around Sibir’s crease. When at full strength the visitors did make Mikko Koskinen work at times with Maxim Shalunov coming close by the right post, but that was the closest they would get. Our players calmly saw the game out, and took a very important 6:2 win over Sibir! The next match will take place on Tuesday at home to HC Metallurg Novokuznetsk.

Match protocol:

SKA – Sibir – 6:2 (2:2, 3:0, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Dadonov (Kovalchuk, Shipachyov), 03.10

2:0 Koskiranta (Barabanov), 06.04

2:1 Shalunov (Mezaros), 07.32

2:2 Gubin (Shumakov, Alekseev), 18.51

3:2 Gusev (Shipachyov, Kovalchuk), 22.12

4:2 Kuteikin (Shipachyov, Khafizullin), 27.42

5:2 Gusev (Kovalchuk, Shipachyov), 37.11

6:2 Yakovlev (Kadeikin, Gusev), 48.43

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Salak (Bespalov)