Game one. SKA - Severstal

Game one. SKA - Severstal - 4:3 OT

4 March 2018

The opening match of the 2017/2018 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs first round between SKA and HC Severstal Cherepovets took place in Saint Petersburg. Head coach Oleg Znarok welcomed back all of the Olympic champions, putting llya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk in the line-up. Mikko Koskinen and Julius Hudacek were the starting goaltenders.

Fired up in front of a packed Ice Palace, our players managed to break the deadlock after 13 minutes of play. A flowing play found Ilya Kovalchuk on the left faceoff circle, who lashed a powerful one timer beyond the sprawling Julius Hudacek. SKA dominated large parts of the first period, forcing the visiting goalkeeper into 13 saves.

Nevertheless, Severstal managed to turn the game on its head in the second period. Unfortunately, with practically their first decent opportunity of the match, the visitors equalised. Dmitry Kagarlitsky took aim when speeding towards the SKA net, catching Mikko Koskinen cold. Full of confidence, the away team contrived to take a shock lead. Young Igor Geraskin collected the puck at the doorstep, before going top shelf with a fantastic effort. 1:2 after 40 minutes.

Trailing by one goal, SKA had no other option than to throw everything at Severstal in the third frame. Vyacheslav Voynov calmed the Ice Palace's nerves with a well-needed equaliser, thumping a huge slap shot into the left corner from the blue line. Dominating proceedings, our team then scored a vital third goal in the final stages. Vadim Shipachyov collected the puck on the right wing, sending a low attempt past the beaten Julius Hudacek. It looked as though SKA would calmly see out the match, but Severstal had other ideas. With only 56 seconds remaining on the clock. Oleg Yashin struck gold with a hopeful wrister, in turn sending the match to overtime.

In the end, it took a powerplay to finally get the win. On the man advantage, Pavel Datsyuk swung for a tricky wraparound, outwitting the goalkeeper and gifting SKA a win. 4:3, SKA take a 1:0 KHL playoffs first round lead.

Match protocol:

SKA - Severstal - 4:3 OT (1:0, 0:2, 2:1, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Kovalchuk (Shipachyov, Thoresen), 12.56

1:1 Kagarlitsky (Chernov), 26.35

1:2 Geraskin (Trubachyov, Karlin), 35.38

2:2 Voynov (Kablukov, Shirokov), 47.24

3:2 Shipachyov (Kovalchuk), 56.03

3:3 Yashin (Kagarlitsky, Chernov), 59.04

4:3 Datsyuk (Gusev, Belov), 67.27

Goalkeepers: Koskinen - Hudacek

Shots on target: 46 - 17