SKA - Slovan

SKA - Slovan - 4:1

18 December 2018

In the Saint Petersburg Ice Palace, SKA returned to 2018/2019 KHL regular season action, hosting HC Slovan Bratislava. Following the 2018 Channel One Cup which only finished on Sunday, head coach llya Vorobyov made a number of changes to the line-up, notably leaving Vasily Tokranov, Vladislav Gavrikov, Andrei Kuzmenko and Evgeny Ketov out of the line-up. Magnus Hellberg and Marek Ciliak were the starting goalkeepers.

During the opening stages, our players couldn't find their rhythm, and it resulted in Slovan taking the lead as Matus Sukel sent a firm wrist shot over the left shoulder of Magnus Hellberg. Nevertheless, our players conjured up an instant response, as Nail Yakupov powered past the static away defence and backhanded into the net. 1:1 after the first period.

SKA began to motor in the second stanza. All of a sudden, our team started dominating proceedings, protecting the puck inside the Slovan zone and creating a huge amount of promising opportunities. Four minutes into the frame, Sergei Plotnikov expertly tipped Viktor Tikhonov's pinpoint pass into the net, before Nikolai Prokhorkin beat Marek Ciliak with a sharp wrister from the left faceoff circle. Slovan tried to apply pressure in our zone, but when called upon, Magnus Hellberg was on top form.

In a rather uneventful third period, Nikita Gusev lashed into the gaping net on the powerplay after 50 minutes, in turn sealing a confident 4:1 victory over Slovan Bratislava in Saint Petersburg! SKA next take to the ice at home to HC Dinamo Riga on Thursday.

Match protocol:

SKA - Slovan - 4:1 (1:1, 2:0, 1:0)

Goals:

0:1 Sukel (Grman, Klok), 08.53

1:1 Yakupov (Koskiranta), 09.26

2:1 Plotnikov (Datsyuk, TIkhonov), 23.58

3:1 Prokhorkin (Zub, Gusev), 35.14

4:1 Gusev (Prokhorkin), 49.42

Goalkeepers: Hellberg - Ciliak

Shots on target: 30 - 25

Faceoffs: 18 - 32

Hits: 17 - 12