SKA - Spartak

SKA - Spartak - 2:4

14 February 2017

SKA returned to KHL action to play HC Spartak in Saint Petersburg. Head coach Oleg Znarok included Russian national team members Igor Shestyorkin and Yegor Rykov in the line-up, despite the fact that they had just returned from Euro Hockey Tour action. Markus Svensson was between Spartak's pipes.

It was a positive start inside the Ice Palace, as SKA immediately took the game to their Moscow opponents. We didn't have to wait long for the opening goal either - on the powerplay, Yegor Yakovlev's dump was tipped in by the lurking Evgeny Ketov. Dominant, our players were raining the shots down on Spartak's net, registering an outstanding 23 on target in the first period alone. However, completely against the run of play, Spartak turned the game on its head. Alexander Vasiliev jammed home a loose rebound, before Yaroslav Dyblenko's pin-point wrister found the top left corner.

Unfortunately, Spartak continued playing with the initiative in the second. Lukas Radil promptly netted their third goal, beating Igor Shestyorkin on the doorstep. Holding the momentum, Spartak pressed SKA. refusing to give our players anything to work with. To the horror of the stadium, Viktor Bobrov grabbed Spartak's fourth on the powerplay, deflecting a wrist shot beyond our goalkeeper. The Saint Petersburg faithful couldn't believe what they were seeing.

For all their huffing and puffing, SKA simply couldn't generate any offense. Spartak were standing tall at the back, but with seven minutes on the clock, SKA finally got back into things. Seconds after a powerplay expired, Ilya Kovalchuk edged free on the right wing, slamming a one timer in. Nevertheless, SKA didn't have enough time to make a dramatic comeback. 2:4, the team now slip down to second place in the KHL standings.

Match protocol:

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

Goals:

1:0 Ketov (Datsyuk, Yakovlev), 07.25

1:1 Vasiliev (Kalinin, Mirnov), 13.32

1:2 Dyblenko (Nikontsev, Klyauzov), 14.22

1:3 Radil (Leschenko), 23.28

1:4 Bogrov (Potapov, Bondarev), 29.50

2:4 Kovalchuk (Belov, Dadonov), 53.46

Goalkeepers: Shestyorkin - Svensson

Shots on target: 39 - 25

Penalty minutes: 18 - 12