One point in Yekaterinburg

8 October 2025

A spirited effort from SKA was only enough for one point in Yekaterinburg, as our team fell 1:2 in overtime to Avtomobilist.

The visitors had initially struck first, but the home side equalised late in the second stanza on the powerplay before grabbing the winner in OT.

Avtomobilist really should have taken the lead in the opening frame.

After Andrei Pedan had been found guilty of tripping against the clean-through Reid Boucher, the officials awarded Avtomobilist a penalty shot, but the latter was brilliantly denied by a sprawling save from Artemiy Pleshkov.

The deadlock was eventually broken in the 28th minute.

Lurking unmarked to the left of the crease, Sergei Sapego calmly tapped past stranded Avtomobilist goalkeeper Evgeny Alikin when receiving a smart pass from Valentin Zykov.

The rest of the period saw Avtomobilist apply increasingly strong pressure on SKA. It looked as though our players were going to survive until the break, however Yegor Chernikov rifled an equaliser over Pleshkov's glove from the top of the slot on the PP.

Both teams wasted promising chances in the ensuing third stanza. Marat Khairullin - guilty of wasting several big opportunities for SKA throughout the match - failed to score when clean through, while Semyon Kizimov knocked wide of the gaping net on a late Avtomobilist powerplay.

Nevertheless, the opponents did eventually grab the winner in overtime with Roman Gorbunov connecting with Chernikov's accurate pass across the slot following a poor turnover.

SKA will now prepare to host the same team in Saint Petersburg on Monday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Avtomobilist - SKA - 2:1 OT (0:0, 1:1, 0:0, 1:0)

Goals:

0:1 Sapego (Zykov, Vorobyov), 27.44

1:1 Chernikov (Romantsev, Byvaltsev), 38.46 PPG

2:1 Gorbunov (Chernikov), 61.12

Goalkeepers: Alikin - Pleshkov

Shots: 56 - 58

Shots on target: 36 - 30

Faceoffs: 29 - 27

Blocked shots: 15 - 14