Demidov strikes late as SKA outlast Torpedo!

19 December 2024

Ivan Demidov struck the winner with a little over nine minutes remaining, firing SKA to a thoroughly excting 6:4 victory against Torpedo in Saint Petersburg.

The opportunistic visitors initially held a three-goal lead following a blistering start, but SKA rapidly wore them down and eventually took a decisive lead in the closing stages.

Torpedo handed SKA a cold shower in the opening stanza. Vladislav Firstov completed a passing play in the fourth minute, and after a failed SKA's coach's challenge for high sticking, familiar face Vyacheslav Voynov doubled their advantage with a searing wrister from distance.

That goal sent Pavel Moisevich to the bench in favour of Yegor Zavragin. Nevertheless, that change didn't have the initial desired effect, as Torpedo pounced on two mistakes from SKA debutant Matvei Korotky with Igor Larionov sliding the puck between the pads when clean through.

However, SKA conjured up the game-changing moment with a mere seven seconds remaining in the period.

While competing on the powerplay, Mikhail Grigorenko sent a slap shot crashing beyond away goaltender Ivan Kulbakov.

Buoyed by that goal, our players quickly got back on level terms at the start of the second frame, with Marat Khairullin scoring when alone at the high slot and Tony DeAngelo converting when receiving a superb pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov did indeed finish the night with a large tally of four assists on the board!

The topsy-turvy manner of proceedings continued. The dangerous Vasily Atanasov etched his name on the scoreboard on the counter-attack, but Mikhail Vorobyov quickly equalised on another break-away in the 32nd minute.

Torpedo thought they had once again moved ahead in the fourth minute of the third period. But, to our relief, Atanasov's effort was disallowed as a consequence of offside after SKA's challenge.

In comparison to the maiden two periods, the third was somewhat more cautious and tense, but SKA grabbed the all-important fifth goal as Demidov ruthlessly beat Bocharov having been cleverly picked out by Kuznetsov.

Vasily Glotov subsequently iced it in the dying seconds after Bocharov had been pulled for the extra skater.

We will now prepare to host Admiral Vladivostok at the SKA Arena on Saturday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - Torpedo - 6:4 (1:3, 3:1, 2:0)

Goals:

0:1 Firstov (Larionov, Atanasov), 03.50

0:2 Voynov (Artamonov), 05.22 PPG

0:3 Larionov (Atanasov), 19.05

1:3 Grigorenko (Kuznetsov), 19.53 PPG

2:3 Khairullin (Kuznetsov), 20.23

3:3 DeAngelo (Kuznetsov, Glotov), 23.44

3:4 Atanasov (Lynch), 26.19