SKA - Torpedo - 2:0. Game Five

5 March 2015

SKA received their first chance to finish off the KHL Gagarin Cup first round series against HC Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod today in the fifth match. After winning in Nizhny Novgorod 4:2 and 3:1 head coach Vyacheslav Bykov kept the team most the same, with Pyotr Khokhryakov staying put in the fourth line, and Dinar Khafizullin in the third. While Mikko Koskinen was in our net, Torpedo made their traditional change with Ivan Kasutin replacing Mikhail Biryukov.

It was a very tactical start to proceedings in the Ice Palace, with both teams waiting for each other to make a mistake. Virtually no chances were seen at all during the opening moments, as Torpedo saw the majority of possession. SKA gradually increased the heat though, and after Ilya Kovalchuk fired off target from point blank range the breakthrough was made. Patrick Thoresen brilliantly fed Tony Martensson powering down the right, and the Swede found the far corner. The visitors seemed to panic after that, and the second promptly arrived on the powerplay. Maxim Chudinov dumped into the crease, and Patrick Thoresen scored himself this time with a tip in. There was even an opportunity for a third, but Ivan Kasutin stood tall to deny the open Yevgeni Ketov glove side.

The second was anything but a cautious affair, as all of a sudden the game opened up. SKA began on the front foot as you would expect, and created some wonderful openings. On the powerplay Ilya Kovalchuk collected the puck, and somehow fired over the net from the left faceoff circle with Ivan Kasutin out of the picture. He then had a couple of other excellent chances, a when on a two on one he couldn’t hit the target. Torpedo upped their aggression as time went on, and Mikko Koskinen was called into making a few sharp stops. The visitors’ best opportunity came when Jarkko Immonen was denied by Mikko from point blank range, and the following rebound was quite heroically blocked by Dmitry Yudin and Andrey Ermakov. Torpedo then practically shot themselves in the foot as the frame was coming to an end, as forward Nikita Dvurechensky was kicked out of the game for a horrible hit against Dinar Khafizullin.

Our players looked to put the game to bed in the third period, and during the final moments of that extended powerplay they came very close to doing so. Vadim Shipachyov was teed up by the right hand post, and he could only wrist first time against the woodwork. Torpedo goalkeeper Ivan Kasutin really was keeping his team in the game, as despite leading our team spent almost the whole period in the attacking zone. The visitors came to life only in the dying minutes, however despite pulling their goaltender they failed to make Mikko Koskinen work. 2:0 today and 4:1 in the series overall, and SKA move on to round two where they will face either Jokerit Helsinki or Dynamo Moscow!

Match protocol:

SKA – Torpedo – 2:0 (2:0, 0:0, 0:0)

Goals:

1:0 Martensson (Thoresen, Y Alexandrov), 14.18

2:0 Thoresen (Cervenka, Chudinov), 16.52

Goalkeepers: Koskinen – Kasutin

Shots: 35 – 22

Penalty minutes: 6 – 33

Faceoffs: 22 – 27

Blocked shots: 14 – 11

Hits: 17 – 19

Referees: Anisimov, Bulanov