SKA - CSKA - 2:3 OT

10 January 2021

In a tense battle, SKA only managed to tally the one point in the third meeting of the 2020/2021 KHL regular season against CSKA Moscow, losing 2:3 in overtime at the Ice Palace.

Incredibly, in a rare event for ice hockey, the first shot on target of proceedings was witnessed in the 13^th minute.

A shot which broke the deadlock.

Unmarked between the faceoff circles, Andrei Kuzmenko gave a flowing play with Anton Burdasov and Ivan Morozov the finish it deserved, thumping the puck beyond the stranded Lars Johansson. CSKA had initially coughed up possession inside their zone before Kuzmenko took aim.

Not long later, Miro Aaltonen was presented with a golden chance on the powerplay, however he couldn’t force the puck in from the crease after escaping his markers. For their part, CSKA did begin to increase the intensity of their play towards the attacking play, forcing Alexander Samonov into a couple of tricky saves with powerful slap shots.

CSKA did tally their equaliser in the fourth minute of the second stanza.

Alone at the blue line, Artyom Sergeev was given enough time and space to pick his spot, and his ensuing effort ripped over Samonov’s blocker with our goalkeeper unsighted.

Nevertheless, our players conjured up the perfect response, registering their second goal of proceedings just five minutes later on the powerplay as CSKA suddenly got into real penalty trouble. Following superb work by Joonas Kemppainen behind the net, the puck fell at the stick of Kuzmenko, who sniped past Johansson from point-blank range.

SKA continued piling on the pressure throughout the remainder of th period. On his game, Johansson came to the rescue for CSKA with a series of difficult saves, and Samonov then bailed SKA out in the final second of the second frame as he denied the clean-through Ivan Telegin after the opposing forward had shown too much speed on the counter-attack for our team.

At the start of the third period, SKA passed up two golden opportunities on the powerplay to double the advantage, with Ivan Morozov smacking the pipe and Kuzmenko tipping over the crossbar. Unfortunately, those misses would indeed come back to bite, as CSKA equalised for the second time in the 49^th minute.

After winning a faceoff draw, Sergei Andronov immediately set the puck back to the waiting Ivan Telegin, with the latter beating Samonov with a searing wrister.

CSKA did appear the more dangerous team as time rolled on. In the closing moments of the third period, Samonov had to be at his best to deny Maxim Shalunov with CSKA on a late powerplay, as he stuck out his left pad to get something on his wrist shot.

However, having dominated the ensuing overtime period, CSKA did eventually grab their third goal to end the game as Konstantin Okulov went top shelf on Samonov with an unstoppable shot.

SKA will now prepare to host HC Sochi on Tuesday. Puck-drop in Saint Petersburg is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA - CSKA - 2:3 OT (1:0, 1:1, 0:1, 0:1)

Goals:

1:0 Kuzmenko (Morozov, Burdasov), 12.23

1:1 Sergeev (Shalunov, Okulov), 23.21

2:1 Kuzmenko (Kemppainen), 28.41

2:2 Telegin (Andronov), 48.40

2:3 Okulov (Shalunov), 62.55

Goalkeepers: Samonov - Johansson

Shots on target: 18 - 23

Faceoffs: 25 - 20