Game five. SKA – CSKA

Game five. SKA – CSKA – 3:7

10 April 2023

In a thoroughly underwhelming fifth match of the 2022/2023 KHL Gagarin Cup semi-finals, SKA came up short against CSKA at the Ice Palace, suffering a heavy 3:7 defeat.

SKA now find themselves trailing 2-3 in the series.

Despite the eventual disappointing result, you couldn’t have imagined a more perfect start to proceedings for SKA.

Our team opened up a confident two-goal advantage with Alexander Nikishin hitting the jackpot from the blue line and Emil Galimov tapping Nikolai Prokhorkin’s superb pass over the line.

SKA appeared to be in full control of the game. However, out of the blue, CSKA suddenly got back on level terms with two quickfire markers of their own.

Both of their goals were tallied on the counter-attack. Alone on the left faceoff circle, Andrei Svetlakov buried the rebound after Dmitry Nikolaev had stopped the initial shot, before Mikhail Grigorenko bundled the puck over the line from a seemingly impossible angle to the left of the slot.

The decisive moment of the game arrived midway through the second period.

When all alone on the doorstep, Grigorenko calmly swept his effort beyond the helpless Nikolaev. In the build-up to that goal, SKA had wasted two glorious opportunities to retake the lead, with the clean-through Dmitrij Jaskin shooting low against CSKA goaltender Adam Reideborn and the lively Zakhar Bardakov knocking the puck into the pads from point-blank range.

The Muscovites subsequently controlled the entirety of the third period. Beating SKA for pace, puck control and organisation, CSKA comfortably ran the game and barely allowed our players to approach their net.

CSKA virtually killed the match as a contest in the 47^th minute, as Konstantin Okulov was allowed to sweep his firm wrister into the far corner from the right circle. Not long later, Maxim Mamin rubbed salt into the wound for SKA, backhanding beyond Nikolaev when 1-on-1. A series of defensive lapses and dreadful passes had presented CSKA with those opportunities.

Our coaches took the decision to swap Nikolaev for Vladislav Podyapolsky in our net after the fifth CSKA goal.

The action wasn’t over there either. Lurking on the doorstep, Alexander Volkov turned Bardakov’s intelligent pass in after Podyapolsky had been pulled for the extra skater, but CSKA then went on to ice it with two empty-netters from Grigorenko and Okulov.

The match ended with a mass fight involving the likes of Andrei Pedan, Nikishin, Yaroslav Dyblenko and Vladislav Kamenev.

Game six will take place in Moscow on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:00 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – CSKA – 3:7 (2:2, 0:1, 1:4)

Goals:

1:0 Nikishin (Falkovsky, Nikishin), 06.51

2:0 Galimov (Prokhorkin, Kamalov), 07.28

2:1 Svetlakov (Slepyshev, Karnaukhov), 12.42

2:2 Grigorenko (Mamin, Sorkin), 13.35

2:3 Grigorenko (Slepyshev, Makarov), 32.45

2:4 Okulov (Plotnikov, Provolnev), 46.08

2:5 Mamin (Grigorenko, Nesterov), 51.38