Goal-filled encounter falls the Dragons' way

6 September 2025

It wasn't the ideal start to the 2025/2026 KHL regular season for SKA, as our team fell to a disappointing 4:7 setback to the Shanghai Dragons.

The game was staged at the SKA Arena in Saint Petersburg.

Our players took the lead no less than three times in the match, but a shaky defensive showing allowed the Chinese hosts to power to victory with seven goals of their own.

The first period saw Valentin Zykov - on the powerplay - and Mikhail Vorobyov both complete flowing passing plays. However, the Dragons found a quick response on both occasions.

Nikolai Goldobin's PP effort at the start of the second stanza was instantly cancelled out by the opponents. Playing with more confidence, the Dragons then went on to take full control of proceedings, tallying three subsequent markers in a row to open up a commanding three-goal advantage.

Sergei Ivanov was indeed replaced by Artemiy Pleshkov in our net following Shanghai's sixth.

SKA did give themselves a glimmer of hope in the 47th minute, with debutant Rocco Grimaldi giving a clever passing play with Goldobin and Igor Larionov the perfect finish.

Unfortunately, though, that was as good as it got for SKA, as Shanghai held on and iced it with an empty-netter.

SKA will now prepare to face Torpedo in Nizhny Novgorod on Monday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Shanghai Dragons - SKA - 7:4 (2:2, 4:1, 1:1)

Goals:

0:1 Zykov (Vorobyov, Murphy), 04.12 PPG

1:1 P. Foo (Bryntsev, Sutter), 05.44

1:2 Vorobyov (Zykov, Phillips), 07.19

2:2 Popugayev (Clendening, Quinney), 14.49

2:3 Goldobin (Loktionov, Grimaldi), 23.25 PPG

3:3 Quinney (Rendulic, Chekhovich), 26.52

4:3 Popugayev (Clendening, Chekhovich), 34.35