SKA – Vityaz

SKA – Vityaz – 6:1

3 January 2024

In a somewhat uneventful duel, SKA powered past a sorry Vityaz Moscow Region side at the Ice Palace in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season, earning a routine 6:1 triumph.

Even though our players never really got motoring in the opening stanza, we did manage to open up a two-goal advantage within the maiden 10 minutes.

Vasily Glotov and Sergei Tolchinsky netted in similar fashion, with the pair both brilliantly redirecting the puck beyond Vityaz goaltender Dmitry Shikin.

SKA were subsequently presented with a lengthy 5-on-3 powerplay against the league’s worst PK. However, apart from one slap shot from Maxim Fedotov which struck the base of the left post, no chances were created with our team distributing sloppy passes.

Pavel Moisevich was making his first start in the KHL in our net. In truth, he didn’t have much to do in the first period, but the tall 19-year-old did make one challenging stop against Ivan Savchik at close range.

Our team took their game to the next level in the second period.

In comparison to the first frame, SKA began to increase the speed of their approach in the second. To our delight, we didn’t have to wait long for our third goal which practically killed the game as a contest, as Nikita Kamalov thumped the puck past Shikin’s glove when unmarked on the right faceoff circle.

Under an increasing amount of pressure, under-fire away goaltender Shikin found himself picking the puck out of his net for the fourth time with six minutes left in the period.

Standing his ground well, Shikin did manage to stop the initial slap shot from Arseniy Gritsyuk with his mask, but he was powerless to prevent Glotov from tapping the rebound into the unguarded net.

The only real intrigue remaining in the game was whether the seemingly unbeatable Moisevich would concede his first KHL goal.

Unfortunately, the puck did evade his grasp for the first time in the championship in the third minute of the third period.

Ivan Vorobyov was the villain of the piece, sweeping the bouncing puck in with Moisevich out of position following a goalmouth scramble.

Nonetheless, despite the disappointment of conceding, Moisevich was undoubtedly one of the stars of the show as he continued to pull off wonderful saves. His best of the concluding stanza was made with his right pad when Savchik sped through 1-on-1.

Overall the cool, calm Belarusian stopped 17 of the 18 Vityaz shots which he faced, a more than respectable result for his full debut.

It’s also worth noting that it took opposing teams 242 minutes and 55 seconds to beat Moisevich for the first time, a KHL record for a league debutant! Furthermore, this is also the longest shutout streak this season so far.

A on-song SKA sealed the deal with two more beauties before the afternoon drew to a close.

Just like in the first period, our two goals were practically identical, with Zakhar Bardakov and Glotov – netting his hat-trick in the process on the PP – carefully turning rebounds home with the backhand.

SKA will now prepare to host Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in Saint Petersburg on Friday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Vityaz – 6:1 (2:0, 2:0, 2:1)

Goals:

1:0 Glotov (Khairullin, Zykov), 04.36

2:0 Tolchinsky (Sergeev, Kamalov), 10.02

3:0 Kamalov (Galchenyuk, Tolchinsky), 22.33

4:0 Glotov (Gritsyuk, Nikishin), 34.00 PPG

4:1 I. Vorobyov (Arkalov), 42.30

5:1 Bardakov (Zemchyonok, Gritsyuk), 44.48

6:1 Glotov (Nikishin, Khairullin), 49.29 PPG

Goalkeepers: Moisevich – Shikin