Pedan, Pleshkov push SKA to vital win!

13 October 2025

It wasn’t pretty, but SKA ground out a crucial 2:1 home triumph over Avtomobilist at the Ice Palace in the 2025/2026 KHL regular season.

Following an impressive opening stanza, SKA fell away and created very little against an underwhelming Avtomobilist outfit, but a bolt from the blue and reliable goalkeeping from Artemiy Pleshkov saved the day.

SKA bossed the first period with their intense, aggressive play across the ice, unleashing a large total of 33 shots during the frame.

Our youthful trio consisting of Nikita Dishkovsky, Nikita Nedopyokin and Matvei Polyakov led the way with their infectious energy. Dishkovsky whipped a series of powerful wristers wide of the mark, while Polyakov knocked the puck against the busy Evgeny Alikin when cutting sharply to the slot.

The deserved opening goal eventually arrived in the 17^th minute after a number of clear opportunities had been wasted by all four of our lines.

When bursting clean through after receiving an intelligent pass from Joseph Blandisi, young forward Matvei Korotky neatly dinked the puck in with the help of the right post.

That goal ought to have spurred SKA on. However, after wasting a 5-on-3 powerplay at the start of the second period, our team lost all of their momentum and were firmly on the back foot.

In truth, Avtomobilist didn’t manage to carve open many guilt-edged opportunities themselves, with their only huge chance being passed up by the clean-through Semyon Kizimov.

Their equaliser arrived in somewhat fortunate circumstances after SKA had failed to clear their lines.

Curtis Valk tried his luck from a seemingly impossible angle, but the puck agonisingly snuck under the frustrated Pleshkov.

Nonetheless, our goalkeeper quickly regained focus, pulling off a vital stop in the dying seconds of the frame to shut the door on familiar face Dmitry Yudin with Yekaterinburg skating away on an odd-man rush.

Luck was once again on our side in the early knockings of the third stanza.

This time Pleshkov was beaten, but a deflected effort from distance struck the right post and bounced to safety.

That proved a decisive moment in the game.

Struggling SKA suddenly retook their lead out of nothing, as Andrei Pedan caught Alikin napping with a thunderous one-timer.

The Ural-based organisation were gifted a golden opportunity to get back on level terms in the closing stages when Trevor Murphy committed holding against an on-rushing opponent. They promptly pulled Alikin in order to make it a 6-on-4 powerplay, but SKA coped with the challenge expertly, limiting Avtomobilist to hopeful shots from distance.

After killing a subsequent penalty of their own, Avtomobilist could have forced OT with the buzzer about to sound, however Pleshkov came up trumps with a pair of alert stops.

SKA will now prepare to host Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

SKA – Avtomobilist – 2:1 (1:0, 0:1, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Korotky (Blandisi, Pedan), 16.11

1:1 Valk (Chernikov, Malorosiyanov), 33.35

2:1 Pedan (Khairullin, Vorobyov), 45.17

Goalkeepers: Pleshkov – Alikin

Shots: 78 – 48

Shots on target: 27 – 24

Faceoffs: 38 – 17

Blocked shots: 9 – 32