Spartak – SKA

Spartak – SKA – 1:5

5 October 2022

In the concluding match of this particular away series, SKA comfortably dealt with the challenge posed by Spartak, cruising to a 5:1 victory in Moscow in the 2022/2023 KHL regular season.

SKA dominated the entirety of the first period.

Having started with confidence, our players spent over eight minutes in the attacking zone during the stanza, often creating excellent shooting lanes. Slovakian goalkeeper Patrik Rybar was certainly a busy man in the Spartak net, tallying 19 saves in the opening frame alone.

Marat Khairullin, Vladislav Tsitsyura and Igor Ozhiganov were all guilty of wasting clear opportunities to open the scoring. Spartak weren’t willing to take any risks in the period at all, sitting in defence and waiting for the odd counter-attack chance to come their way.

The second stanza was largely played in the same manner.

To their credit, Spartak did attack with a little more gusto in comparison to the first period, calling SKA goaltender Dmitry Nikolaev into action on eight occasions. On a 2-on-1 break-away, veteran 36-year-old forward Roman Starchenko passed up a rare big chance for the Muscovites, shooting against Nikolaev’s pads with only our goalkeeper to beat.

For our part, Valentin Zykov and Marat Khairullin were stopped by clever saves by Rybar. Our frustration was growing, but, with six minutes remaining in the period, the deadlock was finally broken.

Lurking on the doorstep, Dmitrij Jaskin brilliantly tipped Daniil Pylenkov’s powerful one-timer beyond Rybar.

We then only had to wait three minutes for the second goal to arrive.

After displaying an array of silky skills, Vasily Glotov had aimed his wrister against Rybar, but the rebound dropped at the stick of Ozhiganov who gleefully knocked it into the gaping right corner.

In the driving seat, SKA subsequently put the game to bed as a contest in the ninth minute of the third period.

Unmarked on the doorstep, Zakhar Bardakov received a superb pass from Stepan Falkovsky, cut to the backhand sharply and calmly slotted his effort in with Rybar already beaten.

Despite that setback, though, Spartak refused to wave the white flag and pressed our team with intensity throughout the remainder of the frame.

Their late burst was capped by a consolation goal. Following a large goalmouth scramble, Matvei Zaseda managed to lash the puck under Nikolaev's blocker.

Still believing that there was a way back into the match, Spartak pulled Rybar for the extra skater in the concluding two minutes. Nevertheless, that only resulted in SKA registering a fourth, as Vasily Glotov’s shot was inadvertently deflected into his own net by home defenseman Alexander Bryntsev. It marked the first goal for Glotov since recently returning to our club.

SKA weren’t finished their either.

With only 32 seconds remaining on the clock, Mikhail Vorobyov gave Rybar no chance with a snappy wrist shot from the crease to get his name on the scoreboard.

SKA will now prepare to host Vityaz Moscow Region in Saint Petersburg on Friday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Spartak – SKA – 1:5 (0:0, 0:2, 1:3)

Goals:

0:1 Jaskin (Pylenkov, Khusnutdinov), 33.56

0:2 Ozhiganov (Glotov, Khusnutdinov), 36.40

0:3 Bardakov (Falkovsky, Kamalov), 48.17

1:3 Zaseda, 56.05

1:4 Glotov (Jaskin, Zykov), 58.51 EN

1:5 Vorobyov (Khairullin), 59.28

Goalkeepers: Rybar – Nikolaev

Shots: 49 – 90