Game four. Torpedo – SKA

Game four. Torpedo – SKA – 1:4

7 March 2024

In the fourth match of the first round of the 2023/2024 KHL Gagarin Cup playoffs, SKA powered to an important victory in Nizhny Novgorod, beating Torpedo 4:1 on the night to open up a commanding 3-1 series lead.

The opening stanza was nothing short of enthralling.

SKA came flying out of the blocks in emphatic fashion. After Alex Galchenyuk had deftly deflected a hopeful attempt beyond Adam Huska, Arseniy Gritsyuk completed a flowing passing play on the doorstep, before Zakhar Bardakov got the better of the forlorn Slovakian goaltender for the third time with a wicked wrister from the right flank.

Torpedo promptly signalled for their time-out and pulled the hapless Huska in favour of Ivan Kulbakov.

That change did have the desired effect for the pumped-up hosts.

20-year-old Arseniy Varlakov got them on the board, taking advantage of an avoidable rebound given up by Nikita Serebryakov. Moments later, Denis Yan thought that he had grabbed an instant second for Torpedo, but to our delight his goal was disallowed following a SKA coach’s challenge as a consequence of offside.

SKA played on the front foot for the vast majority of the second stanza.

Nevertheless, to his credit, Kulbakov was in top form in the Torpedo net, pulling off numerous challenging stops to keep his flagging team in with a shout. Galchenyuk, Vasily Glotov and Marat Khairullin all came particularly close for SKA from promising positions deep inside the Torpedo zone.

Torpedo were mainly relying on counter-attack opportunities. In the final shift of the period, Oleg Li should have done better when presented with a golden chance on the doorstep during a Torpedo onslaught, but the former SKA forward could only tip over the crossbar.

Predictably, SKA opted for a more defensive approach in the third period with Torpedo set to throw everything bar the kitchen sink at us.

A 5-on-3 powerplay gifted Torpedo a big chance to really make things interesting. But, with our players reading the home side’s attacking ideas perfectly, Serebryakov was barely tested.

On a subsequent powerplay, the dangerous Nikolai Kovalenko looked certain to score a wonderful individual goal when displaying superb skill, but Stepan Falkovsky got back in time to sweep the puck off the line.

Torpedo took the decision to swap Kulbakov for the extra skater with around three minutes left on the clock, but that only resulted in Khairullin calmly hitting the empty net.

Game five will take place at the SKA Arena in Saint Petersburg on Saturday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:00 local time.

Match protocol:

Torpedo – SKA – 1:4 (1:3, 0:0, 0:1)

Goals:

0:1 Galchenyuk (Bardakov), 06.26

0:2 Gritsyuk (Khairullin, Glotov), 08.30

0:3 Bardakov (Zemchyonok, Galchenyuk), 08.47

1:3 Varlakov (Lynch), 15.12

1:4 Khairullin (Polyakov), 57.49 EN

Goalkeepers: Huska/Kulbakov – Serebryakov

Shots: 45 – 68

Shots on target: 26 – 44