Traktor – SKA

Traktor – SKA – 1:3

7 December 2023

Away in Chelyabinsk, SKA produced a wonderful performance against Traktor in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season, earning a richly-deserved 3:1 triumph.

SKA dominated the opening stanza without managing to show anything for it.

Protecting the puck effectively, our players created several clear shooting lanes while pinning Traktor deep inside their own zone, but Sergei Mylnikov wasn’t in the mood to give us a helping hand. The impressive 24-year-old stopped all 15 SKA attempts he faced during the first period alone, notably denying Artyom Sergeev and Vladimir Alistrov with smart saves.

Vasily Glotov came the closest to our opener in the concluding minute of the period, smashing the crossbar from the high slot with Mylnikov’s view blocked.

For their part, Traktor were struggling to maintain possession in our zone for prolonged periods, but they did waste one glorious chance in the period with Alexander Sharov firing over the bar when clean through.

The second stanza continued with SKA piling on the pressure.

Eventually, our dominance did provide us with a way through in the 29^th minute.

Borna Rendulic opened the scoring on the powerplay, receiving an intelligent pass from Alexander Nikishin and expertly turning his attempt past Mylnikov.

A second powerplay five minutes later opened the door for our second marker.

All of a sudden, the lively Alistrov found himself skating through 1-on-1 with the Traktor defence caught sleeping, and he got the better of Mylnikov with a slick move.

SKA managed to outshoot Traktor 30-8 (!) after two periods of play! However, during one of their few positive shifts inside our zone in the second frame, Traktor halved our advantage in the 38^th minute with Artyom Blazhievsky blasting a firm slap shot into the right corner with Nikita Serebryakov’s view heavily impeded.

Traktor passed up a glorious opportunity to tally their equaliser in the early stages of the third period.

Serebryakov initially contrived to give up a huge rebound in a seemingly harmless situation, but the 28-year-old immediately redeemed himself with a quite stunning save with his right pad to somehow shut the door on Vitaly Kravtsov.

That moment proved decisive.

Late on, Alex Galchenyuk’s tripping foul presented Traktor with their first PP of the game, but SKA calmly kept the Ural hosts at bay with composed play. Serebryakov only had the one save to make, positioning himself perfectly to field Danil Yurtaikin’s one-timer from the doorstep.

With around 90 seconds remaining on the clock, Traktor predictably pulled Mylnikov for the extra skater, but that only resulted in Nikishin hitting the empty net to seal the deal.

SKA will return to action after the international break on December 19th against Sochi in Saint Petersburg. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Traktor – SKA – 1:3 (0:0, 1:2, 0:1)

Goals:

0:1 Rendulic (Nikishin, Khairullin), 28.27 PPG

0:2 Alistrov (M. Fedotov, Serebryakov), 33.33 PPG

1:2 Blazhievsky (Kotlyarevsky), 37.56

1:3 Nikishin (Galchenyuk), 59.24 EN

Goalkeepers: Mylnikov – Serebryakov

Shots: 45 – 79

Shots on target: 20 – 39

Faceoffs: 21 – 38

Blocked shots: 22 – 19