CSKA – SKA

CSKA – SKA – 0:2

27 December 2023

In a nervy showdown of high quality, SKA deservedly kept CSKA at bay away in Moscow, earning a pulsating 2:0 triumph in the 2023/2024 KHL regular season.

Coming off the back of four defeats in a row and languishing in an unprecedented sixth spot of the Western Conference, a fired-up CSKA naturally started the game with intent.

Nikita Serebryakov was a busy man throughout the opening frame, pulling off 21 saves in the first period alone! On the whole, our players were managing to contain CSKA’s attacking pressure, but they presented the hosts with several avoidable second-chance opportunities when failing to clear the puck in simple situations.

Serebryakov bailed his teammates out with a number of challenging saves at close range. At the other end, SKA did manage to call 20-year-old CSKA goaltender Dmitry Gamzin into action on 15 occasions, with Marat Khairullin particularly threatening.

Sergei Tolchinsky wasted our best chance of the period, as he couldn’t unleash a clean shot with the goal gaping after receiving an intelligent pass from Alex Galchenyuk.

The tight, tense manner of proceedings continued in the second period.

Both sides were matching each other across the ice without giving away any space whatsoever. Powering away on the counter-attack, Andrei Svetlakov suddenly found himself clean through with the SKA defence caught out of position, but he could only whack against the right post with Serebryakov already beaten.

Tolchinsky then passed up a similar chance for SKA.

In a match which largely depended on the first goal, SKA made the vital breakthrough at the CSKA Arena in the penultimate minute of the stanza. Moments after he had burst out of the penalty box having initially committed slashing against the onrushing Pavel Karnaukhov, 21-year-old Ivan Zinchenko escaped the attention of the CSKA back line on the doorstep, before expertly turning Mikhail Vorobyov’s wonderful pass over Gamzin’s left pad.

Under mounting pressure to emerge from their crisis, CSKA came flying out of the blocks for the third period.

Nevertheless, thanks to superb defending from SKA, chances were somewhat few and far between for the frustrated Muscovites. On an unexpected 3-on-1 counter, CSKA did create one clear opportunity for their equaliser, but Maxim Fedotov brilliantly intercepted the ensuing pass across the slot.

Fedotov went on to make life difficult for SKA when taking two penalties for hooking and slashing respectively. However, with our team continuing to intelligently block all possible shooting lanes for CSKA, Serebryakov - who wasn’t to be denied his first SKA shutout - was barely tested in our goal.

CSKA did pull Gamzin for their final roll of the dice in the concluding two minutes, but that only resulted in Alexander Nikishin cooly icing it with an empty-netter.

It’s worth noting that this marked the first match in which SKA kept a clean sheet against CSKA since March 2018!

SKA will now prepare to host Avtomobilist Ekaterinburg in Saint Petersburg on Saturday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 17:30 local time.

Match protocol:

CSKA – SKA – 0:2 (0:0, 0:1, 0:1)

Goals:

0:1 Zinchenko (Vorobyov, Nikishin), 38.23

0:2 Nikishin (Dedunov, Zemchyonok), 58.48 EN

Goalkeepers: Gamzin – Serebryakov

Shots: 77 – 65

Shots on target: 43 – 35

Faceoffs: 33 – 34

Blocked shots: 8 – 24