Game six. CSKA – SKA

Game six. CSKA – SKA – 3:0

12 April 2023

Unfortunately, in the sixth match of the 2022/2023 KHL Gagarin Cup semi-finals, SKA suffered a 0:3 defeat to CSKA in Moscow which consequently means that our team have exited the competition with a 2-4 series setback.

You couldn’t have imagined a worse start to proceedings.

Maxim Sorkin opened the scoring within the opening 13 seconds, tipping Nikita Nesterov’s attempt beyond Vladislav Podyapolsky who was making his maiden start of the competition for SKA.

The lively 22-year-old forward could have doubled his money not long later. All of a sudden, he found himself skating clean through past our static back line, but he was denied by a smart save from Podyapolsky.

To their credit, SKA managed to regain composure rather quickly. Competing on the front foot, our players took the game to CSKA, keeping the puck inside the attacking zone and testing home goaltender Adam Reideborn from any angle possible. Vasily Glotov did have the puck in the net on one occasion, but his marker was disallowed as a result of the whistle having already been blown.

SKA started the second stanza in a positive manner, calling Reideborn into action on a regular basis.

However, after wasting a handful of promising opportunities, our team contrived to concede a poor second goal.

Completely unmarked on the crease, Konstantin Okulov took control of the puck and carefully poked it under Podyapolsky.

That goal put CSKA firmly in the driving seat. Controlling the game, the Muscovites were bossing the play across the ice, winning nearly of the battles and regularly catching our team cold on the counter-attack. Anton Slepyshev almost grabbed their third, but his effort was swept off the line after Podyapolsky hadn’t been able to freeze the puck.

The match was virtually finished as a contest in the 46^th minute.

Just a matter of minutes after SKA had failed to convert a powerplay of their own, CSKA registered their third on the man advantage, with Darren Dietz launching a cannon which crashed beyond Podyapolsky in our net.

In truth, Podyapolsky was much the busier goaltender in the third stanza, keeping SKA in with a change with lots of smart saves with CSKA catching our players cold on the counter time and time again.

During the closing minutes, SKA did pull Podyapolsky in favour of the extra skater, but CSKA held on to see the game out successfully.

Match protocol:

CSKA – SKA – 3:0 (1:0, 1:0, 1:0)

Goals:

1:0 Sorkin (Nesterov, Mamin), 00.13

2:0 Okulov (Plotnikov, Kamenev), 30.36

3:0 Dietz (Kamenev), 45.17 PPG

Goalkeepers: Reideborn – Podyapolsky

Shots: 48 – 56

Shots on target: 16 – 22

Faceoffs: 36 – 29

Hits: 10 – 16