Grigorenko hat-trick powers SKA to landslide Balashikha win!

21 October 2024

Mikhail Grigorenko enjoyed a night to remember in Balashikha, tallying three out of SKA’s eight goals against Vityaz Moscow Region in the 2024/2025 KHL regular season as our team romped to an emphatic 8:1 away triumph!

SKA were only leading by one until Grigorenko joined the party, but after his first goal the fired-up visitors well and truly put a sorry Vityaz team to the sword.

Both teams had their fair share of chances during an intense opening stanza.

SKA’s third line consisting of Ivan Demidov, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Sergei Plotnikov was lively, with the former notably backhanding wide when through 1-on-1. In-form American defenseman Tony DeAngelo also came agonisingly close to our opener, smacking the pipe with a wrister through traffic on the powerplay.

Although they were sucking up a large amount of pressure, Vityaz were proving to be dangerous on the counter. Ex-SKA forward Dmitry Buchelnikov really should have put the tenacious hosts ahead on a PP of Vityaz’s own, but he was denied by a quite brilliant point-blank save from Artemiy Pleshkov.

The goals eventually began to flow in the second frame.

Sergei Tolchinsky deservedly broke the deadlock for SKA on the powerplay in the 30^th minute, whipping a firm wrister into the far corner from the left circle. Buoyed by that goal, our players immediately took their game to the next level, applying heavy pressure on Vityaz which resulted in our second marker less than 120 seconds later.

When receiving a pinpoint pass from the lively Demidov, DeAngelo beat Maxim Dorozhko next to his right post with a low one-timer. Demidov had previously wasted his second 1-on-1 chance at the start of the period.

However, Vityaz weren’t prepared to wave the white flag. Leading KHL goalscorer Derek Barach duly cut our lead in half from the high slot with four minutes remaining in the stanza, ruthlessly going top-shelf on Pleshkov to score his 12th of the campaign.

Buchelnikov subsequently passed up another huge opportunity for Vityaz, tipping wide having been found with a pinpoint feed.

That miss proved decisive. Grigorenko reinstated our two-goal advantage on the ensuing counter-attack, calmly lifting the rebound over Dorozhko after the Vityaz netminder had failed to freeze Vladimir Alistrov’s attempt.

Even though they were trailing by two, Vityaz were still with a shout for the third period, but they were blown away by a memorable SKA onslaught at the start of the frame!

Incredibly, SKA managed to score three goals in the first three minutes of the period! Vasily Glotov’s deflection just had enough power to crawl in under Dorozhko, before Grigorenko completed a flowing PP move with a trademark rocket from distance.

Vityaz predictably opted to pull the hapless Dorozhko in favour of Dmitry Shikin following Grigorenko’s second. Nevertheless, he was picking the puck out of his net a mere 36 seconds after entering proceedings, as Grigory Kuzmin took control of the rebound next to the left post and carefully hooked it into the opposite corner.

Grigorenko then sealed his first hat-trick for SKA, hitting the jackpot from what seemed an impossible angle on the right.

To their credit, Vityaz forced Pleshkov into a series of challenging saves in the closing stages, but it was only fitting that SKA had the final word as Mikhail Vorobyov etched his name on the scoreboard when converting Kuzmin's intelligent cross-ice pass in the penultimate minute.

SKA will now prepare to face Kunlun Red Star away in Mytishchi on Wednesday. Puck-drop is scheduled for 19:30 local time.

Match protocol:

Vityaz – SKA – 1:8 (0:0, 1:3, 0:5)

Goals:

0:1 Tolchinsky (Glotov, Alistrov), 29.20 PPG

0:2 DeAngelo (Demidov, Kuznetsov), 31.08

1:2 Barach (Rykov, Chekhovich), 35.54

1:3 Grigorenko (Alistrov), 37.25

1:4 Glotov (Alistrov, Zaitsev), 40.54

1:5 Grigorenko (Plotnikov, Kuznetsov), 41.17 PPG

1:6 Kuzmin (Tolchinsky, Vorobyov), 41.53

1:7 Grigorenko (Bardakov), 46.52