SKA St. Petersburg 5 Vityaz Podolsk 1

SKA’s impressive run of form continued with an emphatic 5-1 dismissal of Vityaz in St. Petersburg.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Jarno Koskiranta scored two apiece as the Army Men marched to a sixth successive win and 11th in 12 games.

Meanwhile Kovalchuk moved into top spot on the scoring charts leaderboard for this season, potting his 13th goal of the campaign and adding an assist on Sergei Plotnikov’s strike to take his tally to 29 points.

Kovi got an early start this time, scoring after 11 seconds with a shot from the right-hand channel. The SKA grabbed two goals in a minute to take complete control of the game. Koskiranta forced the puck home in a scramble on the slot before Kovalchuk fed Plotnikov for a one-timer in the 19th minute.

Vityaz hadn’t beaten SKA since January 2011 and didn’t look likely to improve on that run despite Alexei Makeyev pulling a goal back early in the second period. Instead Koskiranta got his second of the game, pouncing on the rebound from a Steve Moses shot. Then Kovalchuk struck again to move ahead of Sergei Mozyakin in the scoring charts.