CSKA shut-out puts defending champion in front. April 6 playoffs
Defending champion CSKA moved ahead of SKA in the Western Conference final. On home ice, Sergei Fedorov’s team blanked the regular season champion to move ahead 2-1 in the series.
CSKA Moscow 4 SKA St. Petersburg 0 (0-0, 2-0, 2-0)
(CSKA leads the series 2-1)
Adam Reideborn achieved an almost impossible feat when he secured a shut-out against SKA. The Petersburg team failed to score just once in the regular season – a 0-1 loss at Lokomotiv on Jan. 27 – and had found the net in every playoff game to date. However, CSKA’s Swedish netminder came up with all the answers, making 26 saves to earn his team victory in game three of this series.
CSKA’s defense also played its part, blocking 18 attempts and absorbing the pressure the visitor, which had more possession through 60 minutes but often struggled to find a true cutting edge.
At the other end, the home special teams also delivered. Vladislav Kamenev and Maxim Sorkin potted power play tallies, Fredrik Claesson added a short-handed empty-netter and the opening goal from Konstantin Okulov came with the teams playing four-on-four hockey.
The first big chance of the game arrived in the sixth minute, with SKA’s Nikita Gusev’s diagonal feed setting up Dmitrij Jaskin in a dangerous position. On this occasion, though, the Czech’s finish was wayward and CSKA survived the scare. The home team’s best chance of the opening frame came on the power play when Maxim Sorkin won possession and sent Kamenev into open space in front of Dmitry Nikolayev’s net. However, the goalie reacted to close the corner of the goal, then Stepan Falkovsky ensured that Maxim Mamin could do nothing with the rebound.
Tempers frayed at the end of the first period, with Sergei Plotnikov and Mikhail Pashnin sent to the box after some pushing and shoving. Early in the second, Plotnikov was back in trouble, this time for simulation after clashing with Igor Ozhiganov. Both players went to the box and moments later CSKA opened the scoring. With the teams playing four-on-four, the extra space was very much to Okulov’s liking. He moved in from the boards, found room to work with in front of the net and picked out a wrister that fizzed into the top corner.
Plotnikov found himself in trouble again late in the frame, and SKA’s power play created the visitor’s best chance to date. An incisive passing play opened up the home defense, but with Mikhail Vorobyov all alone in front of Adam Reideborn, he was unable to beat the Swedish goalie. Then, in the final moments of the middle frame, the Muscovites showed how to execute a power play. Dmitrij Jaskin sat for boarding and CSKA immediately set up possession in the SKA zone. As efforts flew in from the blue line, Mikhail Grigorenko found the way through: his powerful effort was tipped into the net by Kamenev to double the lead.
Another power play goal in the 55th minute effectively ended the contest. Again, CSKA established itself in enemy territory and Darren Dietz picked out the pass that set up Sorkin to make it 3-0. SKA tried to find a way back, if only for a consolation goal, but after Nikolayev made way for a sixth skater and Kamenev took a delay of game penalty, Claesson completed the scoring with an empty net effort from deep in his own zone.
