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Sibir snaps losing streak, SKA loses fifth straight. September 17 round-up
Neither SKA nor Sibir came into this game in good form. The home team had lost four in a row after winning its first two games of the season. The visitor, meanwhile, won its home opener on Sep. 7 but was defeated in its next three outings. Both teams, therefore, needed boost in Sunday’s solitary game.
SKA St. Petersburg 1 Sibir Novosibirsk 2 (0-2, 1-0, 0-0)
The first boost went to SKA, with Roman Rotenberg’s team getting the first power play after Ilya Morozov shot the puck off the ice. However, the host was unable to take advantage. Instead, the best chance was a short-handed rush from Nikita Shashkov, who was twice denied by Sergei Ivanov. Just as Morozov was returning to the game, Sibir took the lead. Nikolai Prokhorkin won possession in his own zone and sent the puck down the boards. Zakhar Bardakov looked to have things under control but he collided with the linesman and Taylor Beck pounced to race down the ice and open the scoring.
Subsequently, SKA had a five-on-three chance but again the home PP failed to deliver. Arseny Gritsyuk had the best chance, finding space to unleash a powerful shot, but Anton Krasotkin came up with the answers to preserve Sibir’s lead.
It fell to Sibir to demonstrate the art of the successful power play. At the end of the opening stanza, David Nemirovsky’s team got a five-on-three of its own, and Beck slotted home his second from the right-hand circle. SKA’s discontent was only increased by the fact that Brendan Leipsic’s angry argument with the officials put him in the box for no particular in-game benefit.
The steady flow of penalties continued into the second period, although SKA continued to enjoy more puck possession. Eventually, this generated some reward. In the 36th minute, Sergei Tolchinsky emerged from behind the net to get the puck to Valentin Zykov. The forward had to battle through a crowd of players in front of Krasotkin, but managed to force the puck into the net to halve the deficit.
Now the game was set for an exciting third period. SKA set off in search of a tying goal, while Sibir prepared itself for an onslaught. The visitor largely gave up on any attacking intent, mustering just two shots at Ivanov and spending barely a minute on the attack. SKA, meanwhile, was far busier: 10 minutes with the puck in the Sibir zone, and 15 shots on target. However, the visiting defense blocked a further 15 efforts, highlighting how well it kept the opposition to the outside and denied SKA’s forwards a good look at Krasotkin for long periods. In addition, after plenty of penalties in the first 40 minutes, neither team infringed in the final third.
With two-and-a-half minutes to go, Ivanov was sacrificed for an extra skater. However, not even an extra man could help the home team. Sibir calmly closed out the final moments to snap its losing streak – adding to the frustrations of the home team after a sluggish start to the season.
