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Rising SKA closes on the summit. December 27 round-up
After a slow start to the season, SKA looks to be back to its best. Today’s win over CSKA brought up a fourth victory against the defending champion and puts Roman Rotenberg’s team within four points of the Western Conference leader. Earlier in the day, Amur won 4-2 at home to Neftekhimik.
Tigers beat Wolves again
Amur Khabarovsk 4 Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk 2 (1-0, 1-1, 2-1)
Amur celebrated a second successive home victory over Neftekhimik. On Monday, the Tigers won 4-1 here and two days later they enjoyed a similar result. The visitor’s task was not helped with the loss of three players through injury. Bulat Shafigullin, Dmitry Zhukenov and Rafael Bikmullin were unavailable, which meant, among others, 21-year-old Grigory Seleznyov found himself on the first line in only his sixth KHL appearance.
The first-period action was fast-paced, with both teams creating chances. However, the only goal went to Amur when Evgeny Grachyov opened the scoring in the 16th minute. The play started with a long-range effort from Alexander Khokhlachyov which was charged down. Grachyov won possession and moved back to more or less the same spot before firing in an attempt of his own that came through traffic on its way to the net.
Early in the second period, Jan Drozg snapped his 11-game goalless run to double the home lead. Neftekhimik’s problems were not helped when the visitor failed to score on a five-on-three power play, but finally Dmitry Sokolov pulled a goal back with the teams at equal strength.
In the final frame, poor finishing denied Neftekhimik a tying goal and the Wolves paid the price in the latter half of the session.Kirill Urakov’s stretch pass released Kirill Kapustin on the counter and he drew the goalie’s attention before setting up Khokhlachyov to score on the blind side. A power play goal from Evgeny Mityakin put Neftekhimik’s back in touch with two minutes left, but replacing the goalie with a sixth skater backfired when Kapustin scored an empty-netter to wrap up the win.
SKA blanks CSKA, collects fourth victory over defending champ
CSKA Moscow 0 SKA St. Petersburg 2 (0-0, 0-1, 0-1)
SKA defeated defending champion CSKA for the fourth time this season. Traditionally, match-ups between these two give a strong indication of the destiny of the Western Conference title. This season, though, CSKA is some way off the pace after lifting back-to-back Gagarin Cups, while SKA has shrugged off a poor start to the season to battle at the top alongside Spartak, Dynamo and Lokomotiv.
CSKA’s recent problems were underlined by the decision to start with 20-year-old goalie Dmitry Gamzin. He had just seven KHL appearances before today, which speaks to the lack of consistency among the Muscovites’ goaltenders up to now.
In fairness to the youngster, despite his team’s defeat his performance gave Sergei Fedorov no cause to regret his decision. In a high-quality game, he stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced to keep his team in the game until the very end. His opposite number, Nikita Serebryakov, was even more impressive, posting 43 saves for a shut-out. That, in a nutshell, was the difference between the teams.
Maybe SKA also enjoyed a touch of good fortune. In a generally even battle, Andrei Svetlakov had a big chance for CSKA midway through the second period. The game was still goalless when he got clear on the counter and beat Serebryakov, only to see the puck come back off the post.
Had the home team broken the deadlock there, things might have finished very differently. Instead, though, SKA made the most of its reprieve. Ivan Zinchenko opened the scoring in the 39th minute, jumping out of the penalty box to convert Mikhail Vorobyov’s feed.
Psychologically, that was a big moment. The Muscovites never quite regained their earlier sparkle, while the visitor approached the third period methodically and worked to protect its lead to the end. An empty-net goal from Alexander Nikishin applied the coup-de-grace and SKA is just four points off the top of the standings, with CSKA down in sixth.
