SKA comes from behind at Dynamo, CSKA thumps Torpedo. February 1 round-up

The big game on Saturday saw SKA edge a 4-3 OT win at Dynamo, having trailed 0-2 early on. The biggest winner of the day was CSKA, which powered to a 6-1 win at home to Torpedo. In another clash of the Titans, Metallurg won 3-2 at Lokomotiv, but only after surviving a third-period fightback from the home team. Saturday’s action also saw a high-scoring JHL Challenge Cup game in Novosibirsk at the start of the 2025 Fonbet KHL All-Star Week.

Magnitka withstands Loko rally

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 2 Metallurg Magnitogorsk 3 (0-2, 0-1, 2-0)

Last season’s champion picked up a win at this season’s most impressive performer – but had to withstand a third-period scare before claiming the points.

Lokomotiv has responded to defeat in last season’s final against Metallurg with a strong showing through the regular season. The Railwaymen lead the KHL standings by some margin, although progress has slowed a little in the new year following an injury to stellar goalie Daniil Isayev. Today, his place went to young Maxim Mayorov, whose father Vasily Koshechkin was a star player on Metallurg’s champion teams of the 2010s.

Mayorov had an unhappy start: he allowed a goal off the first shot he faced as Danila Yurov easily got around Martin Gernat and produced a shot that even Koshechkin in his prime would have struggled to stop. And there was worse to come midway through the opening frame as Valery Orekhov doubled the lead with a long-range effort.

For much of the opening frame the home offense was a rarely-seen feature. Apart from one late chance for Maxim Beryozkin, this was comfortable for Metallurg.

In the second period, Loko offered more. Gernat, outplayed for the opening goal, almost made amends with a shot that hit the post. However, the only goal of the session went to Magnitka, with Dmitry Moiseyev adding a third after 33 minutes.

For many teams, that would have been game over. Lokomotiv, though, is a tougher opponent than most. The Railwaymen rallied in the third and set up an anxious finale. Alexander Polunin began the fightback with a 48th-minute goal, then Denis Alexeyev made it 2-3 with five to play. Shortly after that, Ilya Nabokov pulled off perhaps the save of the week to deny Gernat a tying goal with an outstretched glove. That was as close as Loko came; Metallurg escaped with both points. 

Nikishin completes SKA fightback

Dynamo Moscow 3 SKA St. Petersburg 4 OT (2-1, 0-2, 1-0, 0-1)

Alexander Nikishin was SKA’s hero in Saturday’s big game in Moscow. The star defenseman scored in regulation as the visitor turned a two-goal deficit into a 3-2 lead. Then he struck again in overtime to secure a fourth successive victory for Roman Rotenberg’s team.

In a congested race behind Lokomotiv in the West, SKA remains in sixth. But now it is just one point behind Dynamo, which remains ahead of CSKA in second place despite today’s loss.

Initially, things looked to be going Dynamo’s way. First period goals from Maxim Dzhioshvili and Nikita Gusev gave the home team a 2-1 lead and seemingly pointed to another win for Alexei Kudashov’s team.

But SKA fired a warning late in that opening frame when Valentin Zykov halved the deficit, and the second period saw everything turn around. Nikishin’s first of the game tied it up at 2-2, then the defenseman turned provider late in the frame as Andrei Pedan put the visitor in front.

That looked like it would be the winning goal. Dynamo dominated the play in the third period but could not find a way past Artemy Pleshkov in the SKA net. Just as it seemed that the win would go to Petersburg after regulation, the home team managed one last surge. Vladislav Podyapolsky made way for a sixth skater and Gusev snatched a tying goal with 25 seconds left to play.

Maybe it was adrenaline, maybe it was the emotional exhaustion of completing a nerve-jangling fightback. But Dynamo could not ride that momentum into overtime. Instead, SKA had the better of the extras and Nikishin popped up with the decisive goal after three minutes of overtime.

Another big win for CSKA

CSKA Moscow 6 Torpedo Nizhny Novogorod 1 (1-0, 4-1, 1-0)

It’s back-to-back 6-1 wins for CSKA as Ilya Vorobyov’s team moves into ominous form. With the regular season entering the final stretch, the Muscovites are showing the kind of form that would worry any potential playoff opponent.

After a dominant victory over Severstal last time, CSKA repeated that trick against a Torpedo team that needs a few more wins to ensure a comfortable progression into post season. The home team had the better of the first period, although Torpedo’s forwards did enough to keep the defense honest. The only goal came in the 12th minute when Prokhor Poltapov produced a good finish following Nikita Nesterov’s stretch pass.

In the second period, the visitor posed more questions going forward – only to be hit by some blistering home offense. CSKA had four goals from 10 shots, moving the game decisively away from Torpedo. Maxim Sorkin started the goal rush in the 22nd minute, following up Ruslan Iskhakov’s shot to double the lead. Then came a rush of problems for Torpedo: a goal for Vladislav Kamenev, a penalty on Nikita Artamonov, a power play goal from Nesterov and another from Maxim Mamin had the home team up 5-0 after 28 minutes.

All Torpedo could do was replace starting goalie Ivan Bocharov with Ivan Kulbakov and hope to weather the storm. The change of personnel had some impact: CSKA stopped scoring and late in the middle frame Artamonov grabbed a consolation goal on the power play. But there was never any sign of a fightback; at the start of the third Ivan Drozdov made it 6-1, and that was how it finished.

JHL Challenge Cup

Eastern Conference 4 Western Conference 7 (2-3, 2-2, 0-2)

This was the highest scoring Challenge Cup game in history, but a record-breaking day in Novosibirsk did not change the pattern of the East vs West series. The Western Conference maintains its grip on the overall lead, thanks largely to a hat-trick from Matvei Korotkin.

The SKA-1946 forward was a dominant performer in Saturday’s game and earned his place as one of the four players selected to return next weekend for the 2025 Fonbet KHL All-Star Game. He’ll be joined by Yaromir Yermakov (AKM Tula), Maxim Filomonov (Atlant) and hometown favorite Yegor Klimovich of Sibirsky Snaipery.