SKA stretches winning streak, Admiral loses sixth straight at home. February 16 round-up

After three weeks on the road, SKA returned to St. Petersburg and enjoyed a 4-0 win at home to Salavat Yulaev. Monday’s other game was Amur win 3-0 at Admiral, with the Sailors losing on home ice for the sixth time in a row.

Tigers on top in Far East derby

Admiral Vladivostok 0 Amur Khabarovsk 3 (0-0, 0-2, 0-1)

Amur won the sixth and final Far East derby of the season, snapping a three-game skid and gaining ground on eighth-placed Sibir in the race for the playoffs. The gap is now down to eight points and the Tigers have a further game in hand on their rival.

Admiral, meanwhile, fell to a sixth successive defeat. While the Eastern Conference basement team’s 17-point gap to the playoffs is not technically insurmountable, it would take an astonishing turnaround over the 13 remaining games for the Sailors to continue their campaign into April.

Both teams made several changes ahead of Monday’s game. Admiral recalled Mario Grman and Dmitry Deryabin to the defense and Adam Huska got the start in goal. The visitor brought back goalie Maxim Dorozhko after he was rested recently, while forwards Alex Broadhurst and Kirill Slepets returned after missing out last time. Evgeny Grachyov suited up for the 700th time in the KHL.

Amur had much the better of the first period, forcing 16 saves out of Huska. Alex Galchenyuk came closest to breaking the deadlock with a shot off the post.

After the intermission, Amur got the lead it deserved. Admiral took a penalty and Galchenyuk quickly converted the power play. Yaroslav Likhachyov’s assist prolonged his productive streak to seven games. And, 32 seconds later, it was 2-0 as Slepets marked his return with a goal on the counter.

Admiral got a chance to change things when it had three power plays in a row. The home team made it hot for Amur, but Dorozhko responded well to the sudden explosion in his workload.

The final frame began with a third Amur goal. Broadhurst’s emphatic one-timer brought his 100th KHL point and opened a 3-0 lead that Admiral never looked like threatening.

Two-point Goldobin helps SKA maintain hot streak

SKA St. Petersburg 4 Salavat Yulaev Ufa 0 (2-0, 0-0, 2-0)

A battle between two in-form teams ended with SKA celebrating a fourth straight win, while Salavat lamented the loss of a six-game hot streak. The visitor has shown some impressive scoring form of late, but could not solve Sergei Ivanov in the home net today.

SKA’s win moves Igor Larionov’s team to 64 points, 16 clear of ninth-placed Shanghai Dragons. Salavat Yulaev remains fifth in the East, a point better off than Neftekhimik.

Pre-game, Evgeny Kuznetsov’s return to SKA was a big talking point. And Kuznetsov had scoring chances. But it was Maxim Kuznetsov, on the fourth line, who saw three good opportunities come and go. His more famous namesake, on the second line, got no closer to goal.

Instead, SKA grabbed an early lead as it returned home after three weeks on the road. After two minutes, Scott Wilson won possession on the boards, then fed filtered play back to the point he hastened to the doorstep to distract Semyon Vyazovoi as Andrei Pedan’s goalbound shot came in.

Wilson was a lively presence in the first and late in the first period he again secured possession on the right and set up Nikolai Goldobin, who moved the puck on for Yegor Zelenov. The 23-year-old defenseman fired home his first ever KHL goal to make it 2-0 at the intermission.

Although the teams were set up to attack, there was no further scoring in the second period. Up by two, SKA did not try to close down the game, although the home team’s play was more precise than usual and less inclined to take risks. Salavat Yulaev also looked to find a way back into the game, but could not force a breakthrough at the other end.

The game was placed beyond doubt in the closing minutes of the third period. Salavat Yulaev ran into penalty trouble – the visitor had 28 minutes of penalties before SKA’s first foul in the 57th minute. That brought a power play goal for Goldobin after an attractive link-up with Sergei Plotnikov. Then, a five-on-three advantage quickly brought a goal for Marat Khairullin, who moves to 7 (4+3) points in three games. Salavat had a five-on-three chance of its own late on, but could not muster even a consolation marker.