Young forwards shoot down SKA. October 13 round-up

Goals from two of Severstal’s attacking prospects made the difference as the Lynx blanked SKA and climbed to third in the West.

Skotnikov shut-out compounds Larionov’s worries

Severstal Cherepovets 2 SKA St. Petersburg 0 (1-0, 1-0, 0-0)

A 2-0 victory over SKA lifts Severstal to third place in the Western Conference. Andrei Kozyrev’s men celebrated a fifth straight success and an eight victory in nine games.

That’s quite the turnaround: a 0-2 loss at Admiral on Sep. 19 was the third consecutive game in which the Lynx failed to score, part of a rocky start of five losses in the opening six games.

It’s a different story for SKA, though. Igor Larionov’s team won seven of its first eight games, but tonight’s defeat was the fourth in a row. SKA is down in seventh place in the West, but is level on 17 points with Shanghai Dragons and Dinamo Minsk in a tight conference.

Today’s success owed much to Vsevolod Skotnikov’s first shut-out of the season, and the third of his KHL career. The 25-year-old is generally an understudy to Alexander Samoilov, but made the most of his chance tonight.

He was busiest in the third period, making 17 saves as SKA poured forward in a bid to save the game. Vasily Atanasov was among the liveliest of the visiting players in that session, but neither he nor his team-mates could solve the goalie.

That final stanza was a contrast with the first two, where Severstal dominated proceedings. The opening frame was one-way traffic, the home team topping the shot count 14-4 and getting ahead in the 13th minute on Vsevolod Nikitin’s goal. The 23-year-old calmly skated away with Yegor Graf’s stretch pass, advancing on Artemy Pleshkov’s net to score his second in the KHL and his first of the season.

Late in the first, SKA got a five-on-three power play that straddled the intermission. However, the visitor could not take advantage of that opportunity. Instead, Severstal increased its lead midway through the second. Another young forward, Gennady Chaly, got his first in the KHL when his shot looped up over Pleshkov to finish a swift counterattack. Chaly, 21, was a Kharlamov Cup winner with Loko last season; today was just his third KHL game after moving to Cherepovets.