SKA defeated CSKA in the first meeting of the hockey giants of the season
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SKA brightened up the difficult start of the KHL regular season with a victory over its most important opponent. The St. Petersburg team defeated the current winner of the Gagarin Cup away with a score of 3:2, having come back twice during the match and scoring the decisive goal at the beginning of the final period in the minority.
The first clash of the season between the two most ambitious KHL clubs was given a special flair by the appearance of the regular season standings. More than a month has already passed since its start – the distance is sufficient to record some trends. And CSKA approached this match only in sixth place in the hierarchy of the Western Conference, which would have been even more modest if not for a fresh series of three major victories, and SKA with its capabilities was even tenth, outside the cup eight. Much higher are not only the interesting and strong “Lokomotiv” with “Torpedo”, but also, for example, “Sochi”, where the St. Petersburgers send players to “pump up” their players and where, for example, recently, forward-wunderkind Matvey Michkov again went to gain experience.
In general, now this fight could be positioned as a confrontation not between two undisputed favorites, but between two problematic clubs, persistently looking for ways to improve everything so that there would be no doubt about their status.
And one of them was able to score a goal almost in the first attack. CSKA’s game turned out to be dense, dynamic and, it seems, turned the head of goalkeeper Nikita Serebryakov, who had just been acquired by the St. Petersburg club from Admiral, and was called upon to close one of the holes. He reacted to shots from different angles and from different distances, until the puck, again proving to be ownerless, went to Vladislav Kamenev. Here the unfortunate Serebryakov was powerless.
SKA, however, quickly bounced back. To realize the majority, he needed four seconds, which passed from the throw-in to Arseniy Gritsyuk’s shot.
And after such a crazy acceleration, calm hockey began, watching which, a person who knows how poorly things are now for SKA, should have been surprised: a sensible, convincing game without much falsehood.
With such a seemingly outsider niche, it is impossible to slide into. During the entire first period, CSKA seriously crushed the guests only once – before the break, when the goal post and Serebryakov saved the St. Petersburg team in the minority.
Amazingly, the plot of the next twenty minutes almost copied the plot of the previous twenty minutes. Once again, it didn’t take CSKA long to take the lead once they hit the ice. Pavel Karnaukhov threw lightly, but terribly competently – noticing that a “screen” of several players appeared in front of Serebryakov, making it difficult to see the puck.
Once again, SKA quickly bounced back. The hosts missed the exit of Sergei Tolchinsky, and the seasoned forward quite gracefully dealt with Ivan Fedotov, who continues to defend the CSKA goal, despite sanctions and loud statements from the International Hockey Federation (IIHF), which still believes that he belongs to the NHL club Philadelphia Flyers. .
And again, as if frightened by their performance, the teams added a pinch of caution to the game after exchanging goals. SKA looked more impressive, or maybe they controlled the puck more often. But CSKA from time to time cooled him down with their attacks – such as Maxim Mamin’s exits to the goal, stopped by Serebryakov, showing that burying himself is risky.
The trend was broken in the final period. SKA, which twice caught up with CSKA, finally tried itself in the role of a leader. Moreover, he distinguished himself in a situation where, in theory, he was obliged to take care primarily of his own safety. But sloppiness during the power play allowed Mikhail Vorobyov to rush to the opponent’s goal and deal with Fedotov. Unlike CSKA, the St. Petersburg team convincingly protected their advantage and, having won, practically overtook their opponents in the classification, which was still too shaky for decisive conclusions and forecasts.
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