SKA can’t be stopped! 11th consecutive victory thanks to a penalty shootout without a shot
Rodion Vlasov December 3, 2023, 18:40 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
The match between Metallurg and the Saint Petersburg team was full of moments and went to extra time.
In Magnitogorsk the two best teams in the league faced each other. The form of “Metallurg” was hardly affected by the ruling in Astana, where the special teams of “Barys” suddenly began to work; Well, SKA compensated for the lack of luck in some matches at the beginning of the season with the fact that absolutely all positive factors came together in a streak of ten consecutive victories.
SKA and Metallurg do not like to set traps in the middle zone, they prefer to apply active pressure, and from the first minutes of the match the teams of Andrei Razin and Roman Rotenberg began to exchange attacks. SKA opened the scoring quite quickly, taking advantage of the majority: there were no special luxuries here, a shot and a shot, and two SKA players were able to finish from a meter away.
You can watch the video on the official KHL website. Video rights belong to KHL LLC.
“Metallurg” in the game with the puck was based on the same old principles: focus on control and positional attacks, shots for the sake of shooting were rarely made, Razin’s young forwards felt comfortable in this style. SKA played more vertically, more often loaded the puck into the net, more often tried to catch the opponent’s mistakes after pressing, and Artyom Zagidulin in the first period more than once compensated for his mistakes in the episode of the first goal with great stops. During the first period, the teams took 28 shots (13-15); in some unsuccessful KHL matches this figure is 40 minutes.
From the second half onwards, Metallurg looked much more preferable: Razin’s team simplified the game a little and Danila Yurov successfully corrected Makar Khabarov’s shot from the sky.
You can watch the video on the official KHL website. Video rights belong to KHL LLC.
“Magnitka” is already among the leaders of the season in opponent expulsions and began to successfully win them in the second twenty minutes. It is worth noting that the SKA helped a lot in this matter: from last season we know that Rotenberg’s players always try to play with their bodies, and many times this comes out not only on the verge of a foul, but also beyond it. It will be very difficult to justify at a press conference the expulsion of Artyom Sergeev, who received four minutes in one episode, or the foul of Maxim Fedotov two meters from the referee.
However, the minority team SKA played for those guys who were disappointed by emotions: Magnitogorsk scored most of the time and lost once. In the first seconds after Alexander Nikishin’s expulsion, SKA took advantage of the home team’s positional error and escaped two against one; However, Zakhar Bardakov decided the moment himself, without the help of a partner.
You can watch the video on the official KHL website. Video rights belong to KHL LLC.
However, Metallurg regained the same power play a minute later: Maxim Karpov did not immediately choose the moment to shoot, but Nikita Serebryakov seemed to have slept through the Predatory Carp goal, not reacting at all and slightly opening the near corner .
You can watch the video on the official KHL website. Video rights belong to KHL LLC.
However, later Serebryakov, like Zagidullin, made up for this: he stopped a new barrage of attacks by metallurgists, both in majority and in equal strength. SKA’s four minority players could also take advantage of his opportunity, but two deficit goals in one match are still too rare.
Metallurg had the initiative until about halfway through the third period, and then SKA attacked again: the guests seemed a little fresher and angrier. The St. Petersburg players again tried to hit Zagidulin with the lunging method, trying to play more actively with the penny, but Zagidulin played well and the defenders managed to help him. In the last seconds, Metallurg got a throw-in in the Serebryakov area, and Razin even 3.5 seconds before the end took out the goalkeeper, without risking putting the puck into the empty goal – the combination drawn in time dead didn’t help.
A rather cautious extra time at the end was marked by a clash between Zagidulin and Sergeev. After a long meeting, the judges made a Solomonic decision, sanctioning the SKA defender for blocking, and Metallurg’s Valery Orekhov, who later intervened in the episode, two minutes for rudeness. In the penalty shootout, Razin relied heavily on young players, but against Metallurg only Mikhailis scored. SKA won after Alex Galchenyuk scored without a shot and Valentin Zykov hit home.
You can watch the video on the official KHL website. Video rights belong to KHL LLC.
SKA won the eleventh match in a row and, perhaps, Nikita Serebryakov can be considered one of the most important players of this period. After his initial failures, he now plays exactly as SKA expected of him, after six months surrounding the goalkeeper. Well, Metallurg can still be happy: the quality of the game of Andrei Razin’s team today was the highest.
