SKA sinks deeper and deeper. A controversial decision by the judges and a terrible mistake caused a new fiasco
September 15, 2023, 22:10 Moscow time
Dinamo Moscow inflicted the military team’s fourth consecutive defeat. And he himself caught up with the leader of the KHL West.
SKA faced the second game of the season against Dinamo Moscow in a not very happy mood. The Saint Petersburg team suffered three consecutive defeats (all in regulation time) and was left out of the playoff zone in the West. It is not a particularly important development in mid-September, but it is still unpleasant for an ambitious military club. The blue and white team went crazy, in the last match they confidently beat CSKA and their majority is one of the most vivid impressions of the start of the entire KHL season.
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The first part of the meeting in Saint Petersburg was great. There were a lot of nerves and some nice hockey, as well as three goals. First of all, the home crowd was satisfied with Arseniy Gritsyuk, who scored the majority with a single shot and opened the scoring with his goals for SKA.
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be seen on the league’s official website.
The 14th minute of the segment was, perhaps, the key of the entire match. The main hero was Eric O’Dell, who one after another knocked Marat Khairullin and Mikhail Vorobyov to the ice, after which the SKA players rushed to punish the bearded Canadian and started a massive mess. As a result, the army team was in the minority, although the referees have a question: how was it that O’Dell was forgiven for both the block on Khairullin and the rudeness against Vorobyov, rewarding him with only two minutes for the match? Clash with Sergeev after the whistle?
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be seen on the league’s official website.
Be that as it may, Dynamo won the majority and used their formidable weapons. At the same time, Maxim Dzhioshvili’s goal was not the result of an overwhelming combination, but came after a rebound from a skate. The referees watched the moment on video for a long time, but did not notice any intentional movement of the visiting forward’s foot.
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This goal put out SKA’s initial fuse, gave Dynamo strength and at the end of the half the blue and white team took the lead. Once again the visitors were helped by a rebound and Vladislav Mikhailov scored the goal.
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be seen on the league’s official website.
Having gained the advantage, Dynamo played very competently, but nervousness was visible in the actions of the SKA hockey players. All this only led to new eliminations for the army team, but in the second half the formidable majority of the blue and white began to fail (largely because the SKA players began to protect Nikita Gusev as closely as possible), and the Muscovites failed to convert three power plays during the period.
Such successes in defense, in a good way, should have calmed SKA and encouraged the hosts to come back, but the army team was mainly diverted towards individual actions, which for the most part were easily defeated by Dynamo’s systemic defense. At the beginning of the third period, the SKA player again found himself in the penalty area (Tolchinsky), and the army team seemed to counterattack competently, but then Stepan Falkovsky, who had returned to the lineup after an injury, made a mistake. terrible. However, Dzhioshvili also played brilliantly, intercepting the puck in the air and playfully confronting goaltender Sergei Ivanov.
Video rights belong to KHL LLC. The video can be seen on the league’s official website.
There was still a lot to play for, but it was clear from SKA that the army club simply could not break Dynamo’s resistance today. Terrible discipline, many mistakes, a minimum of significant collective actions – all this systematically led the St. Petersburg team to the fourth consecutive defeat.
SKA spent almost the entire end of regulation time with an empty goal, did not concede, but could not surprise Konstantin Volkov at least once again. 3:1 – “Dynamo” scalps the army for the second time in a row, while SKA continues to drown in defeats, but St. Petersburg’s next match will be against an even more problematic “Sibir”.
