The SKA Report: Holiday Blues

This past week wasn't particularly kind to SKA, as they could only muster four out of a possible 12 points on the road trip against division foes.  The trip started out well enough on Monday, as they went to Prague to take on Lev Praha.  Artemy Panarin opened the scoring for SKA, as the goal put them up 1-0 after one period.  However, things turned rough in the second period, as Lev scored three goals from Justin Azevedo, Michal Birner (on a penalty shot), and Michal Repik.  SKA would get a goal in the period on a Vadim Shipachyov shot to briefly tie the game at two, but the Repik goal would see SKA trail by one after two periods.  A Viktor Tikhonov goal early in the third period would be all the scoring in the period, and overtime was needed.  That was not enough, and the game went into a shootout, where Ilya Kovalchuk scored the deciding goal to give Alexander Salak and SKA a 4-3 victory in a shootout to give SKA two points in the standings.

On Wednesday, SKA traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia to take on a Slovan team that hasn't had a great deal of luck this season.  Both teams exchanged goals in the first and second periods, with Panarin and Andrej Stastny scoring in the first period and Mario Bliznak and Igor Makarov scoring in the second.  This game also needed overtime and a shootout, with SKA coming out victorious 3-2 on a winner from Roman Cervenka.  Ilya Ezhov was solid in the win.

Friday, SKA went to Moscow to take on rival CSKA, and things were not quite as well as the first meeting earlier in the season, as SKA was kept off the score sheet.  Alexei Morozov scored in the first period and Alexander Radulov scored in the third, and that was all CSKA needed, as SKA could not solve Ilya Proskuryakov in a 2-0 defeat.  Salak was solid in goal for SKA and deserved better.

Sunday was a game in Riga against Dinamo Riga, and it was an offensive show.  Marcel Hossa scored the lone goal in the first period to give Dinamo Riga a 1-0 lead after one period.  Riga would put up three more goals in the second period before SKA's offense began to come to life.  Juris Upitis, Georgijs Pujacs, and Miks Indrasis would score for Dinamo Riga, but SKA countered with goals from Evgeny Ketov and Anton Burdasov to make it 4-2 after two periods.  SKA would get to within one on a Dmitry Kalinin goal, but that would be as close as they would get, as Mat Robinson would put the game out of reach.  A Kovalchuk goal would close the gap by one again, but an Indrasis goal on an empty net was all the scoring, as Dinamo Riga pulled out a 6-4 win.

SKA has one game this week before break, as they welcome Metallurg Magnitorsk on Wednesday.