SKA St. Petersburg – Lokomotiv 5:3 (end)
final
SKA St. Petersburg
5:3 (2:2, 2:1, 1:0)
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Thursday 04.09.2014, 17:30 • Ice Palace of Saint Petersburg • KHL
     
    There is the final buzzer, and in a true thriller SKA Saint Petersburg have got their season off to a fantastic start with a thrilling 5-3 win over Lokomotiv Yaroslavl! The home side found themselves two to the good within four minutes as Jimmie Ericsson and Yury Alexandrov struck, but Kirill Kapustin and Geoff Platt of Lokomotiv pegged them back. Evgeniy Dadonov then put SKA ahead again before Martin Thornberg duly replied, but an Ilya Kovalchuk double, with the latter an empty netter, sealed the deal for SKA. Thanks for following the game with us, and see you again soon for more thrilling KHL action! (19:56:25)
     
    60:00
    Game over.
     
    59:55
    Goal for SKA! Lokomotiv just can't hold on to the puck inside SKA's zone and the hosts punish them in perfect style! Picking up the puck on the right ILYA KOVALCHUK wrists into the empty net from distance! It's SKA's day and it's 5-3!
     
    59:11
    With already under a minute remaining Curtis Sanford has now been pulled for the extra skater for Lokomotiv!
     
    57:32
    Shipachyov! Vadim Shipachyov beating all of his opponents down the right flank for sheer speed finds himself on the slot, but he's put under pressure when shaping to shoot!
     
    55:27
    An unexpected slapshot is put in on net by Sergey Plotnikov on the right faceoff circle, but with the goalkeeper panicking it whistles past the near post!
     
    54:29
    The visitors have survived that scare and they're back to full strength. They have to start putting the pressure on though!
     
    53:16
    Kovalchuk! Standing directly on the left faceoff circle Ilya Kovalchuk slaps the puck with all his might, but it flies into the boards past the near post! He really slapped that!
     
    52:29
    Lokomotiv could do without taking penalties now but they have one here, for holding Ilya Lyubyushkin has been sent to the penalty box with just under eight minutes remaining!
     
    51:17
    Being forced out to the right Patrick Thoresen flashes the puck across goal with the backhand, and Tony Martensson lurking only just fails to make a telling contact!
     
    50:31
    Alexander Salak has his first touch of the puck for a long time as standing up he fields a dump into his crease from deep
     
    49:45
    Ilya Kovalchuk slaps the puck in hard sprinting down the right flank, and the netminder looks as though he's going to give up a big rebound before he clings on!
     
    47:42
    Yury Alexandrov takes aim from the blue line, it skips through traffic and Curtis Sanford is lucky not to be caught out by the deflections!
     
    47:06
    Icing is committed by SKA as the intensity has dropped a bit in the period so far
     
    45:58
    Artemiy Panarin cuts to the left from the center, cuts right back in again but his cutting wrister looking for the far corner is gloved out of the air by the netminder
     
    44:46
    The visitors looked excellent on that penalty kill and they now have Emil Galimov back into the action
     
    44:22
    Patrick Thoresen takes on a one timer hanging just behind the right faceoff circle, but it lacks real power and Curtis Sanford fields it well through traffic
     
    42:46
    Lokomotiv haven't managed to get anything going in this period as yet and Emil Galimov for tripping has put them on an early penalty kill. They really can't afford to go two goals down again!
     
    40:51
    Panarin! Just after SKA let a gaping chance pass them by on the Lokomotiv crease Artemiy Panarin cuts in on the left, wrists into the near post but Curtis Sanford crouched down holds on!
     
    40:10
    Here we go in the third and crucial period! It's shaping up to be a nervy ending with the topsy turvy nature of the game so far!
    Commentary by

    Shaun Nicolaides

    Goals & lineups Match log
    Goals and assists: 1. Ericsson, 4. Alexandrov (Kovalchuk, Panarin), 27. Dadonov (Alexandrov, Shipachyov), 37. Kovalchuk (Tikhonov), 60. Kovalchuk – 9. Kapustin, 15. Platt (Sprukts), 28. Thornberg (Sprukts)

    SKA St. Petersburg: Salak (Ezhov)- Kalinin, Yudin, Kovalchuk, Ericsson, Tikhonov- Y Alexandrov, Ryasensky, Panarin, Shipachyov, Dadonov- Chudinov, Belov, Thoresen, Martensson, Cervenka- Ermakov, Semenov, Burdasov, Kablukov, Ketov
    Lokomotiv Yaroslavl: Sanford (Kolesnik)- Yakovlev, Martynov, Plotnikov, Apalkov, Averin- Kronwall, Holos, Kruchinin, Novotny, Thornberg- Vishnevskiy, Lyubyushkin, Platt, Sprukts, Kapustin- Gorokhov, Korshkov, Konkov, Kartaev, Galimov
    Referees: Anatoliy Zakharov, Alexander Sergeev, Gleb Lazarev, Roman Shikhanov
    Attendance: 12481