The match ended with the victory of the guests with a score of 3:2. Ivan Chekhovich opened the scoring in the 8th minute of the first period. A minute later, at the start of the second period, Daniil Tesanov doubled the visitors’ advantage. In the 24th minute, Artyom Zemchenok scored SKA’s first goal. A few tens of seconds later, Georgy Ivanov scored 3:1 in favor of Lokomotiv. From the 10th minute of the third period, Borna Rendulic reduced the gap to a minimum.
The match started in the 8th minute. Ivan Chekhovich scored his first goal of the season after excellent tackling work from his teammates and gave Lokomotiv the lead. Soon Lokomotiv was able to score again, but the moment turned out to be controversial. After watching the replay, the goal was ruled out. Yaroslavl attacked desperately until the end of the period, but the score remained unchanged.
Before the start of the second period, the guests still managed to score the second goal. Elesin threw the puck forward, where Berezkin and Tesanov were already there. The two hockey players attacked the SKA goalkeeper. Berezkin passed the ball to Tesanov, who hit Serebryakov’s goal. Residents of Yaroslavl could not count for long. A few minutes later, after a tackle in the center of the ice, the pass was received by Galchenyuk, who threw the puck past railway goalie Daniil Isaev, where it was carefully directed towards the goal by Artyom Zemchenok.
But the St. Petersburg team could not take advantage of the moment, because after only 41 seconds Lokomotiv again led by two goals. Georgy Ivanov received a pass from Alekseev and, surrounded by four opposing players, was able to resist and push the puck into the goal.
In the second half, SKA became more active in attack. Roman Rotenberg’s team created dangerous moments from the back foot, but Isaev defended reliably for the remaining time of the second half.
In the third period, Lokomotiv played with great tenacity and, despite losing shots on target, created almost more dangerous chances. Midway through the third period, SKA managed to narrow the gap. St. Petersburg newcomer Borna Rendulic scored his first goal. The Croatian received the puck and headed towards Isaev and past the goaltender into the net. There were no more goals in the match. Lokomotiv created more chances, but Nikita Serebryakov played well.
“The game was developing. The guys played attack, if necessary, defense. It is clear that mistakes will still happen, but today we reacted to them correctly, so we won. There is no “A good ambitious team plays. There is no pattern, we just prepare well,” Lokomotiv head coach Igor Nikitin said of the victory.
“We seriously prepared for the match, we understood how organized the opponent would be, we took into account all the points. In the first half we made mistakes somewhere and the opponent played on our mistakes . In the second and in the third period we were able to withdraw the game, control the course of the game. We play four more matches with Lokomotiv, we need such meetings, the teams develop there, “commented Roman Rotenberg about his team’s defeat.
Lokomotiv continues to lead the Western Conference standings. The Yaroslavl team continues to be an uncomfortable opponent for Rotenberg’s men. But SKA can’t find balance in the game. And for a club with big ambitions, it’s a bad result.
Yahya Hasanov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
