We know how the stage was set for this game. On Monday, October 2nd, 2023, HC Sochi returned home from a brief three-game road trip which saw them defeat Spartak Moscow 3-2 and fall in devastating fashion to two-time defending Gagarin Cup/three-time consecutive finalists CSKA Moscow 7-1 (continuing the long-lasting trend of CSKA defeating Sochi, even while CSKA is having a weak start to the year and Sochi has emerged from the basement as a competitive team to this point this season), before bouncing back and defeating Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod (who, at the time, were first in the Continental Cup race) 5-2. Despite a bad setback, they were likely riding a high from that last win and were determined to impress and satisfy the home crowd in Olympic Park. However, there was one more narrative going into this home game that was much more personal.

As has been hyped up on this site many times, this was HC Sochi and second line RW Matvei Michkov’s first game against SKA Saint Petersburg since the latter club loaned him out to Sochi for the second time in as many seasons. His rookie KHL season in 2022-23 saw him put up the best KHL season by a Russian prospect in his NHL Entry Draft-eligible year, with him totaling 9 goals and 11 assists for 20 points in 27 appearances for Sochi (who, as mentioned previously, were bottom of the league standings, which only serves to make this productivity more impressive) after appearing fruitlessly in just three games for Saint Petersburg. This time period was marred by personal difficulties, however, with him unable to compete in international competitions due to Russia’s suspension from IIHF tournaments due to the invasion of Ukraine, an injury inflicted upon him by former Canadiens D Alexei Emelin in an exhibition game which had Michkov playing for Russia’s U-25 team against HC Dinamo Minsk, and his father’s passing in April of 2023. His draft stock plummeted as a result of uncertainty regarding Russian players and his contract with SKA. However, things did fall into place for Michkov in a sense, as he was consequently taken seventh overall by the Philadelphia Flyers, who were the team he most wanted to play for. That said, despite impressing in the preseason this year, he was undervalued by his club, who healthy scratched him in three of the first four games of the regular season before loaning him out to HC Sochi yet again, with the city being a place he reportedly did not want to return to due to reminding him of the loss of his father. He has come alive playing top-six minutes for Sochi, performing at a pace of a point-per-game going into this matchup. Some wondered if he could have something of a karmic revenge performance against SKA when it came time for the teams to cross paths for the first time in the 2023-24 KHL season, as his individual form and the team’s performance certainly opened the possibility up.

That is precisely what happened. While SKA winger/New Jersey Devils prospect (5th round, 129th overall, 2019) Arseni Gritsyuk scored 3 minutes and 26 seconds into the game, Matvei responded with a goal of his own on a terrific pass by LW Artur Tyanulin at the conclusion of a fantastic give-and-go between the two just thirty-seven seconds later. In the second period, Sochi would go up 3-1 on the back of goals by C Amir Garayev (with Michkov being credited with a secondary assist) and LW Nikita Feoktisov. SKA C/former Buffalo Sabres minor league system prospect Vasily Glotov would bring the score to within 1 a little under five minutes into the third period before Garayev would strike again, with Michkov this time gaining a primary assist while exhibiting fantastic playmaking skills. SKA D Nikita Kamalov (the goal was initially awarded to Gritsyuk, but this was retracted despite HC Sochi’s Instagram game report graphic not reflecting this) would bring the score to 4-3. Roman Rotenberg would then pull G Artemi Pleshkov for an extra attacker. An empty net goal was then scored by SKA C/captain Kirill Rasskazov with just under a minute to play in an intense period that featured a stretch of uninterrupted play that lasted approximately 7 minutes, and that effectively was all she wrote. While Alex Galchenyuk would make the score 5-4 with just six seconds remaining, the final effort by SKA was not enough for them to draw level. The puck was shot into the netting with what appeared to be four seconds left; however, the clock said 0:02 on the puck drop. The puck ended up effectively being eaten, and HC Sochi G Mikhail Berdin (who had quite a busy day in between the pipes, making 50 saves) raised his arms in celebration as his teammates surrounded him to the cheers of the home crowd. This was a very important victory for this team, particularly Michkov. To have a three-point game against the team that, to some onlookers, spurned him in his first matchup against them this season was an incredible result. That said, it seemed he was content to just soak in the moment of team accomplishment, as the Olympic torch for Sochi player of the game was granted by RW Borna Rendulic to Garayev, who shared the moment with his linemates Michkov and Tyanulin (all of whom had a huge hand in the victory), and it was all very content smiles in the dressing room.

The big picture of this game was quite incredible. As mentioned, Berdin had to face 54 shots on net, stopping 50 for a .926 save percentage, as Sochi were out-shot 54 to 24 (Artemi Pleshkov, who was last week’s goalie of the week in the KHL with a .978 SV%, a 0.50 GAA and a 2-0 record with 1 shutout, stopped just 19 of 23 shots on goal, with the remaining shot/goal of course being Rasskazov’s empty-netter). Sochi further had to block 19 shots to SKA’s 8. Sochi additionally lost the faceoff battle, 31 to 21, and were narrowly out-hit, 17 to 15. Despite everything working against them, particularly in possession, they emerged victorious in this “circle it on the calendar” home game. Truly a fantastic outcome for Dmitry Kokorev’s group.

For Michkov, his statline on the year for Sochi now sits at 4 goals and 6 assists for 10 points in 8 games played (after appearing in just one game for SKA before his loan stint began), with a +5. For context, were he having this level of productivity for SKA, he would be second behind Alex Galchenyuk (who now has 5 after a slow start to the season) in goals and third behind Vladimir Alistrov and Sergei Tolchinsky (who both have 7) in assists, as well as tied with Alistrov for the team-lead in points. His +5 would also be among the best on the team, but that is also hard to speculate upon, as there is a significant team-element to +/- as is, and the outlook for Saint Petersburg would likely be quite different were he on the team getting top-six minutes. Were it not for Roman Rotenberg’s/the club’s mentality regarding youngsters either playing primarily as either a 13th forward/7th defenseman or on loan stints elsewhere (and a possible apparent spite move sending him back to the team he, according to Kokorev, did not want to return to), SKA would assuredly be benefiting from having a generational talent who is already a proven offensive producer (who is also showing impressive growth in other parts of his game) in a professional league two months prior to his 19th birthday.

We can speculate upon whether or not Matvei’s treatment by SKA will lead him to demand a buyout and an early departure to the NHL/the Philadelphia Flyers all day. What’s important right now, though, is that he and his loan team are performing excellently, and now there is a great milestone game as part of that ongoing performance. At present, HC Sochi sits at 4th in the Western Conference with a record of 9 wins (8 in regulation, 1 in OT) and 4 defeats (all in regulation time), as well as 2nd in the Bobrov Division (just 1 point behind Torpedo) and 6th in the KHL/the Continental Cup ladder. Their next game is on Thursday, October 5th, at home against Severstal Cherepovets. SKA Saint Petersburg, meanwhile, are 8th in the Western Conference, 4th in the Bobrov Division, and 15th in the KHL. They are set to face Dinamo Minsk (who feature another touted Philadelphia Flyers prospect in the form of G Alexei Kolosov, selected 78th overall in 2021) on the road in Belarus on Wednesday, October 4th. Their record now stands at 6 wins and 6 losses, all results in regulation. The team’s consistency issues so far, even if it is not terribly far into the season, suggest that they will have difficulties winning a second consecutive Continental Cup. One has to wonder if this fruitless high-shot, low-success game against a team that SHOULD be inferior in most matchups on paper, but has outperformed them and now defeated them this season, will be a wake up call for Rotenberg and his team.