In their matchup on the road against a poor Kunlun Red Star team with only 3 regulation victories to their name, SKA Saint Petersburg drew first blood via a power play goal by Arseni Gritsyuk (with assists going to Alex Galchenyuk and Mikhail Vorobyov) just 4:01 into the first period. However, the rest of the first period was a nightmare for SKA, with an even strength goal off a turnover by Kunlun LW Parker Foo following this 1:17 later to draw the score level, then two power play goals by RW Teemu Pulkkinen and D Ryan Sproul (with primary assists on both by D/former highly touted San Jose Sharks draft pick Ryan Merkley and secondary assists going to forwards Clifford Pu and Tyler Wong, respectively). This all took place on SKA’s first five shots against, resulting in G Artemy Pleshkov being pulled in favor of 19-year-old rookie Pavel Moisevich in his first ever KHL appearance. They were able to escape the first period with no further damage and this was when the game would change. Moisevich would face only 12 shots in net and stop them all as the watertight SKA defense did most of the work. Meanwhile, they would score 5 unanswered goals, with 4 of them on the power play as Kunlun’s lack of discipline was their undoing. In fact, Kunlun went to the box NINE TIMES in just the third period alone, including 3 infractions by Merkley in the final stanza. A 5-for-12 performance overall by SKA’s power play unit was quite the day. The team was the biggest beneficiary, but on an individual level, it was definitely elite blueliner/Carolina Hurricanes prospect Alexander Nikishin who benefited the most. He contributed to each of their last 4 goals, scoring the last one and getting primary assists on the other three, all of them on the power play. A dominant performance by the superior group as they took advantage of a team that could not stay out of the sin bin.

With this victory, SKA is now 5th in the Western Conference, 3rd in the Bobrov Division, and 11th in the KHL standings/Continental Cup race. After spending much of the year behind HC Sochi in the standings, they are now ahead of them by 1 point. The two teams will face one another at Sochi’s home arena in Olympic Park for the second time since SKA loaned RW/2023 NHL Entry Draft 7th overall pick Matvei Michkov to HC Sochi for the second year in a row and the first time since the trade between the two teams centering on Borna Rendulic and Marat Khusnutdinov. Sochi got the better of SKA last time around, 5-4, as Michkov tallied 3 points in a game touted as a revenge matchup. Now that the fortunes of the teams seem to have swapped, with Sochi no longer seemingly exceeding their perceived potential, SKA finally clicking/improving by having added both Rendulic (who was Sochi’s leading scorer at the time of the exchange) and the defending Best Goalie in Nikita Serebryakov from Admiral Vladivostok, what will happen this time? Is this another game where Matvei will rise to the occasion against a team that some observers believe spited him or will the favored team strike back? This matchup should be exciting yet again!