In their efforts to stay alive and perhaps give their talisman Alexander Nikishin (Carolina, 69th overall, 2020 NHL Entry Draft) a chance to return and save their postseason run, SKA Saint Petersburg nearly compromised themselves and fell victims to their own mistakes, but also turned Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg’s game against them. This was most evident in the opening stanza, wherein they were out-shot 15-12 despite having the 17-8 advantage on the draw, yet made things work by utilizing an excellent counterattack. The game did start off with rapid exchanges in offensive pressure but SKA were able to take control by countering well, which turned into the first goal upon a rebound by Vasily Glotov in the aftermath of clearing the puck out of the netfront upon a dangerous scoring chance by Avtomobilist. SKA would show warning signs of having discipline issues in this matchup in the opening frame via their two minors, but Alex Galchenyuk would make the hosts pay on the one power play SKA was afforded in the first period via a phenomenal one-time strike set up by Alexander Kadeikin, which led to the home team changing goaltenders.

Ultimately, SKA exploited what Avtomobilist gave them in the first stanza to head into the second period with a 2-0 lead. This point of weakness would be acknowledged during the second intermission by the man who would lead the attempts to change the tide, Stéphane Da Costa. The French national/ex-Ottawa Senator scored a goal on a cross-crease pass by Alexei Makeyev that served as the payoff to strong play in front of the net to bring the score to 2-1. This would lead to a sequence wherein Avtomobilist would tilt the ice and take advantage of discipline issues by SKA, applying a considerable amount of pressure and causing trouble on the power play, yet not finding the back of the net. In fact, it would be SKA that would use the power play to their advantage, as they were not able to score with the man advantage as Da Costa went to the box for interference but did find the back of the net moments after in what effectively was a result of their PP work. Nikita Kamalov was left unprotected just to the right of the slot and increased the advantage back to 2. This marked the most goals that SKA had scored in a single game all series. It was clear that Avtomobilist were the better club in the middle frame, but what mattered was whether or not this would change the greater course of the game in the remaining 20 minutes by becoming a trend.

Ultimately, despite their continuous discipline issues and ending the game heavily out-shot (49-26), SKA held firm. Makeyev would bring Avtomobilist within 1, but the favored, unlikely trailing squad led by head coach Roman Rotenberg withstood their remaining efforts and Marat Khairullin would tally two empty net goals to bring the final score to 5-2, as SKA would avoid being swept. This did look like a different team than the one that had scored 1 goal each in Games 2 and 3 in terms of both generation (despite not overwhelming in the scoring chances department) and finishing, and they were able to capitalize on and exploit the wiggle room they were given. However, I am sure they will want to stay out of the sin bin more often as the series shifts back home to the brand new SKA Arena in Saint Petersburg for Game 5, and allow less sustained pressure. We shall see if Nikishin returns for the next elimination matchup on Monday; but evidently, there is at least a chance, if a small one, they can launch a real comeback effort without him. A full reverse sweep without Nikishin in the lineup for even one of those games seems unlikely, but this performance provided some room for optimism.