SKA Saint Petersburg:

Game 11: Thursday, October 3rd – SKA 3-0 Dinamo Minsk

Game 12: Saturday, October 5th – Severstal Cherepovets 4-3 SKA

After the embarrassment to Kunlun Red Star on Sunday, the 29th, SKA’s three game road trip commenced with a visit to Belarus. Head coach Roman Rotenberg seemed to keep Ivan Demidov in his doghouse, placing the Habs prospect on line four and playing him for only four minutes. His services were not needed against Dinamo, as both Arseni Gritsyuk and Vasili Glotov had multi-point games in the shutout win. However, with Demidov as an extra forward against Severstal Cherepovets, the team floundered. Early in the matchup, recent marquee acqusition D Tony DeAngelo scored his first goal in the KHL on a blast from the point. However, Severstal responded in kind with two scores in quick succession and SKA had to play catchup the rest of the match. They got close, but ultimately were saddled with a regulation loss. The final game before heading home commences today against Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (quite soon, actually, but that’s what I get for pushing my deadlines back). Given the ups and downs and their need of alleviation for the situation yielded by the Kuznetsov injury, this squad really needs to get it together soon.

HC Sochi:

Game 10: Tuesday, October 1st – HC Sochi 1-0 Severstal Cherepovets

Game 11: Thursday, October 3rd – HC Sochi 5-0 Admiral Vladivostok

Game 12: Sunday, October 6th – HC Sochi 3-2 Dinamo Minsk

Goaltending was the story of this week, with two consecutive shutouts posted, one each by Yegor Zavragin and Sergei Ivanov. Zavragin had the harder assignment, as they were out-played and out-shot (albeit not by a ton) in the matchup against Severstal (ultimately making 36 saves) whereas Sochi consistently decimated Admiral in their own zone with phenomenal cycle plays and control of possession and chased G Vasili Demchenko from the game when he allowed 4 goals on 30 shots (with replacement Andrei Mishurov stopping 9 of 10 in relief). Ivanov made a respectable 27 saves in the effort. The real story, however, was the game against Minsk. The team was fortunate enough to make enough efficient plays to rack up the necessary goals on very few shots and generally minimal OZ possession time. Ultimately, Sochi were out-shot 43-13, including a 25 shots against second frame which saw Zavragin stop 24 of them en route to a 41 save win. Rightfully, his two outings earned him KHL rookie of the week honors. It is also being speculated upon currently that Zavragin may be returning to SKA due to their goaltending situation, but we are being cautioned not to put too much weight into it.

Next games:

SKA Saint Petersburg:

@ Lokomotiv Yaroslavl – Today, 12:30 PM ET

HC Sochi:

vs. Vityaz Moscow Region – Tomorrow, 12:30 PM ET