SKA Saint Petersburg:

Game 30: Thursday, November 21st

SKA 4-1 Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod

After many struggles with offensive potency, scoring 2 or fewer goals in seven consecutive games, SKA was able to “hang ten” over the course of their last two matchups by following up a 6-3 victory against Amur by closing out their two-game homestand with a four-goal performance against Igor Larionov’s squad. Torpedo G Ivan Kulbakov was chased, as he allowed three goals on just seventeen shots against. Things improved for Torpedo with backup netminder Ivan Bocharov standing in, as he stopped all twenty shots he faced and were able to solve Pavel Moisevich in the second period as their play tightened up in front of the replacement goalie, but ultimately, their efforts proved fruitless. Moisevich stopped 43 of 44 shots against in what might have been the Vegas Golden Knights prospect’s best performance to date in the KHL. In a testament to the improved attention to detail regarding offensive play by SKA, the empty net dagger was skated in on some nice rush play by RW Marat Khairullin as opposed to being a long distance Steph Curry attempt as you see quite often in modern hockey across the professional spectrum. This was a performance to be satisfied with.

Off-ice developments:

A quiet week of action was accompanied by a big headline, as G Nikita Serebryakov’s time in SKA has come to an end. After the rumor mill kicked around this report for a bit, it was confirmed that the 2022-23 Goalie of the Year was traded to Avangard Omsk in exchange for VHL netminder Stanislav Berezhnoy. On its face, it may seem like an underwhelming return considering that the cash compensation they gave Admiral Vladivostok for Serebryakov was quite significant. However, this is probably a commitment to the plethora of younger, in-house options which have played him out of a gig such as Moisevich, Flyers prospect Yegor Zavragin, and potentially currently loan-bound Blue Jackets prospect Sergei Ivanov depending on what his intentions are about the immediacy of his career in North America. I think that is fair, considering how much more consistently reliable the young goalies have been already. Committing to this direction might well pay dividends.

HC Sochi:

Game 27: Friday, November 22nd

Sochi 2-4 Sibir Novosibirsk

Game 28: Monday, November 25th

Sochi 3-2 Lada Togliatti

The structure play ultimately just fell apart in the first matchup of the “Leopards” latest slate of games. Against Sibir, Sergei Zubov’s squad built a 2-0 lead and had it late into the second before surrendering a power play goal inside the middle frame’s last minute to an effectively unmarked LW Andy Andreoff. The crumbling only continued in the third with the team allowing another two tallies before Andreoff sealed it inside the final minute with an empty net goal off a stretch pass by RW Taylor Beck (ex-Nashville Predator), with a secondary assist by D Trevor Murphy (former Arizona Coyote) to account for the blueliner’s third apple of the game. Truly, one they had to turn the page on.

Sochi did so successfully, as they played from behind for a lot of their matchup with Lada but looked pretty undeterred. They adhered to the mindset of “Throw pucks at the net and good things will happen” to erase both a 1-0 and 2-1 deficit, with LW Artur Tyanulin (whose fantastic year continues) being a great engine for their OZ activity. Subsequently, LW Daniil Seroukh scored the GWG goal on the man advantage on a blast from the point off the draw on a very well-executed play. Plenty to be content with in this matchup.

A perhaps underrated narrative in these last two games is the clear impact of recent acquisition C Alexander Khokhlachev, who some may remember from his time in the Boston Bruins organization and has had quite an accomplished career in Russia since returning from North America. “Koko” was off to a bit of a slow start with Amur Khabarovsk this season, but fits like a glove in Sochi and is producing results. He has one assist in each of his first two appearances with Sochi, along with seven shots on goal (including five in his first game against Sibir). I imagine this might be a sneaky good impact signing for Zubov’s team and it will be proven over the course of the remainder of the season.

Next games:

SKA: @ Admiral Vladivostok – Tomorrow (November 28th), 4:00 AM EST

Sochi: vs. Ak Bars Kazan – Today, 11:30 AM EST