Game 64: Tuesday, March 11th

SKA Saint Petersburg 3-1 Dinamo Minsk

Game 65: Friday, March 14th

SKA Saint Petersburg 2-0 HC Sochi

Game 66: Tuesday, March 18th

SKA Saint Petersburg 4-2 Traktor Chelyabinsk

Game 67: Thursday, March 20th

SKA Saint Petersburg 2-3 Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg (SO)

Game 68: Saturday, March 22nd

SKA Saint Petersburg 3-2 Traktor Chelyabinsk (SO)

In the final five game stretch of SKA’s 2024–25 regular season, there were some ebbs and flows in the fortunes of their outcomes and the consistency of their performances. Against Dinamo Minsk and HC Sochi, they were effectively dominant in dictating possession and gameplay pace. G/Flyers prospect Yegor Zavragin additionally stood tall, only allowing 1 goal on a combined 53 shots against. With this accounting for a 0.50 GAA and a .981 SV%, he was selected Week 27’s Goalie of the Week.

The next two games would be much more frustrating, as they would take the first lead of the game against Traktor Chelyabinsk and seemed to control the tempo of the game and have the territorial advantage, racking up a considerable number of shots before Traktor got their first. However, they would end up playing from behind for most of it and while they drew the score level at 2, they’d eventually collapse for the regulation loss. On the flipside, they looked like the better team against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg for most of it, but allowed the team that ended their season last year to tie it up very late, and would fall in the shootout. However, the final game on the schedule had the 68 game slate end on a high note, as, while Zavragin had to be called upon a lot and made some impressive saves in the process, they were on the right side of the late game heroics this time, as D Ilya Karpukhin ripped a one-timer from inside the circle to tie the game while Zavragin was pulled for the extra attacker. Ultimately, SKA would be the winners of a shootout this time to finish the season with 82 points and a second place spot in the Bobrov Division.

There is some controversy about their upcoming playoff run. Habs prospect Ivan Demidov (the team’s leader in points) was healthy scratched in the final game of the regular season and it would appear he is not going to play in the postseason, either. While, against considerable odds, the team did get Evgeny Kuznetsov back from concussion before regular season’s end, the group as a whole seems to be lacking in sufficient skill to compete with the top teams. The self-sabotaging done by Roman Rotenberg will only serve to make things worse. I cannot imagine they will beat literally anyone they could face in the first round, but we will see.