Atlant Drowns Out SKA in Shock KHL Playoff Win

© RIA Novosti . Grigori Sisoev / Go to the mediabankBig-spending SKA St. Petersburg slumped to a surprise first home playoff defeat of the season with a 3-1 loss to Atlant Moscow Region, but retains a 3-2 lead in the KHL Western Conference semifinal series.
Big-spending SKA St. Petersburg slumped to a surprise first home playoff defeat of the season with a 3-1 loss to Atlant Moscow Region, but retains a 3-2 lead in the KHL Western Conference semifinal series. - Sputnik International
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Big-spending SKA St. Petersburg slumped to a surprise first home playoff defeat of the season with a 3-1 loss to Atlant Moscow Region, but retains a 3-2 lead in the KHL Western Conference semifinal series.

Big-spending SKA St. Petersburg slumped to a surprise first home playoff defeat of the season with a 3-1 loss to Atlant Moscow Region, but retains a 3-2 lead in the KHL Western Conference semifinal series.

The result awakens memories of Atlant’s win over SKA at the same stage last year, when SKA lost the series on a decider after a late Atlant surge.

In the day’s other game, there was also an away win for Dynamo Moscow, which took a 3-2 series lead by beating Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod 4-2.

Atlant, last year’s beaten Gagarin Cup finalist, made the most of their few chances at the St. Petersburg Ice Palace, with just 13 shots all game, compared to 42 for the hosts, who saw all but one of them saved by goaltender Konstantin Barulin.

SKA fell behind 13 minutes into the game when Evgeny Nurislamov charged down the right flank and dummied the SKA defense before shooting between Jakub Stepanek’s legs.

The home team equalized four minutes later on a power play when ex-Edmonton Oilers wing Patrick Toresen scored from close range.

Ilya Kabulin’s second-period strike restored Atlant’s lead as the Mytishchi-based team held on, eventually sealing the victory with ex-Philadelphia Flyers forward Branko Radivojevic’s empty-net strike.

Toresen said the result had left him shocked.

“I don’t understand what happened. We tried to score, but each time something just wasn’t right,” he said.

“We didn’t dominate as we should have done. Now we should forget about what happened today and play like we did in the earlier games.”

Atlant coach Janne Karlsson said: “I’m unbelievably proud of my players. It’s great to take the series back to Mytishchi.”

In Nizhny Novgorod, Torpedo took the leads with 45 seconds through Alexey Uvarov, but could not find a way past Dynamo goaltender Alexander Eremenko for the next 50 minutes of the match, despite dominating the shot count 39 to 27.

In that time, Jakub Klepis evened the scores for Dynamo before a 12-minute burst in the second period saw the visitors take a 4-1 lead with goals from Mikhail Anisin, Marek Kvapil and Ilya Gorokhov.

Torpedo could not find a way back into the match, and Evgeny Varlamov’s late strike was nothing more than a consolation goal.

The Western Conference semifinals continue Thursday, when Atlant host SKA and Torpedo travel to Moscow to play Dynamo.

Wednesday’s games in the Eastern Conference pit Avangard Omsk against Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Traktor Chelyabinsk against Ak Bars Kazan.

 

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