With the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL doing it last year, SKA St. Petersburg have now written their name in the history books. A 3-2 win over CSKA Moscow completed a full four-game comeback to win the series. They became the first KHL team to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win the series, allowing them to face AK Bars Karzan in the Gagarin Cup final.
SKA Complete Historic Playoff Comeback
The series was not as even as one would expect. While it was certainly two of the top teams against one another, CSKA had a great edge. SKA entered the series being the only team to win the season series with CSKA, but with CSKA only losing 11 games in the regular season and not dropping consecutive games in regulation, (including a whole month of games where they only gave up 10 goals) SKA seemed all but doomed after going down 3-0. Even Vladmir Krikunov had said “I think SKA can win one match, but to save the series is no longer possible.”
The turning point came in games four and five, where CSKA gave up 10 goals over the losses. With SKA’s powerplay clicking, and Sergei Galimov appearing to fall off a cliff, the series began to shift. Tensions began to rise, and if SKA snagged game five in Moscow, then winning game six back at the Ice Palace looked plausible, and game seven would be just around the corner.
The series was not without its drama. Both sides had lamented at the refereeing of the games, leading to a constant spat that reached all the way to the KHL refereeing department who concluded, (From the press release ska.ru) “KHL’s refereeing department have found that 35% of calls made in CSKA’s favour were mistakes. On the other hand, only 13% of CSKA’s complaints were found to be refereeing mistakes.” and the arguments continued on even to game seven were the KHL had to confirm the refereeing wouldn’t change and the series would continue. The refereeing argument will undoubtedly come back again with CSKA having two disallowed goals, one for a distinct kicking motion and one for a high stick. Whether they would have changed the series is a question mark, but it will no doubt be argued for a long while after.
The drama continued off the ice between Kevin Lalade and Mikko Koskinen, who could be easily pinned as the MVPs of both teams for their stellar performances. Lalade commenting to Sports.ru that he’d “Play against Koskinen’s fatigue”. With only a .5 sv% difference between them, Koskiknen had faced the most shots out of all the goaltenders, 409 against, compared to just 209 for Lalade. Ultimately, it was Koskinen’s 35 save performance that earned him the victory, making him a star of the game for games six and seven, and universal praise across the boards. When the games started becoming tighter it was Koskinen who stood tall despite CSKA slowly beginning to run away with shots on goal.
While up front, the hero of the day falls to Patrick Thoresen, after sealing the overtime winner in game six and picked up the game winning goal in game seven. Special recognition should also go to Evgeni Dadonov, who scored the second and cemented himself at the top of the playoff charts. With SKA’s top, second, and even third line clicking, CSKA’s depth eventually ran out. Despite having the top two forwards for points, CSKA became outscored heavily and eventually overrun, their fate sealed by their second best, Stepathanie Da Costa taking a late penalty in the dying minutes to seal CSKA’s doom.
While the narrative and bickering between fans and teams will continue, SKA wrote their name in the history books and set multiple records in one season, setting both the most consecutive wins at the start of the season and the comeback at the end. SKA and Vyacheslav Bykov look forward to Zinetula Bilyaletdinov’s AK Bars. Two Olympic coaches go head to head next, the team built on pure offence and the leading scorer versus the team of pure defence and the playoff’s best goaltender.
