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In the opening game of the Kontinental Hockey Leagues season - the former regular season winner SKA St.Petersburgh has beaten last years Gagarin cup winners - AkBars Kazan, 6:1 is the final score.
SKA came into the game with many changes in their roster, most notable of them - a new first line winger.
Yakupov - Datsyuk - Gusev is the 1st line for SKA. pic.twitter.com/Dn6z9IEhFp
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018
Meanwhile, AkBars Kazan returned to the ice with the almost identical roster as they had last year when they became the champions of KHL.
The guest team, SKA wasn't gonna stay around and wait much as they opened up the scoring in the game and season just four minutes into the period. Pavel Datsyuk with the set-up and Patrik Hersley boomed the puck past AkBars Emil Garipov to make it 1-0.
Datsyuk to Hersley who blasts the puck past Garipov and it's 1-0 SKA. pic.twitter.com/eBXGC1FgMi
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018
Exciting hockey carried on into the second period where both teams exchanged scoring chances and at the mid-point of the game AkBars tied it up. Rob Klinkhammer made a cross-crease pass to a teammate who quickly attempted to get the puck past Magnus Hellberg. The SKA goalie managed to make the initial save, however, he wasn't there to catch the rebound that was cashed in by Albert Yarulin.
Rob Klinkhammer does it all to drag Hellberg to far corner, puck rebounds in front of an empty net and Albert Yarulin is there to tie the game. pic.twitter.com/B5DS7LEUkl
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018
SKA wasn't gonna shut it down and came back with a quick answer - Nikita Gusev scored on a man advantage giving his team another one-goal lead and by the end of the 2nd period SKA found themselves up by two goals, 3-1.
Nikita Gusev puts SKA back up on the scoreboard, 2-1 in the 2nd period. pic.twitter.com/2guYFUpHpd
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018
Tikhonov extends SKA's lead by two goals as they go up 3-1 late in the 2nd period. pic.twitter.com/D5jinANLq1
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018
In the 3rd period, SKA team didn't give AkBars any hopes of a comeback scoring another three goals. Ilya Kablukov, Nikolay Prokhorkin and making his debut - Nail Yakupov also chimed in to put SKA past AkBars with a score of 6:1.
Nail Yakupov put an end to the game scoring his first goal with SKA to clinch a 6-1 win for SKA. pic.twitter.com/hPmMbluG6Y
— Aivis Kalniņš (@A_Kalnins) September 1, 2018