SKA St. Petersburg Inflicts 3rd Defeat on Atlant to Take Firm Grip of Quarter-Final

By Christopher Hamilton

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: February 28, 2013 (Issue # 1748)

Top-seeded club SKA St. Petersburg took a 3-1 lead in the Kontinental Hockey League Western Conference quarter-finals with a one-sided 6-1 win over Atlant Moscow Oblast at the Mytishchi Arena in Mytishchi on Monday night, and is well-placed to make further progress in its quest to lift the Gagarin Cup.

SKA dominated Game 4 in the best-of-seven series, with goals from recent transfers Mikhail Varnakov, Alexander Osipov and Artemy Panarin as well as regulars Fyodor Fyodorov, Maxim Chudinov and Tony Martensson.

Ivan Vishnevsky scored Atlant’s consolation goal with 1:01 remaining in regulation time, robbing SKA goalie Ivan Kasutin of a shut-out.

SKA finds itself leading 3-1 against Atlant in the Gagarin Cup playoffs for the third year in a row. Two years ago the Moscow Oblast team managed to fight back and win the last three games of the conference semi-final series, while last year SKA advanced after a dominating Atlant at home in the fifth game of the series.

This year Atlant managed to win Game 3 at home 3-1 after losing the first two games in the series. The Moscow region team kept it close in Game 1 in St. Petersburg last Wednesday, but ultimately fell in overtime 1-0 when SKA's Patrick Thoresen scored his 100th KHL goal. SKA crushed the 8th-seeded team 7-0 in Game 2 at home.

Game 5 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Ice Palace. Assuming SKA finishes the job, it will face the winner of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl vs. Severstal Cherepovets series. Severstal currently leads that series 3-1.

In other Western Conference matchups, Moscow teams CSKA and Dinamo swept their series 4-0 against Czech team Lev Praha and Slovak team Slovan Bratislava respectively.

In the Eastern Conference quarter finals, top-seeded Ak Bars Kazan leads their series against Neftikhimik Nizhnekamsk 3-0. Seventh seed Sibir Novosibirsk and sixth seed Salavat Yulaev Ufa are looking to continue upsetting powerhouses Avangard Omsk and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, they both lead their series 2-1, as does Kazakh team Barys Astana over Traktor Chelyabinsk.