Ice Hockey – KSL St. Petersburg win 5-3 against NHL Carolina Hurricanes
The match between the SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL and the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL was a very unpredictable one. At times, it was fast, tight and sometimes the game slowed down. All in all, this was a very energetic encounter as both teams met for
the 1st time in over two decades.
The battle was even heated by the fact that the teams were from different leagues that had a lot of rivalry. However, the National Hockey League was overpowered by the Kontinental Hockey League.
Maxim Sushinskiy, captain of the home team, was able to bag two goals during the course of the match. Both of the goals were scored in the opening 7th minute of the 3rd period and were shots that left the Carolina Hurricanes goalie
Justin Peters no chance of stopping. The venomous shots just poured through the Carolina Hurricanes defence and they weren’t able to recover. Resultantly, they lost the match 5-3.
If we talk about past records, then from 28th December 1975 in the Super Series, the first time KHL and NHL were up against each other at Madison Square Garden, the KHL has a decent record. Now they maintain a record of 59-41-10 against the NHL
teams.
"The important game for us is on Thursday and we're trying to build toward that," Hurricanes forward Erik Cole said.
"I feel pretty good with where we're at and tonight was one of those games where you saw a lot of guys sticking up for one another, team unity. That's good to see because we are going to need that."
When Caroline Hurricanes captain, Eric Staal went out in the third period, Maxim Sushinskiy was able to bag a goal in the 2nd minute of the third period that put them ahead. The goal was scored through a power play that put the Russian team ahead.
Within the next five minutes, Maxim Sushinskiy managed to further strengthen the lead after scoring the 2nd goal. The goal came as a result of pin-point passing that was ended in style by the captain.
Hurricanes managed to dominate the 2nd period of the match but weren’t able to capitalize on it. They were hopeful of a strong third period but this wasn’t to be as the Russian side turned the tables and dominated.
"You always think that. I think that, especially when you score a couple quick ones," Ruutu said. "But we had a lot of penalties and we didn't get ourselves going after those. They had a great power play. I have to give credit to them."
Much to the Hurricanes disappointment, Eric Staal, one of the key elements behind the Caroline Hurricanes success got injured while playing in the second period. However, the captain was not seen on the bench for the third period but still the Carolina Hurricanes
denied that he was injured.
"It seemed like they were getting closer and closer to his knees and there wasn't a big concern on the ice about it,"
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "He's a National Hockey League star player and he should be playing in the National Hockey League."
The 2nd period of the match was very exciting as both teams were seen sharing 4 goals during the period out of which 3 were scored by the Carolina Hurricanes. At the start of the 2nd period, the Carolina Hurricanes were behind by 2 goals
but they managed to level the score in the 4th minute of the period. At the end of the period, both teams were deadlocked with the score on 3-3.
During the course of the third period, the home team outclassed the Carolina Hurricanes despite being the slower of the two teams. The Carolina Hurricanes had their chances in the first 5 minutes of the third period but weren’t able to net the puck even
once and the score remained on a deadlock at 3-3.
However, the home team, backed by the KHL fans was able to score twice in the third period and won the match 5-3 registering the 59th win in the KHL versus NHL battle.
At the end of the match the Head Coach of Carolina Hurricanes said, “We got a good lather, a good sweat. I liked our second a lot," Maurice said of his team's overall play. "We brought some good jump. Then we kind of lost our focus in the game,
but that happens when it gets like that."
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