In the last game of the MHL Youth Regular Championship of Russia SKA-1946 lost 0:2 to Loko in Yaroslavl. As a result SKA-1946 finished third in the regular season with 116 points and will have home ice advantage in the first round of playoffs.

Loko Yaroslavl – SKA-1946 – 2:0 (1:0, 0:0, 1:0)
1:0 – Pavel Lukin (Nikita Klyukin, Pavel Smirnov) – 10:45
2:0 – Dmitry Kuzmenko (Nikita Klyukin, Vitaly Sychev) – 42:10 PP
Goaltenders: Alexander Lazushin – Nikita Starikov (58:27 – 60:00 EN)
Shots on the goal: 31 — 20
Penalty: 10 — 8
See MHL website for game protocol

Tickets for home games of KHL Western Conference playoff quarterfinals between SKA and Dinamo Riga will be available from March 9 in Ledovy Ice Palace booking office. Both games will start at 19:00

Ticket prices:

Sectors 204, 205, 212, 213 — 700 rubles

Sectors 203, 206, 211, 214 — 500 rubles

Sectors 202, 207, 210, 215 — 350 rubles

Sectors 201, 204, 205, 208, 209, 212, 213, 216, 404, 405, 412, 413 — 250 rubles

Sectors 402, 403, 406, 407, 410, 411, 414, 415 — 175 rubles

Sectors 401, 408, 409, 416 — 125 rubles

Dear season ticket holders!

You have the priority right to purchase tickets for SKA playoff home games.

You are welcome to purchase tickets at a special booking office at Ledovy Ice Palace. Please present tickets for SKA – Metallurg game of March 5 2010 while purchasing playoff tickets.

Ticket reservations for season ticket holders will be lifted 30 minutes prior to games’ starting times.

For more detail please refer to Tickets Section of our official website

According to the resulting standings of the KHL Championship Regular Season 2009/2010 playoff quarterfinal team matches have been determined for both Conferences.

WEST Conference playoff quarterfinals:
1. SKA — 8. Dinamo Riga
2. HC MVD Moscow Oblast — 7. CSKA Moscow
3. Dinamo Moscow — 6. Spartak Moscow
4. Atlant Moscow Oblast — 5. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
Playoff series games will be played on March 10, 11, 13, 14 and 16 2010

EAST Conference playoff quarterfinals:
1. Salavat Yulayev Ufa — 8. Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg
2. Metallurg Magnitogorsk — 7. Tractor Chelyabinsk
3. Ak Bars Kazan — 6. Barys Astana
4. Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk — 5. Avangard Omsk Oblast
Playoff series games will be played on March 11, 12, 14, 15 and 17 2010.

In every Conference quarterfinal series will be played till three wins with the maximum of five games. The first two games and when needed the fifth game will be played on home ice of the team that ranks in the standings the highest of the two. The team winning three games in the series will be named the winner. The team that loses will cease playing in the Championship.

In every Conference the pairs of teams for every playoff stage are formed according to the following principle: the team that ranks highest in the Championship standings plays the team that ranks lowest, team ranking second plays the team that ranks next to the last and so on. At every playoff stage the teams with higher rankings get home ice advantage.
KHL official website

Dear Ladies!
SKA Ice Hockey Club heartily greets you on the Holiday of Spring – the 8th of March!
We wish you nice surprises both big and small, spring mood, the warmth of your family homes, firm health and fulfillment of your most sacred dreams. May troubles stay away from you!

In the closing game of the KHL Regular Championship of 2009/2010 season SKA lost 1:2 to Avtomobilist Yekaterinnburg. The only goal for SKA was scored by Aleksey Yashin on assist from Maxim Sushinsky and Raymond Giroux.

SKA — Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg — 1:2 (0:0,1:2,0:0)
0:1 — Anatoly Nikontsev — 20:09
1:1 — Aleksey Yashin (Raymond Giroux, Maxim Sushinsky) — 31:25
1:2 — Nikolay Bushuyev — 38:05 PP
Goaltenders: Maxim Sokolov – Ivan Lisutin
See KHL website for game protocol

MVPs of the game: Aleksey Yashin – Anatoly Nikontsev

Photo Report from Yubileyny SC

Head Coaches of both teams on the game:

Marek Sikora, Head Coach of Avtomobilist:

- We are impressed by tonight’s game and very happy to have won. In the first period SKA had very many chances and Ivan Lisutin helped us a lot. Our making the playoffs depended on the game result so the guys showed real heroism: they fought to the end and went down to block shots.

Barry Smith, Head Coach of SKA:

- Congratulations to Marek’s team on the victory! I was very happy that we’ve met and I wish him good luck in playoffs. Tonight’s game has shown once again that in our league any team can beat any team. Avtomobilist played very well; they went down to block shots which reminded us of our mistakes. Fortunately we have no injuries and all our players are in good shape.

Question to Marek Sikora: How did you prepare your team for the game?

- My game plan provided for active pressing even from our defense. It didn’t go very well in the first period since we are new to this league and it wasn’t easy to execute our game plan at such a level of play. Once again, our goalie made the difference for us in this game.

Question to Marek Sikora: If someone told you in the beginning of the season that you would make the playoffs, would you believed him?

- No, I wouldn’t. Especially that in the beginning we have lost many points. We were far behind and had problems with lineup but after a few wins at home we believed in ourselves. I thought tonight everything would be over as Sibir would beat Vityaz and we wouldn’t make the playoffs.

Question to Barry Smith: Are you happy to play Dinamo Riga?

- I can tell you that Dinamo Riga play very good hockey and even today they had a three-goal lead. They are a very strong team and playing them will be a real test.

Question to Marek Sikora: What state is you team in and how do you evaluate you chances in playoffs?

- Tonight we went down to block shots beautifully but doing that one runs great risk of being injured. Otherwise everything is OK and our chances depending on luck are from 30 to 70 per cent.

Question to Marek Sikora: Going into the third period, did you know the score of Sibir – Vityaz game?

- No, I didn’t.

Question to Barry Smith: Have you already made up your mind about the lines for playoffs?

- Not yet. We will watch the video of the game, work through the lines and make a decision. All our players except Kryukov and Kasparaitis are ready to play.

- Kirill stretched a ligament so we decided to spare him and sent him away. Tonight you could have noticed that Misko played defense – it was a kind of test to see if he can take a defenseman’s spot in case of emergency.

In the next to last game of MHL regular season SKA-1946 beat Yaroslavl Loko 5:2 in an away game. Anton Tikhomirov crossed 50-point mark while Yury Skvortsov reached 30 points.

Loko Yaroslavl – SKA-1946 – 2:5 (1:1, 1:2, 0:2)
1:0 – Aleksey Kondratyev (Sergey Grif, Vladimir Litvinchuk) – 09:33
1:1 – Albert Konozov (Anton Tikhomirov, Yury Skvortsov) – 11:15
1:2 – Yaroslav Gorbachenko (Anton Tikhomirov) – 25:09 PP
2:2 – Vladimir Litvinchuk (Sergey Grif, Aleksey Kondratyev) – 30:04
2:3 – Yury Skvortsov (Magomed Gimbatov) – 36:49 PP
2:4 – Valentin Shamayev (Yaroslav Gorbachenko, Anton Tikhomirov) – 41:18 PP
2:5 – Timur Barayev (Aleksey Kruchinin) – 54:59
Goaltenders: Nikita Lozhkin – Yevgeny Ivannikov

See MHL website for game protocol

On March 3 during the SKA-Tractor game the first MVP was determined by sms poll. According to the fans Maxim Rybin was the best player on ice. Our congratulations to the player!

Please be reminded that during SKA Ice Hockey Club home games you can vote for the best player of our team. To vote please send a text message: “SKA players game number” to 3833 (e.g. SKA 56 would be a vote for Sergey Zubov) at the end of every game votes will be counted to determine the best player of the game. The three most active participants will win Mercedes Benz mountain bikes provided by Avangard car shop.

The cost of one text message is 16 to 18 rubles.

SKA Ice Hockey Club wishes a very Happy Birthday to the coach of SKA-1946 youth hockey team Andrey Mikhailovich Andreyev!

Dear Andrey Mikhailovich, we wish you health, happiness as well as the best of luck and great victories!

Attention of the Fans!

From March 3 and on while SKA Ice Hockey Club home series last you can vote for the Best Player of the Team. To vote send a text message beginning with the word “SKA” with the Player’s game number to 3833. At the end of every game the best player will be determined.

The three most active participants will win Mercedes Benz mountain bikes provided by Avangard car shop.

Rules and conditions of the action

Tonight SKA started their last home series of the regular KHL season with a 7:5 win over Chelyabinsk Tractor. In the first period Gleb Klimenko scored his first goal in an official game for SKA however Tractor tied 1:1 only minutes later. SKA scored 3 goals in return by Yury Trubachev, Maxim Sushinsky and Maxim Rybin. In the second period the visitors managed to get back into the game and tie 4:4. In the third period SKA was back in their game and Andrey Zyuzin scored giving the lead back to SKA which was followed by two more goals by Maxim Rybin and Anton But – 7:4. The goal scored by Tractor last seconds of the game could not change the result.

SKA – Tractor Chelyabinsk – 7:5 (4:1, 0:3, 3:1)

1:0 — Gleb Klimenko (Alexander Kucheryavenko, Aleksey Petrov) — 02:34

1:1 — Yevgeny Skachkov (Andrey Konev) — 04:31 PP

2:1 — Yury Trubachev (Alexander Kucheryavenko, Gleb Klimenko) — 05:48

3:1 — Maxim Sushinsky (Aleksey Yashin, Anton But) — 17:09

4:1 — Maxim Rybin (Oleg Saprykin, Andrey Zyuzin) — 18:09

4:2 — Konstantin Kasyanchuk — 28:37

4:3 — Yevgeny Skachkov (Konstantin Plaksin, Anton Glinkin) — 29:48

4:4 — Aleksey Zavarukhin (Yevgeny Kuznetsov, Konstantin Kasyanchuk) — 34:13 PP

5:4 — Andrey Zyuzin (Alexander Korolyuk, Konstantin Gorovikov) — 47:46 PP

6:4 — Maxim Rybin (Sergey Brylin, Oleg Saprykin) — 54:37

7:4 — Anton But — 58:54

7:5 — Yevgeny Kuznetsov (Anton Glinkin) — 59:43

Goaltenders: Robert Esche – Danila Alistratov (Vladislav Fokin — 18:09-60:00)

Penalty: 8 — 10

Shots on the goal: 33 — 37

See KHL website for game protocol

In the closing home game of the MHL Regular Championship for youth teams SKA-1946 had one more win over Feniks Voskresensk. The score was opened by defenseman Timur Barayev for whom it was his first goal for SKA-1946 in the regular season. Less than 2 minutes later Albert Konozov scored the second goal which was followed by a powerplay goal scored by Magomed Gimbatov early in the third period. Feniks fought back and even managed to score two goals in return but failed to tie and bring the game into overtime.

SKA-1946 — Feniks 3:2 (2:0, 1:1, 0:1)

1:0 — Timur Barayev (Dmitry Chistyakov) — 05:09

2:0 — Albert Konozov (Alexander Pavlov, Magomed Gimbatov) — 07:01

3:0 — MAgomed Gimbatov (Anton Tikhomirov) — 23:32 PP

3:1 — Pavel Savelyev (Alexander Galitsky, Kirill Kiryushin) — 26:09

3:2 — Vladimir Zavarzin (Anton Popov) — 58:25 PP

Goaltenders: Yevgeny Ivannikov – Yevgeny Kochetov

Penalty: 10 — 16

Shots on the goal: 17 — 31

See MHL website for game protocol

Despite the fact the first goal was scored by Nikita Garanin early in the first period SKA-1946 could not increase their lead till the beginning of the third period when Anton Tikhomirov scored the second goal. Feniks scored one goal in return but could not build on it and tie.

Having made an assist Sergey Monakhov reached the 50-point mark in the regular season.

SKA-1946 — Feniks Voskresensk – 2:1 (1:0, 0:0, 1:1)

1:0 — Nikita Garanin (Grigory Serkin, Alexander Pavlov) — 01:56

2:0 — Anton Tikhomirov (Yaroslav Gorbachenko, Sergey Monakhov) — 44:43 PP

2:1 — Valery Popov (Alexander Karpov, Aleksey Tveritnev) — 51:09

Goaltenders: Nikita Starikov – Vsevolod Kondrashov (59:49 EN)

Penalty: 10 — 8

Shots on the goal: 40 — 27

See MHL website for game protocol

Exclusive photo report from the Minor Arena of Yubileyny SC.

The MHL You Hockey League named best players of the past week. According of statistical data in MHL Division West Magomed Gimbatov was named the Forward of the Week after having scored three goals and making one assist in home games against Russkiye Vityazy.