For the fourth game of the series against the SKA, CSKA coaching staff shuffled the roster a little bit. Sergei Kalinin played in place of Tahir Mingachyov, slotting in line with Rhett Gardner and Klim Kostin. Defenseman Vladislav Yeryomenko returned to the roster, but Nick Ebert was not included. Denis Guryanov was tried out in the line with Pavel Karnaukhov and Ivan Drozdov. Dmitry Gamzin defended the goal for the fourth time in a row.
The first period was an even battle with few scoring chances. For the first time in the series, CSKA was able to open the scoring. Prokhor Poltapov scored at 7minute on a cutting pass from Maxim Sorkin. In his 300th KHL game, our number 13 confidently dealt with the goalie. The army men held reliably in defense, didn't give up the initiative, and didn't sat deep. However, the hosts took advantage of their chance. The confusion didn't let to get the puck off the crease, and defenseman Andrei Pedan, who had joined the attack, reached it first.
In the second period, our team really stepped up and naturally took the lead. The main hero was Denis Guryanov, who scored on a breakaway with his signature shot tearing two defenders twice for shooting zone. In the first case, Denis was helped by the stick of the goal's author, Pedan, which fell out of his hands at the wrong time on the blue line. In the second goal, Nikolai Kovalenko made a good pass for the shot. At the same time, SKA also had a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. With the score 3-1, the St. Petersburg team could have cut the lead, but Dmitry Gamzin brilliantly saved the puck with his shield after a shot by Ignat Lutfullin.
At the start of the third 20 minutes, the SKA quickly came off and heated up the intrigue. Defender Sergei Sapego hit the crossbar well. The SKA paces up after that, Gamzin had to come into the game more often, and the defense had to play as reliably as possible. Our team had three minutes of power play to improve the situation, but no avail. In the end, it was only at the end that CSKA put the finishing touches and was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Vitaly Abramov scored an empty-net goal. Return to Moscow with the score 3-1.
