After three victories in a row, the CSKA players certainly wanted to build on their success in the home game against the Amur. The Khabarovsk team showed itself to be a strong team at the start of the season, and the army team also experienced it too. Compared to the game against the SKA, there were two changes in our team’s roster: Kirill Dolzhenkov and Vladislav Yeryomenko filled for the absent Denis Guryanov and Jeremy Roy.
It was a heavy start for Igor Nikitin's team. The Amur opened the scoring at 8:00, capitalizing on a power play, and this was not the only scoring moment at our goal. Luckily, Kiril Petkov didn't score when he was about to drag the puck to the goal, but was played out by Dmitry Gamzin. In the second period, as in the previous game, our team stepped up and turned the tide of the game. Prokhor Poltapov made a beautiful run at 25:00, gracefully outsmarting two opponents along the way and dishing the uncovered Ivan Drozdov who closed it with an accurate shot. Soon Nikita Nesterov scored his first goal of the season. He chipped in the attack and received a pass from behind the goal from Dmitry Buchelnikov. This goal was Nikita's 50th in the KHL regular season, and Dmitry reached the 100-point mark for scoring in the league. The visitors didn't bang up, and the game on the ice was even, with chances on both sides. The third period proved to be a difficult test. The key moment was a great defensive play in the 3-on-5, which scattered the opponent's chances to tie the game. But CSKA tried hard to score again, but then focused on the defense of the lead until the final seconds. We won for the fourth time in a row.
