St. Petersburg’s SKA ice-hockey club, one time Gagarin Cup winner, finished in second in the regular championship and now faces Podolsk’s Vityaz in the playoff stage. SKA may be not in their best shape right now, but advancing to the next stage looks almost inevitable.
SKA’s lineup, the wealthiest club in the Continental Hockey League (KHL) supported by Gazprom, includes great former NHL stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. SKA’s coach is Oleg Znarok who is also the coach of the Russian national team. He won the Gagarin Cup with Dynamo Moscow twice and one more time with SKA (2015).
This season SKA have been performing well with long winning series and leading the championship till the last games when they lost the leadership to CSKA Moscow and thus finishing only in second — though anyway with the same number of points.
SKA set a history KHL’s record in scoring (249 goals) and the difference +135.
Vitayz finished in second in the conference with both games lost to SKA in the regular season: 1-5 and 0-4.
The series lasts until one of the teams wins four times.
Schedule of the SKA — Vitayz first playoff round
| Game | Date | City | Result |
| 1 | February 21 | St. Petersburg | — |
| 2 | February 23 | St. Petersburg | — |
| 3 | February 25 | Podolsk | — |
| 4 | February 27 | Podolsk | — |
| 5 | March 1 | St. Petersburg | — (if needed) |
| 6 | March 3 | Podolsk | — (if needed) |
| 7 | March 5 | St. Peterburg | — (if needed) |
Home arena of SKA St. Petersburg is Ledoviy Dvorets (Ice Palace)
Address: Pyatiletok avenue, 1
Subway station: Prospect Bolshevikov
SKA’s website: www.ska.ru
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