SKA St. Petersburg were in a hard spot before their game on Sunday against Lada. They had been shut out in two consecutive games, and the Ivan Demidov experiment was taking a concerning turn after his demotion to the fourth line. However, leading up to the Lada game, Roman Rotenberg finally learned from his mistakes. He elevated Demidov back to the "third line" with Evgeni Kuznetsov, and Kuznetsov set Demidov up for his first career KHL goal on their first shift.
Ivan Demidov scores first KHL career goal! Evgeny Kuznetsov with primary assist! pic.twitter.com/AIZWR8eGHF
— KHL (@khl_eng) September 15, 2024
SKA emerged victorious with a 4-3 win in overtime. Demidov played a crucial part in the game, recording 13:20 time on ice, three shots, two penalty minutes, and one takeaway in addition to his goal. Demidov had an opportunity to score a second goal on the night, but it was taken away for goaltender interference after a lengthy review. Demidov was also assessed a penalty on the play. I'll let you be the judge, but it doesn't seem like there was much contact to justify taking away the goal.
This would have been Demidov's 2nd of the game ☹️ pic.twitter.com/Jqf8dQqWKa
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) September 15, 2024
The play of Demidov still hasn't gotten him complete support from Rotenberg. Despite being one of the most dangerous players on the ice in the first two periods, Demidov didn't get a shift during an extended powerplay at the end of the second. It seems like Demidov must continue proving himself to get the ice time he deserves. At some point, you have to believe Rotenberg will be unable to deny the youngster and feature him as one of the team's top forwards. Regardless, Demidov's success in this game showed what he is capable of doing.
One glaring issue for SKA is that they blew a lead to Lada and needed to go to overtime to win. The team has some concerns after their back-to-back shutout losses, and this game won't do much to quiet the doubters