Canadiens: Update On Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen
Ivan Demidov -Photo credit: SKA St. Petersburg Ice Hockey Club X accountMontreal Canadiens prospects Ivan Demidov and Oliver Kapanen were in action on the other side of the pond. The former registered a point in SKA St. Petersburg’s first win of the KHL playoffs, while the latter was blanked like the rest of his team Timra, who lost 1-0 to Frolunda in the SHL playoffs.
With that loss, Timra is now out of the playoffs, meaning Kapanen’s season in Europe is over. In his post-trade deadline presser, GM Kent Hughes said that Kapanen would be coming over to land a hand to the Rocket once his team would be out of the playoffs, so expect that to happen in short order.
Meanwhile, SKA’s 5-3 win wasn’t exactly convincing. Roman Rotenberg’s team had a 3-1 lead, but Dynamo Moscow managed to claw its way back into the game and tie the score at 3-3. There were just six minutes left in the game when SKA scored the game-winning goal, and they added an empty netter with less than two minutes to go in the match.
Even though Demidov got an assist on the game’s first goal, he only saw 9:37 of action. His line, the first at the start of the tilt, became the third line as the game continued. The youngster hardly touched the ice once Dynamo tied and SKA took a five-minute penalty.
It will be interesting to see how Rotenberg uses his players for the fourth game. Now down 2-1 in the series, St. Petersburg could tie it up with a win in their second home game, which is scheduled for Friday.
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