The SKA St. Petersburg now only has 10 games left on its regular season calendar and on Saturday it dropped a 6-4 decision to the Kunlun Red Star. Montreal Canadiens' prospect and team leading scorer Ivan Demidov saw very limited action as coach Roman Rotenberg continues to make puzzling decisions. 

Of course, it's impossible to expect a team to be happy to see its top scorer refuse to sign a contract extension, but you'd expect Rotenberg to try and get the best out of Demidov while he still has him. Dropping a game against a team that is trying to climb back in the playoffs' picture helps no one. 

In the first frame, Demidov notched an assist on the first goal of the game, his 29th helper and 48th point of the season.  After 20 minutes, the score was tied 1-1 and the Habs prospect had played 4:25. Both teams added a goal in the first half of the second frame, but the Red Star exploded for three unanswered goal in the last 10 minutes, leading 5-2 after 40 minutes. 

Demidov only skated for 2:46 in that difficult period for SKA and didn't get on the scoresheet. The third frame was a better one for both the right winger and his team. SKA found the back of the net twice more, but the Red Star also scored another one, taking the game 6-4. 

Demidov was used for 6:24 in the final frame, showing the coach finally did what was best for the team and deployed his top scorer. In the end, he spent 13:36 on the ice, had an assist, drew a penalty, had two shots on goal and a plus-one rating. 

SKA remains in fifth place of the Western Conference with 71 points, but could be overtaken by CSKA Moscow who will be taking on Salavat Ualev on Sunday. The latter is however in third place of the Eastern Conference with 75 points and won't be a pushover. 

The regular season ends on March 25 and while SKA has yet to qualify for the playoff it would be shocking if they were to slip out of contention. The playoffs will then take place from March 26 to May 25. Don't expect to see Demidov with the Habs this year, but come next training camp, expect to see a new talent in town. 

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