Servette Geneva finishes its first ever Spengler Cup game with a 1:3 defeat against St Petersburg. In a close encounter, NHL star Aleksey Yashin made the difference in favour of the Russians with his two goals (4./41.).
After just 234 seconds, the 37-year old forward, who played 989 games in the World's best hockey league, made use of St Petersburg's first chance of the match and scored this year's first Spengler Cup goal.
Bezina With The Equalizer
A slip of St Petersburg's goalkeeper Sokolov gave Geneva's captain Goran Bezena the opportunity to score the equalizer. Geneva could even have won the game: But Finnish player Tony Salmelainen gave away the chance to score the game winning goal when Sokolov parried his counterattack.
Yashin Makes All The Difference
Just at the beginning of the third period, Yashin scored his second goal of the day to make the game 2:1. His hard and precise shot beat Geneva goalkeeper Stephan and St Petersburg, currently ranked seventh in the KHL, defended this lead until the final whistle.
In the 58th minute, SKA's top forward line even put the score to 3:1. Geneva just didn't manage to stop St Petersburg's forwards around Yashin and outstanding Sushinskiy (three scoring points). (Si / Translated by Sabine Schweizer)
Servette Geneva - SKA St Petersburg 1:3 (1:1, 0:0, 0:2)
